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The strained commodity price environment has triggered strong measures of cost containment and control by global and South African mining industries with workforce reductions, mine closures and shelved projects. Added to this, the South African mining industry is facing an unparalleled number of challenges, including an uncertain regulatory environment, infrastructure constraints, frequent industrial actions, rising costs and shortages of skills. The dynamism of discontinuous change has increased considerably and the South African mining industry is today facing an uncertain future with a blurred outlook. The results of the detailed analysis of future studies theory and practice in this research study support the argument that there is a strong need to fundamentally change the ways of planning for the future of the South African mining industry. The practice of developing new insight through the application of futures studies is central to this process. Today, collective decisions and strategies are progressively more founded on and informed by futures studies. The research study sought to develop insight regarding the future of the South African mining industry through the construction of four scenarios towards 2055: Divided We Fall, where a confident industry is threatened by social divisions as industry transformation is disregarded; Rock Bottom, where weak global economic conditions coincide with lacklustre industry innovation; Rising from Ashes, with similar economic conditions, but the industry responding positively through accelerated industry innovation; and Renaissance, set against positive global economic conditions with the South African mining industry adopting a collaborative, innovative approach to industry transformation. The research study further strived to uncover the preferred future for the South African mining industry as basis for the South African Mine of the Future Vision towards 2055. Throughout the research study, Inayatullah’s pillars of futures studies were applied as a guideline in mapping the present and future, deepening the future, broadening the future through the development of scenarios, and transforming the future by narrowing it down to the preferred. The study provides valuable insight into the driving forces relevant to the South African mining landscape. In addition, it provides insight on how to anticipate the changes these driving forces may bring about for the industry over the next 40 years from a decision-maker’s point of view. It is up to the mining industry to select the road to follow in terms of progress and sustainable development. Through an innovative approach, the creation of an environment of trust, the sharing of values, purposes and benefits, the South African Mine of the Future Vision is attainable. The South African mining industry must commit itself to working in collaborative partnerships with local communities, government, society and labour; stepping boldly into a world of social, environmental, technological and commercial innovation.

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M.Sc. (Geology) / The Witwatersrand Supergroup is host to a number of auriferous and uraniferous conglomeratic reefs, which have been extensively exploited along the Witwatersrand Basin margins. The current study investigates the Vaal Reef, in the Klerksdorp gold field with particular focus on conducting a geometallurgical characterization of the ore which may ultimately enhance the recovery of gold and uranium and our understanding of how the ore responds to processing. Six samples were collected from AngloGold Ashanti’s Moab Khotsong mine and prepared for a chemical and mineralogical deportment study. These samples were milled and crushed down to 80% passing -75μm and processed for head chemistry assays, grading analysis as well as heavy liquid separation analysis as part of the chemical deportment. The samples were also submitted for gold cyanide, acid uranium and diagnostic leach tests.....

Microfiche and maps (numbered 1-7) in pocket / Includes bibliography (6 unnumbered leaves) / 109, [84] leaves (some folded) : ill., maps (some col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Economic Geology, 1984

Rico strata are recognised throughout the Four Corners region of southwestern Colorado, southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, and northwestern New Mexico. The term Rico has been applied to a group of strata which exhibit a lateral and vertical transition between two contrasting environments, the marine Hermosa and the non-marine Cutler. Two faunal provinces reflect these widely diverse conditions of sedimentation. However, few fossils of diagnostic value have been discovered despite the abundance of fossiliferous strata within the Rico. Rico strata are believed to range between Desmoinesian and Virgilian in age. Lithofacies data on the Rico were assembled from literature, outcrop sections, and various well logs. These data were then compiled on an isopach-lithofacies map. The isopach-lithofacies map shows the thickness trends and the lithologic variations of Rico strata throughout the region of study. The tectonic framework of the region is reconstructed from the isopach-lithofacies map and mechanical analyses of the elastic strata. Clastic material in the Rico increases in average grain size from west to east toward the Uncomphagre Uplift suggest that this area was actively positive during Rico time. The vertical variation of normal marine limestone and clastic red beds in the Rico reflect an alternately transgressing and regressing sea over much of the Four Corners region. This intricate intertonguing of normal marine limestone and clastic red beds probably resulted from deposition in a shallow basin on an unstable shelf. The occurrence of oil, gas, and cement quality limestone in the Rico is examined from an economic aspect. A. brief review of the general geology and geologic history of tile region is also included.

