Great Basin Completes holing of ventilation shaft and updates on delivery of mills at Burnstone
May 13, 2010, Vancouver, BC – Great Basin Gold Ltd. (“Great Basin” or the “Company”) (TSX: GBG; NYSE Amex: GBG; JSE: GBG) announces that it reached yet another milestone at its Burnstone mine development project in South Africa with the completion of the raise boring phase, or holing, of the ventilation shaft.
The holing took place on May 12, 2010 and completes phase one of the ventilation shaft project. This phase included the piloting and reaming of a 5.1-meter diameter, 305-meter deep vertical ventilation shaft, which will act as an up-cast shaft to provide sufficient ventilation for mining of blocks B and C, planned to occur over the next approximately 3-year period.
The project was completed at a cost of CDN$2.36 million and took 12 months to complete. Site establishment took place in May 2009, and drilling of a 381-mm pilot hole commenced in September 2009. Actual reaming of the 5.1-metre diameter hole started at the end of October 2009, and advanced at a planned rate of 3 metres per day to accommodate the removal of the raise bore chips, together with material from underground production. The reaming process took approximately 6 months to complete. The second phase of the project consists of establishing support by lining the first 90 meters of the shaft with shotcrete as well as connecting three 720 kW surface fans. This second phase is scheduled to be completed during June 2010, in line with the planned production build-up. The shaft will provide adequate ventilation for the underground workings well into the future.
Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO, commented: “The management team at our Burnstone project continue to make good progress, reaching the various milestones required to deliver the project within the remaining few weeks. In the mill, construction is currently underway to enable the installation of the Ball and Semi Autogenous Grinding (SAG) mill shells, which are planned for delivery on-site between 17 and 21 of May 2010. The plate work on the foundations has been completed as has the fitting of the bearings for the mills. Construction of the steel walls of the leach tanks and steel works on the thickener continues, and the silos are currently being equipped. Commissioning of the metallurgical plant is on track for the end of June 2010.”
