The South Deep gold mine has switched to fully mechanised mining and has ceased conventional mining entirely, outgoing Gold Fields COO Terence Goodlace tells Mining Weekly Online.

Goodlace says the use of highly mechanised equipment includes mechanised destressing of the massive South Deep orebody, currently the world’s largest, which Gold Fields acquired last year from Barrick of Canada.

Massive mining is rare for a Witwatersrand deposit and only the Target gold mine in the Free State is similarly mined.

South Deep has a shaft system down to 3 000 m and has been designed to be a modern mechanised mine, Goodlace says.

“What you will see in the future is the use of highly mechanised equipment and not as many people exposed in the underground situation. If you were to take an analogy, look at any modern massive mining,” he adds.

As a result of the depletion of the Ventersorp contact reef and the cessation of conventional destressed mining, Gold Fields operational head Vishnu Pillay says that 1 700 South Deep employees have accepted voluntary retrenchment in the past two months and that the mine is in the process of looking at voluntary retrenchment for another 350.

South Deep formerly had a staff complement of 4 300 people and 1 200 contractors and is expected to have a final complement of 2 200 people, plus the 1 200 contractors, leaving the operation with a staff complement of 3 400 people.

Pillay reports that R70-million has been set aside for the payment of voluntary retrenchment.

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