Voro

The deposit was first discovered in 1985. In 1998, the Group acquired the company that held the mining licence for Voro. In 1999 mining resumed and heap leaching circuit for oxidised ore was launched in 2000. In 2005, the CIP plant was commissioned with a capacity of 450 ktpa. The plant was expanded to 600 ktpa in 2007 by replacing three-stage crushing with one-stage crushing and SAG milling. The plant was further expanded to 940 ktpa in 2008 by removing bottlenecks from thickening, leaching and filtration sections. In 2010, mining started on the new southern pit to extract ore from an extension of the main deposit.

The Voro deposit is a fracture zone where the ore body generally lies in the footwall of the fault.The main mineralised zones occur within brecciated limestone and are erratic in shape, not visually identifiable and require dense grade control drilling for final delineation prior to mining. A highly variable weathering pattern is developed across the deposit, with a broad oxidation surface developed to a depth of 65 m, but zones as deep as 100 m are developed where karstic features have formed in the limestone. An extension to the main Voro deposit of mainly oxide material has been outlined in the south.

Oxidised gold at Voro occurs mostly in free form. In primary ore, gold occurs in a variety of forms. These include free, inter grown with host minerals, associated with pyrite and attached to silicates. The highly variable mineralogy of primary ore requires careful selection of processing regimes.