Great Basin Gold Appoints Chris Knoetze as General Manager of the Burnstone Management Team

Great Basin Gold Ltd. announces the appointment of Chris Knoetze as General Manager of the Burnstone Management team, located in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Chris Knoetze will head up the team bringing the Burnstone mine into production early next year. He is a qualified Mine Overseer and holds a Mine Managers certificate.

Chris joined the mining industry in 1974, working at Hartebeesfontein Gold Mine. In 1994, he participated in the preparation of a feasibility study of the highly mechanised Nkomati Nickel Mine. He was involved with the project initially as Project Manager and then as Mine Manager until it reached full production in 1997.

From 1999, Chris worked for Nelson Gold (now known as Avocet) in Tajikistan for 5 years as acting General Manager, and in 2004 as General Manager for Avnel, a British resources company, in Mali.

Chris has gained an immense amount of international mining experience, and just before joining Great Basin Gold in October 2008, he was appointed as Manager Operations at a copper mine in Chile.

Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO stated, “We are delighted to have Chris join the Burnstone Management team. He brings a wealth of mining experience which will assist in realising the Company’s plans at the operation in South Africa. The mine is shallow, low cost and low risk in nature and will lend itself to a higher level of mechanisation. This is specifically where Chris’s experience in this field will be welcome.

Delivery of the Burnstone Project is progressing well with less than 240 meters of development in the decline remaining before the first reef intersection. With the depreciation of the South African currency as of late, the capital expenditure in US Dollar terms required to develop the mine has decreased significantly. Should this situation continue, the returns from the operation are expected to increase as production commences in early 2009.”