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GBG
GBG
GBG - Great Basin Gold Limited - Great Basin announces Burnstone Project update
site to receive Eskom power on August 8, 2010
GREAT BASIN GOLD LIMITED
(Incorporated in Canada and registered as an External Company in South Africa)
(Registration No. 2006/021304/10)
Share Code: GBG ISIN Number: CA3901241057
("Great Basin Gold" or "the Company")
GREAT BASIN ANNOUNCES BURNSTONE PROJECT UPDATE SITE TO RECEIVE ESKOM POWER ON
AUGUST 8, 2010
July 12, 2010, Vancouver, BC - Great Basin Gold Ltd. ("Great Basin" or the
"Company") (TSX: GBG; NYSE Amex: GBG; JSE: GBG) announces progress in the
delivery of the capital projects at its Burnstone Mine development project in
South Africa.
Eskom, the state energy provider, has informed the Company that final
arrangements have been made to tie the Burnstone project in to the national
electricity grid on August 8, 2010, which is a delay of approximately 2 weeks
with a resultant delay in plant start up. The establishment of bulk electrical
power infrastructure to the Burnstone Mine by Eskom is well advanced. The main
distribution substation at Burnstone site is complete and the receiving
infrastructure being part of the Eskom line project is ready to receive
electrical power. Power supply to Burnstone is enabled through the execution of
a two phased project, with phase 1 the delivery of a single line, designed to
carry the full demand (51 megavolt-amperes (MVA), scaled from 21 MVA initially
and building up to the full requirement as production builds up. Phase 2 is the
construction of a second, identical, line with the aim of mitigating the risk of
power outages to the mine and region. This second line will not increase the
capacity of the supply, but is aimed at security of supply, commensurate with
Eskom`s risk and safety policies.
To date, the metallurgical plant construction project has made rapid progress
against an aggressive 15 month delivery time line. The project thus far has seen
intensive civil construction activities on-site and a multitude of simultaneous
assembly and refurbishment activities off site. The heavy civil construction has
largely been completed, construction of various buildings is far advanced, and
the off-site assembled components are being delivered and installed.
Over the past month, the ball and semi autogenous grinding mill shells and heads
have been mounted in position, the mill motors have been installed and general
alignment and installation procedures completed. Currently the lubrication
systems and mill liners are being installed.
The silo is in its final stage of completion with the roof steel installed and
the final associated civil construction being finalised. Installation of steel
feeder systems at the silo bottom is in progress.
The main feed conveyor gantries have also been assembled and are being
installed.
The thickener installation is complete and a final layer of paint is being
applied. The installation of the flocculent plant and the construction of
process tanks for start-up have also been completed.
All sub-station and central buildings are complete and electrical and
instrumentation installation is in progress. Piping and cable racking
construction is far advanced and installation of pipes, cables, pumps and
associated components are in progress. The cable trenching and installation
from the main Eskom sub-station is complete and ready to receive power.
The tailings facility project is progressing well, with Phase 1 having been
completed and ready to receive tailings from the plant. A water storage and
supply dam has been activated with surplus underground water being pumped into
and stored in it. Upon commissioning, the raw water storage and thickener tanks
in the metallurgical plant will be filled as well.
Another highlight in the past two months was completion of the sinking phase of
the Burnstone vertical shaft to its final depth of 1,598 ft (487 m) on May 4,
2010. In addition, the initial development on 40 Level and 41 Level Stations
were completed. A conveyor system required for ore handling has been installed
on 41 Level. Equipping of the shaft continues and is expected to be completed
in August 2010. The winder house construction has been completed; both winders
were dry commissioned at the end of last week, and ahead of schedule.
The holing of the 5.1-m diameter, 305-m deep vertical ventilation shaft took
place on May 12, 2010 and will act as an up-cast shaft to provide sufficient
ventilation for mining of blocks B and C. The lining of the first 90 m of the
shaft with shotcrete as well as connection of three 720 kiloWatt surface fans is
in progress. The shaft will provide adequate ventilation for the underground
workings well into the future.
