White Rivers Exploration (WRE) was founded by well-known Australian explorer Mark Creasy in 2007, with a focus on gold projects in South Africa.
The company has multi-commodity tenements situated in South Africa’s Witwatersrand gold basin and Natal Coalfields, and is one of the largest gold explorers in the southern African country.
The close proximity of WRE’s tenements to producing mines and existing infrastructure enhances opportunities for affiliations and joint ventures.
Although WRE’s main target is gold, the company was exploring for a suite of 17 commodities with focus on, diamonds, manganese, coal, gas and uranium.
These targets were derived from the acquisition of information from over 3 000 boreholes and associated databases.
Rough & Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa spoke to Jochen Schweitzer (Director of Shango Solutions, geological consultants to WRE) on the sidelines of the 2015 Mining Indaba, which took place in Cape Town, who provided an overview on WRE’s potential diamond deposit.
Below are the excerpts.
What is the diamond potential identified and what exploration work has been done?
Diamond potential was identified on WRE’s Recent Placer tenement. The target area considers alluvial diamonds adjacent to the, now defunct, Holfontein diamond mine.
WRE has not yet commenced with full scale exploration due to present investigation into the wetland status of the area. WRE is environmentally responsible and is currently seeking the advice of an environmental expert. Once approval has been obtained, WRE intends to explore in conjunction with a JV partner.
What exploration activities have been and will be conducted on the alluvial diamond deposit?
Remote sensing identified a potential extension of the Holfontein run into the Recent Placer tenement. This extension has been extrapolated and confirmed on surface. The alluvial gravels, potentially containing diamonds have been mapped in detail. Proposed future exploration activities are to commence with bulk sampling of the gravels in order to verify the presence, quality and quantity of the diamonds.
Do you have any potential JV partner?
WRE are currently looking for potential JV partners, who will bring diamond mining expertise to the project. WRE envisages a JV partner who should mine the deposit on a royalty basis for WRE.
What is known about the nearby diamond field?
Historical diamond production in the Ventersdorp Alluvial Diamond field (see Figure 1 below) yielded large quantities, good gem qualities and grades. Cavities in the underlying dolomites, provide trap sites for diamondiferous gravels. These trap sites reach lengths of over 20km in places and are confirmed to exist on the Recent Placer tenement.
Figure 1: Distribution of historical diamond exploration and associated grades.
Apart from the alluvial diamonds, what exploration has been conducted on gold?
The most exciting breakthrough is the Beisa Exploration Joint Venture between WRE and Harmony Gold, which abuts their Target Mine in the Free State, in South Africa. A new company was formed of which WRE owns 65 percent and Harmony the balance. A prefeasibility study into the project should be completed by June 2016 following the release of our maiden JORC code compliant resource in September 2015 and a bankable feasibility study a year later. Upon decision to mine, Harmony will acquire 51% shareholding and will contribute the Target 2 Shaft infrastructure and processing plants to the JV.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
