Company Profile

The Business

Central Rand Gold Limited (the “Company”) is a company focused on gold prospecting and mining in the Central Rand Goldfield of South Africa with the goal of becoming a substantial gold producer. The Company is the holding company for a group of companies (the “Group”). The Group’s principal operating subsidiary, Central Rand Gold South Africa (Proprietary) Limited (“CRGSA”) is 74% is held by Central Rand Gold Netherlands Antilles NV, which itself is wholly owned by the Company.

The Central Rand Goldfield

Between 1886 and the early 1970s the Central Rand Goldfield is estimated to have produced some 247 million ounces of gold (7,696 tonnes) at a reported average head grade (run of mine grade) of 8.2 g/t. In total, an estimated 1,510 million ounces of gold have been extracted from the Witwatersrand Basin over the same period. Most of the old mines closed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as they were considered uneconomic at the prevailing gold price.

Historically, gold was mined from five separate quartz pebble reefs occurring within three distinct reef sequences – the Main Reef Sequence, Bird Reef Sequence and Kimberley Reef Sequence. The reefs within the Main Reef Sequence were historically the most important and most extensively mined.

By the mid 1960’s, the mines of the Central Rand Goldfield were considered substantially “worked out”. Infrastructure was old and the operating faces were generally deep (down to 2,800m in places) and expensive to operate. These factors were further compounded by the low price of gold. This prompted the mine operators to develop higher grade, lower cost mines in the “newer” goldfields of the Witwatersrand Basin, such as in the Carletonville and Free State Goldfields.

Since the mines in the Central Rand Goldfield closed they have remained dormant except for occasional attempts at illegal mining, which have been detected at the former Simmer & Jack workings.

Prospecting Rights

The Group has acquired seven New Order prospecting rights which constitute from west to east, Western Areas A, B and E, Consolidated Main Reef, Langlaagte, Crown Mines, Anglodeeps, Village Main, Robinson Deep, City Deep and Simmer & Jack (the “Prospecting Rights”). The Prospecting Rights extend over an area from west to east of about 40 kilometres and north to south of about 7 kilometres (the “Central Rand Project”). Certain of the Prospecting rights are currently in the process of being transferred to CRGSA via Section 11 applications lodged with the Department of Mineral Regulation in respect of Western Areas A, B and E, Simmer & Jack and the Southern Deeps prospecting application.

It should be noted that the Group has a JORC/SAMREC compliant Inferred and Indicated Resource of 36.7m oz of gold relating to the above Prospecting tenement area.

The Southern Deeps New Order prospecting right application (the “Prospecting Application”), if granted, would extend the Central Rand Project by a further 13 kilometres to the south.


Total Classified Mineral Resource Estimate for CRG’s project area

CMR Main Reef Probable Ore Reserve estimate March 2010*

* Estimate rounded to significant figures