Good progress also continues to be made in the development of underground
infrastructure at Burnstone. A significant milestone was achieved on June 24
with the holing of the decline with the vertical shaft. A total of 8,822 ft
(2,692 m) of on-reef development was completed by the end of June 2010. The
long hole stoping trials are progressing well and the rate of mining is expected
to increase as more mining areas become available. The focus is on establishing
more stopes in Block B while activities in the higher grade Block C continue to
be focused on reef development. Block C Middle level was accessed during the
previous quarter with Block C Upper scheduled to be accessed in July 2010. The
additional access points in Block C will allow for an increase in opening up of
new mining areas. A total of approximately 126,000 tons have been accumulated on
the ore stockpiles which will be used for mill commissioning.
Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO, commented: "Although delayed, finalization
of the power supply from Eskom is a significant step towards the commissioning
of the Burnstone metallurgical plant. Internal delays at Eskom impacted on its
previous commitments to deliver power to site by the end of June 2010.
Fortunately, the delay in commissioning the mill is only limited to two weeks,
and is not expected to significantly impact on the planned ore throughput."
Johan Oelofse, Pr.Eng., FSAIMM, Chief Operating Officer of Great Basin and a
qualified person, as defined by Canadian regulatory policy, has reviewed and
assumed responsibility for the technical information contained in this release.
For additional details on Great Basin and its gold properties, please visit the
Company`s website at www.grtbasin.com or contact Investor Services:
Tsholo Serunye in South Africa 27 (0) 11 301 1800
Michael Curlook in North America 1 (888) 633 9332
Barbara Cano at Breakstone Group in the USA (646) 452 2334
No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information
contained in this news release.
Cautionary and Forward Looking Statement Information
This document contains "forward-looking statements" that were based on Great
Basin`s expectations, estimates and projections as of the dates as of which
those statements were made. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be
identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "outlook",
"anticipate", "project", "target", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend",
"should" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the
Company`s actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be
materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. These include but are not limited to:
* uncertainties and costs related to the Company`s exploration and
development activities, such as those associated with determining whether
mineral resources or reserves exist on a property;
* uncertainties related to feasibility studies that provide estimates of
expected or anticipated costs, expenditures and economic returns from a
mining project; uncertainties related to expected production rates, timing
of production and the cash and total costs of production and milling;
* uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary licenses, permits,
electricity, surface rights and title for development projects;
* operating and technical difficulties in connection with mining development
activities;
* uncertainties related to the accuracy of our mineral reserve and mineral
resource estimates and our estimates of future production and future cash
and total costs of production, and the geotechnical or hydrogeological
nature of ore deposits, and diminishing quantities or grades of mineral
reserves;
* uncertainties related to unexpected judicial or regulatory proceedings;
* changes in, and the effects of, the laws, regulations and government
policies affecting our mining operations, particularly laws, regulations
and policies relating to
* mine expansions, environmental protection and associated compliance costs
arising from exploration, mine development, mine operations and mine
closures;
* expected effective future tax rates in jurisdictions in which our
operations are located;
* the protection of the health and safety of mine workers; and
* mineral rights ownership in countries where our mineral deposits are
located, including the effect of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources
Development Act (South Africa);
* changes in general economic conditions, the financial markets and in the
demand and market price for gold, silver and other minerals and
commodities, such as diesel fuel, coal, petroleum coke, steel, concrete,
electricity and other forms of energy, mining equipment, and fluctuations
in exchange rates, particularly with respect to the value of the U.S.
dollar, Canadian dollar and South African rand;
* unusual or unexpected formation, cave-ins, flooding, pressures, and
precious metals losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance or inability
to obtain insurance to cover these risks);
* changes in accounting policies and methods we use to report our financial
condition, including uncertainties associated with critical accounting
assumptions and estimates;
* environmental issues and liabilities associated with mining including
processing and stock piling ore;
* geopolitical uncertainty and political and economic instability in
countries which we operate; and
* labour strikes, work stoppages, or other interruptions to, or difficulties
in, the employment of labour in markets in which we operate mines, or
environmental hazards, industrial accidents or other events or occurrences,
including third party interference that interrupt the production of
minerals in our mines.
For further information on Great Basin Gold, investors should review the
Company`s annual Form 40-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange
Commission www.sec.com and home jurisdiction filings that are available at
www.sedar.com.
12 July 2010
Sponsor
Nedbank Capital
Date: 12/07/2010 14:30:01 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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