The biggest takeaway from the hugely profitable Mogale tailings retreatment operation that was commissioned west of Johannesburg by Pan African Resources on Thursday is that one can make a huge success and look forward to very rapid payback by investing in South Africa.

"It's quite ironic. We've been pretty much all over Africa looking for opportunities in terms of expanding our business and ultimately we've come back to South Africa and less than an hour from our corporate office, we have 1.1-million ounces of recoverable gold reserve here, and we acquired all of it for just over $1/oz, which is fantastic," remarked an ebullient Pan African CEO Cobus Loots told Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The project has come in at R2.4-billion, not the budgeted R2.5-billion, and in 14 months, four months sooner than cited, and at the current good gold price, payback of the initial investment is expected in two to three years.

The London- and Johannesburg-listed company, which has advanced significantly in gold recovery from surface dumps, has seen its share price double this year

Employment in an area needing jobs far exceeds the original estimate of 700 during construction and 500 for the operation with 1 600 people currently on site, including the contractors, and ultimately some 500 at the operation and with remining.

There has been highly successful community engagement community, with 1 040 of the current jobs going to locals. The social and labour plan and other investments into schools, for example, will benefit everyone and economic opportunity and employment which has not been here before.

The dusty dumps are being converted into wealth: "This was a huge environmental headache for government. It was unfunded when we took over. Some estimated the environmental liability to be in excess of half a billion rand. I think it could be more.

"So, with us treating these dumps, we're going to reduce that liability to a very manageable number by cleaning water and the land and repurposing these areas for exciting new developments," Loots told Mining Weekly.

"Our activities in terms of the studies demonstrate we improve water quality, which is also a huge plus.

Pan African is a leader in terms of renewables. "We were the first miner to commission a utility scale renewables plant at Evander, then followed that with a large plant at Barberton. Now we're looking at a potentially 20 MW renewables plant in the next 12 to 24 months.

On what is next, Loots said: "Let's get up and running at MTR, let's demonstrate that this plant can do the 800 000 t. We'll get there in the next month or so, and then we'll look to expand this area and the Soweto Cluster by itself could also be interesting for us."