JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) South African gold major Harmony Gold (Harmony) expects the Free State assets that it bought from Pamodzi Gold to produce 100 000 oz over the next 12-months, the miner, headed by Graham Briggs, reported on Monday.

Announcing the completion of the acquisition, Harmony said that it expects production from the Steyn 1, Steyn 2 and Lorraine 3 shafts to 150 000 oz in the second 12-month period.

During the past few months, Harmony conducted preproduction work at the Pamodzi shafts to make the operations safe and return them to production.

Production from the Steyn 2 and Loraine 3 shafts would now start, however, more work was being done to underground workings at the Steyn 1 shaft.

The plant cleanup began in December 2009, and 800 kg of gold was expected to be recovered over the next 18 months.

Briggs said in a statement that the company's teams were working hard to ensure that the shafts remained safe and were productive.

"Our planning indicates promising results from these operations."

The milling of rock from the Freddies 9 waste dump at a throughput of 35 000 t/m and a recovered grade of 0,55 g/t had started. This rock is processed at Harmony's target plant.

"Harmony has re-employed 1 000 employees and we expect the total number of employees to increase to about 2 500 over the next two years," Briggs concluded.

Harmony paid R405-million to buy the Free State assets from Pamodzi Gold, which was liquidated last year.

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