ESKOM's Power Supply to Great Basin Gold's Burnstone Project Finalized
June 08 2009 - 8:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
VANCOUVER, June 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Great Basin Gold Ltd,
("Great Basin Gold" or the "Company"), (TSX: GBG; NYSE Amex: GBG;
JSE: GBG) today announced that ESKOM, South Africa's National
Electricity Utility has undertaken to supply power to its Burnstone
Mine project. The two companies acknowledged the strategic
importance of the project to the development of the Dipalaseng
Municipality in Mpumalanga. Great Basin Gold is developing a
shallow, long-life mine at a cost of South African Rand ("ZAR") 2
billion (US$247 million) over the 19 year life of mine for the
project(1). The Company has accepted a ZAR119 million (US$14.6
million) official Budget Quotation for a new supply of power to the
Burnstone Mine. This quotation outlines the project for the supply
of power to Burnstone which is planned to be completed in time for
the commissioning of the metallurgical process plant that is
currently under construction. The ESKOM 2008 announcement,
outlining a backlog in keeping up with the national power demand,
and its subsequent drastic power conservation scheme came at the
time when the Burnstone project had entered mid-stage construction.
ESKOM pledged support to the project after Great Basin Gold engaged
with the utility on the matter as part of its risk mitigation
strategy. ESKOM committed to Burnstone's phased power demand
requirements, subject to the terms of the Budget Quotation, which
involve the refurbishment of an existing line, and construction of
a new section of a power line to Burnstone. This process is jointly
managed by the two companies to coincide with project completion.
ESKOM's support to Burnstone is of strategic importance to allow
the project to be developed to its planned production levels. In
combination with the approval of the Burnstone Mining Right and
environmental management program in October 2008, the project now
has the key elements in place for project development. Ferdi
Dippenaar commented, "We are pleased by ESKOM's support and welcome
their positive attitude towards a project that will see the first
new gold mine in South Africa in many years. Securing sufficient
permanent power supply to the Burnstone Mine has been an ongoing
concern to the Company and its investors. In addition to the supply
to the mine, ESKOM has planned to upgrade the regional
infrastructure which will bring economic development and wealth to
a community with high levels of poverty and unemployment. We look
forward to working with them to improve the living conditions of
the communities in that region." Johan Oelofse, PrEng, FSAIMM,
Chief Operating Officer for Great Basin Gold and a qualified
person, has reviewed this release. Ferdi Dippenaar President and
CEO No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the
information contained in this news release. This release includes
certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements".
All statements in this release, other than statements of historical
facts, that address possible future commercial production, reserve
potential, exploration drilling results, development, feasibility
or exploitation activities and events or developments that Great
Basin Gold expects to occur are forward-looking statements.
Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such
forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions,
such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual
results or developments may differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results
to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements
include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes,
continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability
to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to
third party opposition, geopolitical uncertainty, changes in
government policies regarding mining and natural resource
exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital
and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions.
Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees
of future performance and those actual results or developments may
differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking
statements. For more information on the Company, Investors should
review the Company's annual Form 40-F filing with the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission and its home jurisdiction
filings that are available at http://www.sedar.com/. (1) February
2009 Technical Report filed on http://www.sedar.com/. DATASOURCE:
Great Basin Gold Ltd. CONTACT: For additional details on Great
Basin Gold Ltd. and its gold properties, please visit the Company's
website at http://www.grtbasin.com/ or contact Investor Services:
Tsholo Serunye in South Africa, +27 (0)11 301 1800; Michael Curlook
in North America, 1-888-633-9332; Barbara Cano at Breakstone Group
in the USA, (646) 452-2334
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