Field Tread: First day back in the field simce lockdown and, as a geo, I was SUPER stoked to be out in the bush again.

Mining has been declared to be an essential economic activity here in SA and Geminas is now fully permitted to continue delivering services to clients

We are assisting a client with the commissioning of their open pit chrome operation on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex, mining LG6 horizon. This is currently “cowboy” country with rampant illegal mining taking place in this relatively remote stretch of the bushveld

LG6 has a high Cr:Fe ratio and can be mined very profitably, delivering up to +40% Cr2O3 product directly to market without the need for concentration. This pic shows a chromitite boulder with unusual olivine textures (for the bushveld). Almost spinafex texture...

Here comes the kit. 20t Komatsu excavator to start stripping top soil (arcadian cotton soils in this area) and open up first outcrop. She is small but the engine still purs. More kit to come over the week end.

A lot of (illegal) exploration has been done in the area. And many of the small mines (even legal) are commissioned without a single borehole having been drilled on the property. That’s Bushveld geology for you...

BTW this is a thread not a “tread”