Kalgold mine is an open pit operation owned by South
Africa-based Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited. Located 60km
south of the town of Mafikeng in the North West Province of South
Africa, the mine includes a Carbon in Leach (CIL) plant.
Harmony acquired Kalgold in July 1999, and in November 2003
the group entered into an agreement to sell the mine to
Afrikander Lease Limited. However, the contractual obligations
were not met and subsequently the agreement was cancelled in
March 2004.
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Production disruptions at Kalgold
Water shortages followed by heavy rainfall and electric
disruptions had a negative effect on production at Kalgold in
2007 and 2008, leading to a loss of production, which was
compounded by numerous instances of plant breakdowns.
The disruptions caused 3% decline in the volumes milled at Kalgold in
2008. However, a significant improvement in the gold grade to
1.89 gram per tonne during the year helped Harmony to more than
double its gold production from the mine.
Geological information
Operations at the Kalgold mine are located within the Kraaipan
Greenstone Belt near Mafikeng town.
The belt is a part of the larger Amalia-Kraaipan Greenstone terrain. It comprises linear belts of Archaean meta-sedimentary and meta-volcanic rocks
trending northwards and separated by granitoid units.
Shallow dipping quartz veins in the form of swarms or clusters within the
steeply dipping magnetite-chert banded iron formation are found
in the mineralisation.
The largest orebody encountered in the region is the D Zone,
which has been mined extensively along a strike length of 1,300m
within a single open pit operation. Mineralisation was also found
in the A Zone; the Mielie Field, adjacent to the D Zone; A Zone
West (along strike to the north of the D Zone); and the Watertank
and Windmill areas to the north of the A Zone.
