West Wits Mining's MD recaps progress across gold exploration assets in premier regions

West Wits Mining Limited's managing director has penned a letter to shareholders, detailing the progress the company has made across its gold exploration portfolio. The ASX-lister is working across two prolific gold provinces: South Africa’s Witwatersrand Basin and Western Australia’s Pilbara region, best known as the ‘engine room of Australia’. Recently, WWI was granted a right to mine at its Witwatersrand Basin Project (WBP), bringing it a step closer to producing more than 60,000 ounces of gold per annum at its core Central Rand Goldfields asset in South Africa. The company is also conducting ground exploration at its Mt Cecelia Project in WA, where the 2021 field program will refine targets for a maiden drill campaign in 2022. Looking ahead Speaking to the work at Witwatersrand in today’s letter, managing director Jac van Heerden hinted the best was yet to come. “… With the complexity and uncertainty of the mining right application now behind us, the company has a strong pipeline of positive activities ahead. “WWI’s exposure to two premier regions, ongoing exploration, the commencement of underground development and targeted near-term production offers me, the West Wits board and WWI team, as well as WWI shareholders, a great deal to look forward to in the second half of 2021.” Witwatersrand Basin Project Recently, West Wits Mining’s news flow has centred on its 3.55-million-ounce Witwatersrand Basin Project in South Africa. In late July, the company secured a crucial approval, establishing its right to mine at the cornerstone gold asset. The WBP boasts a mine life greater than 20 years, while the key approval positions the ASX-lister to become a substantial gold producer in a region famous for hosting the world’s largest-known gold reserves. The MD continued: “Over the past 12 months, our team has successfully converted the Kimberly Reef exploration target to a substantial JORC-compliant mineral resource. “We have also significantly increased the proportion of measured and indicated categories in the Qala Shallows stage of the mine plan; a key precursor to the company declaring its maiden ore reserve. “We will soon be able to announce an overall production profile that will demonstrate the long-term potential of the entire WBP area. “This profile will illustrate the respective scheduled contributions of five production areas commencing with the Qala Shallows and continuing over the 20-year plus life of mine identified in the scoping study.” West Wits’ scoping study served as a catalyst for a definitive feasibility study (DFS) over the Qala Shallows region, slated for completion by month’s end. In addition, a DFS for the second stage of development on the Main Reef area will kick off in the coming quarter. WWI has also been in talks with various processing facilities, specifically to secure a process partner for the initial production expected from the early mining initiative and to secure long-term larger scale processing arrangements as production ramps up to full capacity. Under the company’s social and labour plan, significant employment and services opportunities will be provided to local communities, in addition to training and Local Economic Development (LED) projects to upskill the local workforce for employment on the mine. The MD concluded: “Our community development team will be running advertisements in local publications, requesting local companies to provide capability statements for possible opportunities at the mine through the company’s hiring and tender processes.” $7 million capital raise Just last week, West Wits also announced it had secured firm commitments to raise $7 million to support a development program at the WBP. The gold exploration and development company tapped existing and new unrelated sophisticated investors to raise the fresh funds at 6 cents per share. Heerden continued: “The $7 million capital raising recently announced enables the executive team to begin resourcing extra personnel which will allow a ramping up of the pace of development activity. “The company will soon be securing contractors to commence the physical work of mine development and commissioning. Mining will commence by employing an external mining contractor. “The company has already identified its preferred mining contractor to undertake development works, and discussions are at an advanced stage to finalise scope and costs.” In tandem with the recent capital raise, van Heerden said West Wits was actively engaging with potential development financiers, including the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC). He stated: “The recent granting of the mining right and the imminent completion of the DFS is significantly de-risking the project from a financing standpoint and thereby ever-strengthening our position to source more competitive financing options for project development. Mt Cecelia In Monday’s letter to shareholders, van Heerden also touched on activity across the company’s Mt Cecelia project. Ground exploration is currently underway at the gold asset, which sits on the border of the highly prospective East Pilbara and Paterson Province in Western Australia. The MD continued: “A reconnaissance trip was performed in July to determine access to Targets 1 – 4, identified by the heliborne-borne HTEM survey flown in September 2020, and supply requirements to support field exploration. “The July field trip was shortly followed by specialist geophysics consultant, Wireline Services Group (WSG), which mobilised to site on July 30, 2021. “WSG has now successfully completed MLTEM surveys on Targets 1-4, demobilising on Sunday, August 8, 2021. “The Company is awaiting the close out report for the survey operation, due this week, and will provide a detailed announcement on the MLTEM survey operations. “Southern Geoscience Consulting (SGC), which performed the 2020 HTEM technical reporting that generated the exploration targets, is also performing technical reporting for the MLTEM survey, due for completion in September 2021. “The SGC report will be followed by a September field trip to perform geological mapping and surface sampling (where possible) which will conclude the 2021 field season before the northwest WA’s summer cyclone season. “The 2021 program is expected to result in defined drill targets for a maiden drill campaign at Mt Cecelia in 2022.”