19 December 2008
	MINING No dumping Agnes By Matthew Hill

It's unusual for a gold mine to go under the hammer - more so when it's one of SA's oldest. A trio of entrepreneurs from Australia-listed Mintails put together R16m last week to win the bidding for Agnes gold mine in Barberton, which first opened in 1884. The Barberton district was home to the gold rush following discoveries at Pilgrim's Rest, preceding gold mining in the mighty Witwatersrand. Lloyd Birrell, Peter Skeat and Wayne Hatton are the buyers of Agnes, in their personal capacity. The mine went under during its previous life, when it was owned by Mzi Khumalo's ill-fortuned Metallon Gold. Birrell and his associates are more interested in the gold-containing mine dumps at Agnes than the mine itself. Though grades around the Barberton area can be high, the nature of the rock containing the gold makes it difficult to extract. It's for this reason Birrell is keen on plying the skills he, Skeat and Hatton have honed working at Mintails, which bought old dumps and processing plants from AngloGold Ashanti. The trio will now have to find an economic means of getting the gold out of the Agnes dumps, which are different in nature to those in Gauteng. "We're cautiously optimistic it's a viable project," Birrell says. It's hoped they will manage it better than the previous owner.