Caledonia Mining Corporation, local unit Blanket Gold Mine, has broken its underground production record.
Last week Blanket’s number four shaft hoisted 1 220 tonnes of ore and a further 141 tonnes of ore were hoisted via the Lima shaft resulting in a daily total ore production of 1 361 tonnes higher than Blanket’s target of 1 000 tonnes of ore per day.
This represented a new underground mining record for the mine, for which production records date back to 1906.
“This is a tremendous achievement by the management and employees at Blanket, who are to be heartily congratulated and bodes well for Blanket achieving its future production targets,” said Caledonia chief executive Stefan Hayden.
Blanket Mine almost had its licence revoked last month for failure to submit an “acceptable” indigenisation plan.
The Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment last month met with Caledonia Mining Corporation where it was agreed that Blanket Mine should start on a process that would result in the production of a revised Indigenisation Implementation Plan for Blanket Mine that is compliant with the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act.
The plan was expected to take into account the independently verified intrinsic value of the mineral resources, plant and equipment at the mine.
