JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Platinum mining and marketing company Implats said on Friday that it would be establishing a mechanism to enable members of its board, the group executive committee and all employees to donate up to one-third of their salaries over the next three months.

The donations, including those received from our international operations, would, at the donor’s election, either be paid into the Solidarity Fund, established to improve prevention and detection of Covid-19 and cushion the impact of the pandemic on the country’s most vulnerable citizens, or be used to provide care and support to its mine host communities.

The JSE-listed company, headed by CEO Nico Muller, said that the mechanism heeded the call by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Cabinet, and their demonstrated leadership in action, of themselves donating one-third of their salary for three months into the Solidarity Fund.

Implats said it supported the lockdown measures taken by national government to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and welcomed the amended regulations.

The amended regulations would assist in securing critical mining infrastructure and mitigate the severe impact of these measures on the lives and livelihoods of employees, host communities and suppliers, Implats stated in a news release to Mining Weekly.

Since January, its internal planning had been ongoing to secure operational resilience during the coronavirus pandemic.

Its approach was based on the view that the virus would be a feature for some time and operating in a ‘business as usual’ environment would not be possible in the near term.

Implats’ primary focus had thus been on protecting the lives and livelihoods of its stakeholders by taking steps to secure and sustain the financial viability of the group and support the national economies of the countries in which it operated.

All of the company’s South African operations, embracing Impala Rustenburg mining, processing and refining and Marula mining and concentrating, had  been successful ramped down and placed on care and maintenance from Thursday, March 26.

Limited operating activities had continued at its critical smelting and refining infrastructure and care and maintenance had been performed on underground operations during the initial 21-day lockdown period.

This allowed furnaces to be secured by treating some in-process inventory during this period. Delivery of precious metals to customers had been constrained by the unavailability of secure air freight during the lockdown, while base metal sales had been impeded by road and port restrictions.

In terms of the April 16 amendment to the regulations and these directives, mining operations would now conduct activities at a reduced capacity of not more than 50% during the extended lockdown period, subject to the implementation of specified precautionary measures aimed at protecting employees and limiting the spread of the virus.

Once the provisions of the lockdown had been lifted, operations would be allowed to ramp up capacity further as determined by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.

Muller said Implats remained committed to engaging with all its stakeholders as it navigated through the challenges presented by the evolving Covid-19 pandemic.

“We’ve been working tirelessly since the emergence of the virus, to safeguard our employees and ensure the sustainability of our company. We’ve significantly strengthened the preventative safety and health measures put in place and we’re ready for a safe and orderly start up once we are given the go ahead to resume full-scale production at our operations,” he added.