He was born in Roodepoort but never imagined that one day he would be mining gold in Roodepoort, now the site of Qala Shallows, the first new underground gold mine to be built in South Africa in 15 years.

He was convinced all the gold had been mined out. But that was the furthest thing from the truth.

The thousands of tons of gold ore that he is extracting are being turned into gold bar that is being sold at a time of high gold prices, which is helping to fund ongoing development.

He is Sam Molefi, the CEO of Modi Mining, the contracting company that is mining the gold at Qala Shallows, ASX-listed West Wits Mining’s Roodepoort operation, which is located a mere 15 km from Johannesburg, the City of Gold.

Molefi and his co-entrepreneur wife, Motlapele Molefi, head a business that could well be putting many more people to work in the not-too-distant future. 

“For me, contributing in a meaningful way to the livelihoods of our communities, our neighbours, is a key achievement and something that I never thought could happen,” Molefi confided in his interview with Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

“We’ve already created 193 jobs, and we’re ramping up to about 1 000, and more people will be sourced from the local communities. Every time I look at my birth certificate and see the word Roodepoort, it excites me.”

He was raised in Dobsonville, Soweto, and used to catch a taxi from Dobsonville to Wits Technikon, where he began his mining studies.

“For me it’s a blessing, and I thank God,” said Molefi, who looks forward to the creation of local job opportunities for local communities.

“Every now and then, when I’m back home and can see that there is a lot of unemployment and disparities in our communities, I think this mine will come in handy to alleviate some of that.”

Modi Mining’s corporate social investment programme targets enterprise development and the company is already engaged in business relationships with local suppliers.

“Since we last spoke in 2022, we’ve been able to establish the mine. The infrastructure you see on surface and underground was installed by us.”

A milestone was its ability to achieve an early supply of 10 000 t of gold ore used for West Wits’ first gold pour in March.

The mine is designed to produce 70 000 oz/y of gold for 17 years.

“We’re now building up to steady state mining, and a key milestone has been the safe installation of water, power and air reticulation services,” Molefi reported.

Last week, when level two was intercepted, historic tons plus some reserve ore was unlocked. “The highlight of this phase was when the tons were delivered to the plant, processed, and out there, gold bars were being poured and delivered.”

The completion of the 1 West Decline into this area of historic 2 Level unmined stopes transitioned the project from development ore into higher-grade production areas with established underground infrastructure already in place.

The 1 West Decline forms part of a planned optimisation of the original mine plan and is specifically designed to accelerate payback, improve capital efficiency and further strengthen the overall project business case.