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Monday, 26th June 2006 (4395 views)

Canadian firm Great Basin Gold (GBG) is confident of receiving permits from South Africa's department of minerals and energy so that it can proceed with developing the Burnstone gold project in Mpumalanga.

In an interview with Mining Weekly, chief executive Ferdi Dippenaar explained that listing the company on South Africa's JSE exchange would facilitate black empowerment.

"What we could do is to use the listing here to issue shares in pursuing black economic empowerment," he said.

Dawie Mostert is, like Dippenaar, previously from leading mining company Harmony Gold and is vice president of human capital at GBG.

He notes that the firm could employ up to 2,000 people and that it will use modern labour practices. Workers would be sourced from the surrounding communities and modern work practices would be easily integrated in this virgin site.

"The big advantage here is that we will institutionalise future work methodology, using known best practices as we can truly start with a clean slate," he said.

It is thought the Burnstone mine will have a life of around 14 years and will produce around 214,000 ounces of gold per year.

 

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