Confidence is growing in a new method of underground gold mining that has the potential to reverse the decline in South Africa's gold output. A raise-boring machine put to the test in the stopes has passed with flying colors.
"There's nothing, technically, that stopped us from cutting the rock, which was quite significant for us," AngloGold Ashanti executive vice president Mike MacFarlane tells Mining Weekly Online.
A local drilling contractor used conventional raise-bore equipment to drill 26m from one sublevel to another at an angle of 26 degrees in what is one of a total of six critical projects that, if successful, could take South Africa back to being the world's top gold producer. . .View Full Article