JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The resurfacing of illegal mining in the Carletonville area on the West Rand has prompted a gold-mining company to write an urgent open letter to Gauteng's provincial commissioner of police, Lieutenant-General E Mawela.

The letter follows a growing list of illegal mining-related violence, including last month's suspected murder by Zama-Zamas of a couple stranded without petrol at an East Rand highway offramp, near Putfontein, and this week's closure of a road on the West Rand by Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba owing to dangers posed by illegal mining activities in the Roodepoort area.

The contents of the letter to the police general highlights the huge issue of the confiscation by police of legal and licensed security force firearms, and the abject failure of police to curb the activities of Zama-Zamas with illegal and unlicenced firearms.

The letter has been forwarded by Blyvoor Gold management, the Community of Blyvoor, represented by Johannes Tala, and Blyvoor Gold's black economically empowered (BEE) employees, represented by Wels Sempe. Blyvoor Gold's employees own 26% of the shares of the company, which also has overwhelming community support.

Employee BEE spokesperson Sempe is a highly experienced former Blyvooruitzicht mine overseer, who is playing a leading role in reopening the mine, which has the potential to re-emply 2 000 abandoned former mineworkers. Blyvoor Gold, which is in the process of completing a six-metre-high bullet-resistant security wall around the reopening shaft and brand new gold plant, is targeting resuming gold production in the last quarter of this year.

The contents of the letter the the police general is as follows:

Dear Lt. General Mawela

FURTHER REQUEST FOR GUIDANCE AND HELP

We have communicated with you recently regarding our urgent need for guidance and assistance with regard to the endless Zama-Zama attacks in the Carletonville area, and to date, have only received an acknowledgement from your office, but no assistance.

In the last few years, Zama-Zama attacks in Carletonville have been rife, the Zama-Zama’s are allowed to attack and kill, business owners and employees are not allowed to defend themselves, and the police refuse to help.

In the same few years, the Zama-Zama’s have simply helped themselves to billions of rands worth of assets, comprising of copper, steel and equipment which they cart off and sell, watched by the police and nothing ever gets done about it.

Should the business owners and employees and residences defend themselves against the hail of bullets from the Zama-Zama’s – whilst the police watch and don’t assist – the police then proceed to confiscate the guns belonging to the security companies whose businesses have been employed for protection, since the police are not willing to assist, other than to stand by and watch.

When we point out to the police the very corrupt copper smelting facilities, begging them to investigate, they ignore our pleas and leave the smelting operations to continue their illegal and damaging work, unperturbed.

And so, the businesses struggle to survive the last few years, and yesterday, it happened once again, and we are obliged to report it.

TUESDAY, 2 JULY – ZAMA-ZAMA ATTACK

Yesterday was a normal working day, with our workers on site salvaging what they could of the now totally devastated old plant, where rehabilitation is taking place.

Unexpectedly, in the afternoon, a bunch of Zama-Zama’s attacked the employees, and the private security company.

The police were called but, as per normal, had no desire to assist, and just monitored.

When our security company reacted with warning shots, the very same police confiscated the security company’s gun. One is left to question whose side the police are on.

We are now ramping up our communication to more and more of the mining industry to expose this shocking state of affairs, so that we can at least find some reaction from the police, who, to date, have done more for the Zama-Zama’s and the destruction of mines by letting them continue their destructive activities than they have for the workers and the business owners and residents.

So, we appeal to you once more for assistance and to take our letter seriously, failing which we have no option but to send letters to a wider selection of politicians and business leaders.

THE GOVERNMENT WANT JOBS?

So, we are left to build a mine, being attacked, unable to defend, no assistance from the police, no assistance from the army, as the police claim that it is the army’s duty to protect us, billions of rands of assets stolen to date, numerous communications to the police with no reaction, and yet it is this same government that wants us, the private sector, to create jobs and to produce from the mines – how do you expect us to do this?

We are presently going backwards, the Zama-Zama’s getting more aggressive and we are getting weaker as a consequence of police confiscating the security contractors’ guns.

It is apparent that the last few years have shown that the police assist the Zama-Zama’s more and help legitimate citizens and businesses less, so the Zama-Zama’s are winning the war, with police help, whilst we are left defenceless and unassisted by the police, going backwards.

We have spent hundreds of thousands of rands on private security in order for us to have some sort of protection and when the security do react to Zama-Zama attacks the police confiscate the legal and licensed fire arms, yet leave the Zama-Zamas to run amok with illegal firearms.

We have to highlight a few extracts from the South African Police Services (SAPS) code of conduct ,which we feel the police are not upholding in the Carletonville area.

In terms of the code, police officials of the SAPS commit themselves to the creation of a safe and secure environment for all people in South Africa by:

• participating in endeavours to address the root causes of crime in the community;
• preventing action that may threaten the safety or security of any community;
• investigating criminal conduct that has endangered the safety or security of the community and bringing the perpetrators thereof to justice;
• upholding the Constitution and the law;
• being guided by the needs of the community;
• cooperating with the community, government at every level and all other related roleplayers;
• contributing to the reconstruction and development of, and reconciliation in our country;
• upholding and protecting the fundamental rights of every person;
• working actively towards preventing any form of corruption and bringing the perpetrators thereof to justice.

You request community participation and support in the fight against crime, but where are the police when we need them to act against the perpetrators other than to standby and watch them committing their crimes?

