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Mining Weekly has just visited West Wits Mining, where Johannesburg's former golden glow is beginning to re-show - and at a cracking pace.
The gold project is a close 15 km west of Johannesburg's central business district in South Africa's province of gold, and the Mining Weekly team was able to observe first-hand a pile of gold-bearing ore that has already been brought to surface.
Quite remarkably, this gold ore is from an untouched block of Qala Shallows' reef - yes, from virgin rock - and the fact that there's still a lot more to come is emphasised by the word Qala, which is Zulu for 'start', because Qala Shallows is only the start of much more to come.
The word 'shallows' is also appropriate because, in South Africa's underground gold mining terms, Qala Shallows is extraordinarily shallow.
"It's running at a depth of around 800 m and we intend to mine a strike length of about 2 km.
"We've got quite a big mining right footprint of about 16 000 ha but our current focus is on the in-situ untouched block from surface," West Wits Mining CEO Rudi Deysel outlined to Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
The Sydney-listed company's Witwatersrand Basin project is located in South Africa's proven Central Rand goldfield.
A big factor now is the building of a stockpile and the first gold bar is scheduled to be poured during the first quarter of 2026, which is impressively near-term.
A 30 000 t ore stockpile by the end of the first quarter of 2026 will ensure a consistent supply of ore to the Ezulwini processing plant 40 km away, which is part of a toll treatment agreement already done and dusted with precious metals major Sibanye-Stillwater, Ezulwini's owner.
The Qala Shallows, an integral part of the Sydney-listed company's Witwatersrand Basin project, is on the way to being ramped up to an initial steady state of 70 000 oz/y.
"Before we started with this project, we spent a lot of time setting out our code of practices, our standard operating procedures.
"What is great about West Wits is that we're also a member of Minerals Council South Africa, and with a lot of support from the council we were able to roll out industry standards from day one.
"There's already a high regard and respect for safety and the big message that we send out is that you live safety as part of your life and 'my safety is your safety'," Deysel reported.
Then, Phase 2 will come close to trebling output to 200 000 oz/y - "and we most certainly have the resources to do that".
West Wits Mining has been able to raise kick-start equity funding on the Australian Stock Exchange and operation for up to a year will be helped by the self-generation of revenue from own production, ahead of drawdown from a syndicated loan facility secured from major South African lenders, the State-owned Industrial Development Corporation and Absa Bank.
"Today, we can say we're fully funded to start with Qala producing up to a steady state of 70 000 oz of gold a year and have a life-of-mine of 17 years."
The updated definitive feasibility study, released in July, reinforces project value and economic fundamentals. It shows a pretax net present value (NPV), at a 7.5% discount rate, of $719-million and an internal rate of return of 93%.
Payback from the end of the peak funding period is estimated at eight months and at 3.3 years from the start of development.
Peak funding is estimated at $44-million over a 2.6-year period, a reduction from $54-million over three years in the 2023 definitive feasibility study.
Average steady-state production is at an estimated all-in sustaining cost of $1 181/oz.
Kimberley reefs - K9A and K9B - are the reefs that will be processed during the life of the project.
The compliant mineral reserves are estimated at 4.6-milli...