The recent R75-million investment by Gold Fields in the Rhino, a drill rig that allows for faster, more accurate drilling and a bigger breaking point for blasting during longhole stoping, will still not see it surpass output of traditional mining methods soon. ’ South Deep is the only fully mechanised gold mine in South Africa but is yet to live up to the benefits of full mechanisation.
Another reason for the mine’s underperformance was an inability to maintain the equipment, he said. “Large equipment was installed and we struggled with maintaining it because it was not made locally. We had to get engineers in and it was a very costly and time consuming process. For years the mine was running at a loss. It only started to see some profits from 2019 when it generated R151-million in net cash. In 2020, net cash from operations was R558-million but this jumped 157% in 2021 as South Deep generated net cash of R1.4-billion. Mining analyst Peter Major said South Deep was a conundrum and had caused more consternation and trial and error than any other gold mine in the country.
“The problem with South Deep is because of the mine itself. They tried mining it in a pseudo trackless way and they did all that development and bought all those machines but it wasn’t working.”is one with no rails where rubber-tyred vehicles operate independently of tracks and are used for haulage and transport.
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