Should there be any sympathy for us from yourselves, thank you, but we’ve heard nothing, seen nothing, still get no assistance, and we are therefore proceeding blindly, waiting for the day to come that you might help us. As we talk, there is a growing band of Zama-Zama squatter camps, growing each day, attacking each day, getting bigger each day, on the profits and spoils of their successful raids against communities and businesses.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

THE MANAGEMENT OF BLYVOOR GOLD

THE COMMUNITY OF BLYVOOR – represented by JOHANNES TALA

THE BEE OF BLYVOOR – represented by WELS SEMPE

Only last week, Mining Weekly Online wrote that the image many have of the old Blyvooruitzicht mine is one of denuded destruction, brought about by rampant illegal mining.

Blyvoor Gold, which is rebuilding the mine, inherited a wreck two years ago. It spent most of its own half-a-billion rand bringing the mine back, before receiving funding.

"So, what you’re seeing now is the new Blyvoor,” Blyvoor Gold executive chairperson Peter Skeat stated last week, as he showed Mining Weekly Online a video of the reconstruction programme.

Pictures taken two months ago and handed to Mining Weekly Online show:

• the No 5 shaft winder, powered by a new Eskom yard and transformer station, all on aluminium cable to avoid theft;
• a brand new ABB digital control bank for No 5 Shaft winders and winder motors, and recomissioned drums, cables, personnel carriage and rock skips;
• a six-metre-high reinforced concrete wall right around the complex, with facilities for security guards on the inside of the upper level of the wall, which is bulletproof and so secures the complex. The outside of the wall is painted with attractive Sotho and Xhosa colour schemes of choice;
• a Liebherr 964 excavator loading a Bell 40 t articulated dump truck, active in the rehabilitation and repair of Blyvoor tailings dam No 6, and also a Komatsu 155-3 dozer, stockpiling the same tailings material;
• a brand new girth gear for the No 1 mill of the two-mill plants in a South African fabrication facility for mounting on the mill;
• a 25 MVA diesel power station to ensure the safety of underground workers, should State electricity utility Eskom fail to generate power;
• a 40 000 t/m carbon-in-pulp cell in the Blyvoor process plant that treats any carbonaceous or ‘preg-robbing’ material that preferentially absorbs gold;
• another 40 000 t/m carbon-in-leach tank for the non-preg-robbing ores;
• the foundation for the two mills, which will each be able to process 20 000 t/m, totalling 40 000 t/m;
• the primary storage silo at the Blyvoor 5 shaft, surrounded by the partly constructed six-metre-high security wall, ahead of which is a six-metre-high razor-wire fence and ahead of that a 4 m moat to thwart illegal mining; and
• community members from the nearby village, who lost their jobs when the mine was closed, are showing great enthusiasm. Former employees have formed a new union; the community has pledged support for the mine and wear pledge badges to prove it; the mining right was obtained from government in a matter of months; and an amazingly low level $600/oz is the resuscitated operation's all-in sustainable cost estimation.

Once the employee, community and cost fundamentals were satisfied, Blyvoor Gold was taken forward.

NEW MINING METHOD

For 130 years, underground mining in South Africa has been based overwhelmingly on conventional drill-and-blast techniques. Now Blyvoor Gold is on the cusp of changing that in a manner that will enhance safety and slash costs.

A key part of the new mining method is to make use of a major 120% charge to electronically blast waste burden into the stope as backfill, and three seconds later carry out a second blast that leaves a high-grade stockpile in the area cleared by the first blast.

The grade is put at what Blyvoor Gold executives describe as a "very conservative" 25 g/t. They calculate mining cost at 4 g/t and overheads of 1 g/t, to yield a very healthy margin of 20 g/t.

Backfilling carried out by the blast also creates conditions requiring far less ventilation, which saves costs, and the big safety improvement is brought about by the span never being more than 4 m.

This lowers the risk of rockburst: “You’re providing support with your waste. But over and above that, you’re opening up the stoping width from 1 m and 1.1 m to 1.5 m because you’ve now got room in which to put the waste. So, people can stand up in the stope and not have to crawl around. We will be lighting up the stope with massive LEDs, so it will look like Ellis Park during a rugby final, and fibre-optics in the stopes will provide for direct communication,” CEO Alan Smith told Mining Weekly Online.

Overall, the steps taken will significantly reduce the cutoff grade to less than 4 g/t.

Large blocks of ore, with grades of 20 g/t, 15 g/t and 10 g/t, are available to be mined, representing past cutoff grades. Nobody has been back to mine them.

While the carbon leader reef will be mined, 75% of the shallower Middelvlei reef remains available for mining.

Whereas the air was in the past pumped into an open stope and diluted, the backfill keeps it in a 4 m gap. In this way, the air velocity rises and the amount of air needed is reduced. The upshot is cooler and cleaner air and lower electricity costs.

In addition, fibre-optics will open up telecommunication from underground to surface and from surface to underground.

One of the most important aspects of mining is getting drilling depth and direction right, which was not prioritised in the do-it-as-we-did-it-yesterday approach.

Mining the big pillars around unused shafts is very much part of Blyvoor Gold's mining plan, which is an initial 15-year plan.

But there are easily 50 years to mine in time, and a 100-year horizon in the total add-up.