JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – JSE-listed DRDGold has suspended all mining at its 74%-owned Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mining’s (Blyvoor’s) low-grade No 4 and No 6 shafts, affecting up to 1 800 employees.

This follows the shafts’ lack of response to business rescue turnaround efforts, which have been in effect since the second half of last year, the company said on Monday.

Since April 2011, there has been a decline in recovery grades to below cut-off at the two shafts, which were mostly used to pump water from underground into Blyvoor’s surface recovery circuit on the surface.

The company, however, pointed out that the pumping of underground water from the shafts, production from the surface recycling circuit and its principal No 5 production shaft were not affected by the suspension.

The mine has notified the National Union of Mineworkers of a 60-day process to seek consensus on the possible cutbacks.

Bernard Swanepoel’s Village Main Reef, which expressed a nonbinding interest in DRDGold’s 74% interest in Blyvoor, said on Monday that the transaction would not be negatively affected by the suspension. Negotiations between the two companies were still in progress.

Swanepoel said last year that the proposed Blyvoor acquisition fitted well with Village’s strategy of acquiring stressed assets and turning them around.

The transaction would also enable DRDGold to realise its strategy of concentrating solely on mining surface material and removing itself from underground mining.
 

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