JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold mining company Pan African Resources has ramped up support for its 2 600 Barberton Mines employees as well as the local communities with R3-million expenditure on hygiene, water and food hampers to the Fairview, Consort and Sheba operations, plus an additional allocation to near-mine families in need.

The London- and Johannesburg-listed company has been engaging with relevant ministries and regulatory bodies to ensure that its policies and procedures were in line with government requirements.

“In this time of crisis, we recognise the economic and social hardships that communities and employees are experiencing during the national lockdown, and we’ll continue to implement support programmes, in addition to our existing initiatives, to alleviate these hardships,” Pan African CEO Cobus Loots stated in a news release to Mining Weekly.

Despite the difficult circumstances, Loots said he was heartened by the manner in which business and government were working together at present.

A constructive relationship with its primary regulator, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, was being maintained, as well as with local authorities of influence. 

Its surface gold operations as a whole were functioning at 70% of normal production capacity, but with only 26% of the workforce, the company said in a stock exchange news service announcement last week. The limited workforce has enabled the company to adhere to physical distancing, hygiene and other mandated protocols.

Barberton’s underground and administrative personnel have been significantly scaled down, operating at a mere 20% of underground and less than 3% of administration personnel.

Should the operations have ceased altogether, it could have taken up to three months to resume gold production, which would have had a huge knock-on effect on forecasts and projects, employee numbers, as well as the economic injection that Barberton Mines provides to host communities.

“When we emerge from this crisis, the South African economy will be heavily dependent on businesses like ours to provide employment and generate foreign currency earnings, and we are confident that Barberton Mines will be well positioned to resume full-scale operations and generate sustainable benefits for all,” said Loots.

Production for the first six months of Pan African's 2020 financial year to end December 2019 was 92 941 oz at an all-in sustaining cost of $1 113/oz.