Facility is apable of producing 2,000 tons per year of XNO, equivalent to 1 GWh of lithium-ion cells.
The police sealed off access to the Buffelsfontein gold mine in Stilfontein several weeks ago to deny the miners access to food and other essentials.
Globally, artisanal and small-scale gold mining accounts for about 20% of annual gold production.
Uncapped assays ran as high as 1,920 grams per tonne over 0.8 metre.
