Cons Modder Gedex Operations
The Gedex Project is located on the East Rand adjacent to the suburb of Sherwood Gardens in Brakpan North, Gauteng Province. It is an underground mining project targeting pillars and unmined blocks of ground on the Black Reef horizon in an area of the Cons Modder Basin that was mined extensively from the 1940’s to 2009.
A Mining Right was awarded and executed on the 4th of October 2021, and the project also has all other required statutory authorisations. In the initial phase of the project, it is proposed to re-equip two historical incline shafts to allow for initial rock, men, and material handling to cater to mining on the upper levels of the area. It should be noted that the area being targeted is connected to the flooded East Rand Basin, and therefore access to the various historical underground mining levels is dependent on the dewatering operation being carried out by DWS/TCTA at the Eastern Basin AMD Dewatering Facility.
Project execution commenced in November 2022 at 10 Incline Shaft with establishment of the surface infrastructure, shaft equipping, development of a new shaft station at 1 level, access development to the reef horizon and on-reef development. The first TMM stoping operations are planned for early in 2024. Construction work at 7 Incline Shaft has also commenced with the installation and commissioning of an Eskom power supply and the start of shaft equipping and winder installation. Due to the current water level in the Basin, there is no connection between the two shafts, but once the water is lowered below 5 level, a connection will be established.
A second phase of the operation is to develop a trackless decline from an existing historical open pit down to each of the mining levels to be able to increase production levels, as incline shafts are restricted in terms of hoisting capacity. This decline system will be able to be deepened as the water level is lowered and will potentially allow access to the full Cons Modder Basin mining area. This phase is currently on hold pending the resolution of a landowner dispute.
The Phase 1 production levels are targeting 12 000 to 15 000 tons per month, and this can be sustained from the upper three levels for at least ten years. Once the Phase 2 decline system can be established and lower levels accessed, production levels will be increased significantly to in excess of 40 000 tons per month. All reef tonnage will be transported to the Modder East gold plant for treatment.