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Burnstone gold project in South Africa and Mount Lyell copper/gold/silver project in Tasmania, both considerably infrastructured with near-term revival outlooks, have been approved by Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Sibanye-Stillwater.
Burnstone, located near the town of Balfour in South Africa's Mpumalanga province, is a project of about 130 000 oz of gold a year at steady state, with a 25-year life in relatively shallow reef in the Witwatersrand basin's South Rand Goldfield.
Mt Lyell, near Tasmania's Queenstown, comes with established operating insight and an early 2029 production target.
Burnstone's vertical shaft, decline, and surface infrastructure is supported by a trackless mobile machinery (TMM) fleet so that mining can kick-off quickly when it begins next year.
"We're not buying a greenfield premium. This is reserve replacement and a shallower, lower risk ounce to offset depletion from our deep conventional mines," COO South Africa operations Richard Cox outlined during Sibanye-Stillwater's presentation of super-duper, dividend-yielding half-year results covered by Mining Weekly.
For 2026, Burnstone has a capital allocation of R98-million and Mt Lyell $7.5-million.
"We don't have to go out and join expensive M&A sales processes. We have a portfolio of assets that we can develop and that's our focus. Very exciting pipeline of projects coming through. The first six months have helped Sibanye progress its strategy a lot further than I imagined we would 12 months ago when we put that together," an upbeat Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Dr Richard Stewart highlighted.
Burnstone and Mount Lyell were described by Sibanye-Stillwater head of projects Ralph Lombard as demonstrating the strength, depth, and quality of the company's project pipeline, "as well as the disciplined approach we're taking to capital allocation".
When in steady state, Burnstone will have created about 2 500 jobs and Mount Lyell about 300 jobs.
Burnstone has a net present value (NPV) of R19.2-billion with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 36%, while Mt Lyell has a post-tax NPV of $550-million and an IRR of 20%.
So, what makes Burnstone attractive?
"Burnstone sits with a substantial amount of infrastructure already developed. Most important is our vertical shaft and our decline shaft are in place. Over and above that is we have our TMM fleet available," Lombard responded.
"We'll build up to 2029 and create a stockpile for our processing facility to start in the first quarter of 2029 and after that, we'll have continuous operations, steadily building up to steady state.
"At this stage, we are targeting 2.7-million ounces, which form part of our reserve. Successful execution of Burnstone will open up the additional 8.9-million ounces in future. When we talk about a 25-year life, that's the 2.7-million ounces," Lombard explained.
And what makes Mt Lyell attractive?
"Mt Lyell, like Burnstone, also has a substantial amount of infrastructure. It's a copper/gold mine in Tasmania. It's around the town of Queenstown, the top north-eastern portion.
"The orebodies we will target are Prince Lyell, Western Tharsis, Cape Horn, and Copper Chert. Those are the orebodies we are currently targeting as part of the Mount Lyell project.
"On the south-western side, is a fully permitted tailing storage facility. Like Burnstone, again, the infrastructure already in place reduces the capital bill which we need to pay for Mt Lyell," said Lombard.
This year's $7.5-million will be allocated to project setup, recruitment commencement, and mobilisation.
Total project capital to get to production is around $340-million. At today's spot prices, NPV is above one-billion dollars, and IRR in the region of 28%.
The picture of Mt Lyell showed disturbed ground ar...
