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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (19418)	5/12/2008 10:55:34 AM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 195060

Gold Fields reviews 20% of SA production Allan Seccombe Posted: Fri, 09 May 2008 miningmx.com [miningmx.com] -- GOLD Fields is looking closely at how safe it is to mine pillars and remnants, which currently provide 20% of its South African production, company management said on Friday. Gold Fields started the review last year after a series of fatal accidents, but has given the process fresh impetus after 14 mine workers were killed in less than a week, nine of them in a cage falling down a shaft. The work will be completed in the June quarter. South African production normally tops 600,000 oz a quarter. In the latest March quarter, production slumped to 520,000 oz because of a power crisis in the country. Twenty percent of the normal production is worth $106m at today’s gold price. Gold Fields posted a net operating profit of $252m in the March quarter. "We need to assess this very carefully because we want to mine safely," said Terence Goodlace, chief operating officer. The review is predominantly focused on two of Gold Fields’ biggest mines – as well as its deepest – Driefontein and Kloof. Beatrix is shallower and less subject to seismic activity, while South Deep is restructuring to become a mechanised mine. South African mining companies with older mines extract blocks of un-mined ore called pillars. These blocks were left behind in earlier mining operations for any number of reasons, including tricky geology that can now be somewhat offset by advances in technology. These pillars and remnants are not necessarily of a higher grade, Goodlace said, but a portion of them fall in historically high grade areas. Gold Fields management sees Kloof being a six tonne/quarter mine against historical production of seven tonnes. This is mainly because of a decision to stop pillar and remnant mining at two shafts and lower grades at a third, said Vishnu Pillay, head of South African operations. Three shaft is operating and will operate at 50% of production and eight shaft will mine at 40% of output as Gold Fields pulls out of high-risk areas. At seven shaft, grades have dropped to half of what they were and mining will continue at those levels, Goodlace said. Goodlace pointed out Gold Fields had in the past stopped pillar mining after accidents, including a large high grade block at Driefontein last year. The review does not mean all pillar and remnant mining will stop, but where it is deemed to be unsafe, management will cease work there. New CEO Nick Holland was at pains to make it absolutely clear that unsafe mining would not be tolerated at Gold Fields. “If we cannot mine safely then we will not mine. That is not simple talk. We are very, very serious about this,” he told a sombre results presentation in Johannesburg preceded by a minute’s silence for those killed in three accidents last week. “Given the results of what we’ve seen over the last fortnight, something different needs to be done. We need to have sufficient introspection of what we’re doing, review our policies and practises and procedures around safety and do something different,” he said. “That may entail re-looking at some of the areas we are going into and saying, ‘are these too risky for us to mine or should we pull out?’,” he said. Goodlace said Gold Fields was looking to enter the "joystick era", moving to more mechanical mining and keeping people out of dangerous situations as much as possible. The company has employed a vice president of technology as part of this drive. Trade union Solidarity said 246 workers have died at Gold Fields’ mines since 2000, making that one fatal accident every 10 days on average. Gold Fields is bringing in an international company to review the company’s safety in a “wall-to-wall” review at all its mines, starting with South Africa. The process will start in the next couple of weeks. The South African mining industry’s safety record has come under close scrutiny and copious criticism from the government and unions. South Africa’s mines are among the deepest in the world and the most dangerous. The government has taken to temporarily closing operations where fatalities have occurred. During a one-day strike to protest against the death toll on South African mines, the largest mining labour body, the National Union of Mineworkers, called for employers to be prosecuted for unsafe mines resulting in fatalities. Government Mining Engineer figures show that between 1984 and 1998, the death toll on South Africa’s mines was 9,230; while a further 139,000 people were seriously injured in that period. The gold mines accounted for the majority of those deaths and injuries. Some 201 people were killed on mines in 2007, up from 199 in the previous year.