The Big Horn Mountains are a geologically complex range that extends over 500 square km in west-central Arizona. Three major lithologic terranes outcrop: (1) Proterozoic amphibolite, phyllite, schists, gneiss, and granite; (2) Mesozoic monzonite to diorite intrusives; and (3) Cenozoic mafic to silicic volcanic rocks and clastic rocks. The entire area is in the upper plate of a detachment fault and, consequently, contains many low- to high-angle normal faults. Each lithologic terrane has its associated mineral occurrences. The Big Horn district is exclusively hosted in the pre- Tertiary terrane. Most of its mineral occurrences are spatially related to the Late Cretaceous intrusive rocks. One occurrence, the Pump Mine, may be a metamorphic secretion deposit, and therefore, would be middle Proterozoic. The vast majority of the mineral occurrences in the Big Horn Mountains are middle Tertiary in age and occur in three districts: the Tiger Wash barite - fluorite district; the Aguila manganese district; and the Osborne base and precious metal district. Fluid inclusions from Tiger Wash fluorite (T(h) 120 to 210° C, NaCl wt. equivalent 17 to 18 percent not corrected for CO₂) and nearby detachment - fault- hosted Harquahala district fluorite (T(h) 150 to 230° C., NaC1 wt. equivalent 15.5 to 20 percent not corrected for CO₂) suggest cooling and dilution of fluids as they are presumed to evolve from the detachment fault into the upper plate. Mass-balance calculations suggest that the proposed evolution of fluids is sufficient to account for the observed tonnage of barite and fluorite. The Tiger Wash occurrences grade directly into calcite- gangue-dominated manganese oxides of the Aguila district. A wide range of homogenization temperatures (T(h) 200 to 370° C.), an absence of CO₂ and low salinities (NaC1 wt. equivalent 1 to 2 percent) in the Aguila district calcite-hosted fluid inclusions argue for distillation of fluids during boiling or boiling of non saline-meteoric waters. Mass - balance calculations modeling the evolution of Ca and Mn during potassium metasomatism of plagioclase in basalt suggest that little if any influx of these cations is necessary to form the calcite –dominated manganese oxide tonnage observed. The Aguila district grades directly to the east into the base-metal and precious-metal occurrences of the Osborne district. Preliminary data describing geological settings, fluid inclusions, and geochemistry suggest that the Osborne district has a continuum between gold-rich to silver-rich epithermal occurrences. The gold-rich systems have dominantly quartz gangue, with or without fluorite, and are hosted in a variety of rocks, but are proximal to Precambrian phyllite or mid-Tertiary rhyolite. Fluid inclusions from two occurrences representative of the gold -rich systems spread across a minor range (T(h) 190 to 230° C., NaC1 wt. equivalent 17 to 23 percent not corrected for CO₂). Dilution of highly saline fluids is the inferred mechanism for precipitation of gold in the gold-quartz systems. The silver-rich systems have dominantly calcite gangue with or without quartz, and are hosted in mid-Tertiary basalt. Calcite fluid inclusions from a representative high-silver occurrence display a wide range of homogenization temperatures and salinities (T(h) 120 to 370° C., NaC1 wt. equivalent 7 to 23 percent). Boiling and consequent neutralization of acidic solutions is the inferred mechanism for the silver-rich, calcite gangue systems. A model inferring a regional fluid-flow regime and local sources of metals is proposed. Four possible regional and local causes of fluid flow in upper-plate detachment regimes are proposed: (1) regional elevation of geothermal gradients as a result of middle-crustal, lower-plate rocks rising to upper crustal levels; (2) meteoric water recharge along the southeast flank of the Harquahala antiform and consequent displacement of connate waters in the upper-plate of the Big Horn Mountains; (3) local emplacement of feeder stocks to rhyolitic flows; (4) and tilting of major upper-plate structural blocks.