JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Following two recent fatal accidents at Gold Fields’ Johannesburg-based South Deep mine, the gold miner has concluded a comprehensive review of the mine, which has identified that about 1 000 m of legacy ground support in some of the ramps serving production areas in the older part of the mine present a safety risk.    

At this stage of the build-up process, around 70% of the mine’s production comes from these older areas of the mine, above the 95-level, the group said on Thursday.

“As a consequence, Gold Fields has decided to immediately stop production and destress activities in these areas and to start with remedial work. After personally inspecting the affected areas and consulting with the new mine management team, as well as the Gold Fields board, I have concluded that it would be unsafe to continue working in these areas without remediation,” noted Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland.

The Gold Fields head added that the company was now “paying the price” for the skills deficit at South Deep.

“In addressing these issues, we will not only ensure the safety of our people, but also the long-term integrity and sustainability of the mine,” he added. 

The remediation would take around four months to complete and was expected to be concluded in September. The impact on production for this year was expected to be a deferral of around 48 225 oz of gold.

Despite the production declines at South Deep, the group’s production guidance of 2.2-million attributable ounces for 2014 was maintained, based on the current and anticipated outperformance of the Peru-based Cerro Corona mine, the Granny Smith mine, in Australia and the Tarkwa mine, in Ghana.

Holland’s comments came two days after the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) completed an in-loco inspection of the scene of the second accident at South Deep, during which an employee lost his life in an industrial-type incident at an underground satellite workshop.

This was the second fatal accident of a similar nature to occur at the mine over the past ten days, the last accident having occurred on May 17.

Following the inspection, the DMR issued a Section 54 order, placing a moratorium on all workshop-related activities across the mine, pending the report back with regard to safety at South Deep to the DMR in terms of Section 11(5) of the Mine Health and Safety Act.

“This has effectively stopped all production on the mine. Management is working closely with the DMR to identify and mitigate the causes of the accidents and to ultimately have the Section 54 order lifted,” Holland said.

He estimated that the Section 54 stoppage imposed on the mine would result in the deferral of around 9 645 oz of gold production by the end of the week.

It was estimated that a further 6 430 oz would be deferred owing to the reassessing of working practices in all workshops and safety control systems on the mechanised mining fleet to improve safety at the mine. 

At this stage, Holland did not expect the stoppages to require a re-assessment of South Deep’s build-up plan to full production of between 650 000 oz/y and 700 000 oz/y by the end of 2017, as previously advised. 

“However, we cannot at this point guarantee that there will not be other issues identified by the new management team, which may further impact guidance for the year,” he said.

Holland noted that, central to the new management team’s efforts to rebase the mine, was the need for the introduction and enforcement of greater levels of accountability and responsibility at all levels in the organisation and to improve skills levels across the board.

“In addition, the team has concluded that the mine has more equipment and people than is required. Both of these are prerequisites for an improved safety culture and improved productivity, which are deemed critical to derisk the mine’s build-up to full production and ensure that South Deep achieves its full potential. Discussions have started with the trade unions to agree on the way forward on these issues,” he said.