AngloGold Ashanti and De Beers say their joint venture’s exploration phase for gold deposits off South Africa’s west coast has kicked off.
The two companies, which entered into a joint venture to find and ultimately mine gold under the waters of the Atlantic a year ago, are now researching whether the project will be economically viable.
De Beers was awarded an exploration licence to exploit gold and other mineral wealth along the coast of the Western and Northern Cape provinces.
Leon Esterhuizen, a mining analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said yesterday that the exploration for offshore gold deposits would be interesting and should be a welcome boost to the local mining sector.
“There are few places in the world where mining of gold happens underneath the sea,” he said. “This will be a new frontier and a boost if gold deposits are found underneath South African waters. Let’s wait and see what happens.”
Tom Tweedy, a spokesman for De Beers, said exploration along the Atlantic west coast, which would include areas in Namaqualand in the Northern Cape, had been taking shape since the announcement of the joint venture between the two Anglo American units in October last year.
He said that although it was unclear at this stage what deposits of the precious metal lay under the waters of the west coast, geological sampling was taking place.
“We may not start a mining operation if there is not a viable deposit of minerals,” said Tweedy.
“The indications are that there may be deposits of gold. It is too early to say how much and when the operation will commence…
“At this stage we haven’t yet got enough data; we are establishing whether there is enough deposit for exploration. If there is gold, (the company will use) the technological expertise in De Beers Marine, which has been mining diamonds for 20 years.”
Tweedy said De Beers and AngloGold had also been involved in a co-operative effort near New Zealand.
“We have done a lot of research… and we are looking at gold exploration on the west coast based on work of a similar nature in New Zealand. We found it was not a viable operation, and the venture was concluded.”
Aurumar, a technical services firm jointly owned by AngloGold and De Beers, was established in October 2009. It will be developed into a functional marine exploration and mining services company including all the skills and technology that it may develop or acquire within the joint venture.