JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Surface gold mining company DRDGold announced on Thursday that work had resumed at reduced levels at the tailings miner's Ergo operation on the East Rand and also at its Far West Gold Recoveries operation.

At the Ergo operation, 34% of staff, working a two-shift cycle with a third on standby, were back at work and reclaiming material from four high-volume sites.

At the Far West Gold Recoveries operations, about 60% of staff, working the same shift cycle, are covering the reclamation, processing and disposal of material from the operation’s single reclamation site.

Although the law, on a technical interpretation, allowed for the continuation of operations during the lockdown, the director-general of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), in an exchange of correspondence between DRDGold CEO Niël Pretorius and his office, confirmed a very important qualification in this regard, namely that it be done in a way that ensured the health and safety of staff.

DRDGold took guidance on what such measures entailed from the guidelines published by the DMRE, the Department of Health and the Minerals Council South Africa.

The plan that had since been put in place to sustain essential services at the Ergo and Far West Gold Recoveries operations was designed to keep staff deployment densities to a minimum and in conformity with those recommendations, Pretorius stated.

It would seem, Pretorius stated, that the infection rate in South Africa had slowed considerably when compared with other countries on a similar infection trajectory at the time of lockdown.

While the lockdown was the correct thing to do, and deserving of recognition and support, it came at considerable cost to the economy and the social wellbeing of millions of South Africans.

Therefore, it was important that now, more than ever, South Africans all played their part to ensure that the decision of President Cyril Ramaphosa, and the sacrifice of the people of South Africa, met with the right behaviour and the desired outcome.

“The containment of transmissions during the initial stages of the pandemic was nothing short of remarkable. Further containment is now in our own hands, and it would be a tragedy if we allowed the situation to get away from us through indifference, carelessness or ignorance.

“It would nullify all the effort and sacrifice and we would be faced with a real predicament of a large part of society having endured considerable hardship, their defences down, only to be hit by a wave of infections.

“Several institutions and businesses are virtually on their knees and at risk of closure. It is essential for their survival that we build on this early success to get a relaxation of the lockdown as soon as possible, ” Pretorius emphasised in a media release to Mining Weekly.

DRDGold, which recovers gold from the retreatment of surface tailings, provided jobs for 2 304 people at the end of its 2018 financial year, including 878 permanent employees.

The remaining 1 426 people worked for the specialist service providers engaged by the company to provide the expertise required for tailings reclamation and tailings dam management.

The company produced 150 423 oz of gold,  generated R2 490.4-million in revenue, spent R1 452.7-million on capital projects including property, plant and equipment, and rehabilitated 191 ha of land for redevelopment in its 2018 financial year, when mineral resources of 7.3-million ounces and mineral reserves of 3.3-million ounces were declared.