The current Blanket mining area has eight ore shoots in the producing section of the mine. The majority of the mine production is sourced at present from the AR Main and AR South ore bodies with a lesser contribution from the Blanket, Eroica and Lima reefs.
Background
Blanket started production in 1904. Early workers tended to mine the visible gold sections of the pay shoots, i.e. pick the “eyes” out of the mine.
Significant early production milestones were: in 1965 Falconbridge acquired the property and increased gold production to an average of approximately 45 kg per month; in 1993 Kinross took over the property and built an enlarged Carbon-in-Leach (“CIL”) plant with capacity of approximately 3,800 tonnes per day (“tpd”) to treat an old tailings dump together with the run-of-mine ore.
Caledonia Mining Corporation plc (LON:CMCL) is a profitable cash generative gold producer with a strong growth profile, Caledonia’s primary asset is the Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe which produced 54,512 ounces of gold in 2018 at an All in Sustaining Cost of $802/oz.
