Mines restart limited surface operations
AngloGold Ashanti says it has started processing marginal ore dumps at its West Wits operations and the reclaiming tailings at the Mine Waste Solutions business unit, in the Vaal River region.
“The restart of these operations on 6 April 2020 has been facilitated by about 500 employees, spread across both the West Wits and Vaal River regions. This is less than a third of the usual staff complement for these business units, and roughly 8% of our total South Africa workforce. All sites have the requisite Covid-19 risk management plans in place. The limited restart will help safeguard technical infrastructure and enable a safe and quick resumption of all remaining operations once the lockdown is over,” the company said in a statement.
In 2019, the marginal ore dumps business produced 70,000oz at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,272/oz and Mine Waste Solutions produced 106,000oz at an AISC of $894/oz.
Production from the Mponeng underground operation remains suspended during the lockdown which is currently expected to continue to 30 April 2020.
Two-shift cycles
Meanwhile DRDGold has announced that work has resumed at its Ergo and Far West Gold Recoveries (FWGR) operations, albeit at reduced levels.
At Ergo, 34% of staff, working a two-shift cycle with a third on standby, is back at work and reclaiming material from four high-volume sites. At FWGR, about 60% of staff, working the same shift cycle, is covering the reclamation, processing and disposal of material from the operation’s single reclamation site.
“Although the law, on a technical interpretation, allowed for the continuation of our operations during the lockdown, the director-general of the DMRE, in an exchange of correspondence between myself and his office, confirmed a very important qualification in this regard, namely that it be done in a way that ensured the health and safety of staff,” says DRDGold CEO, Niël Pretorius.
“We took guidance on what such measures entailed from the guidelines published by the DMRE, the Department of Health and the Minerals Council South Africa, and the plan that has since been put in place to sustain essential services at our Ergo and Far West Gold Recoveries (FWGR) operations was designed to keep staff deployment densities to a minimum and in conformity with those recommendations,” he says.
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