Two South African mines have called in Australians to help with mechanised mining. Read on page 12 of this edition of Mining Weekly of gold mining company Gold Fields bringing in a 15-person technical team from Australia to pep up mechanisation at its lagging South Deep gold mine and, in an entirely separate move, platinum miner Northam Platinum bringing in different Australian expertise to upskill local operators at its Booysendal platinum mine, in Limpopo, which is fully mechanised. This follows the deployment of a single Australian showing definite face-advance improvement. More on this can be read at www.miningweekly.com. At South Deep, Australian Garry Mills has been appointed GM as Gold Fields goes all out to obtain a return on its R40-billion investment. At Northam, retiring CEO Glyn Lewis told Mining Weekly that local matric-level Limpopo recruits were being upskilled by the Australians to operate low-profile drilling machines. “To operate these drills proficiently takes between five and seven years and, hence, our employment of Australians,” Lewis told Mining Weekly.
While Australian help is being sought in South Africa, Russian help is being called into neighbouring Botswana, where Botswana Diamonds has deployed five senior geologists from Russian State-owned diamond group Alrosa. Read on page 22 of this edition of Mining Weekly of the Russians providing input at the PL117 licence project in Botswana’s Orapa region, their entry breaking a long tradition of De Beers-only skills being deployed in the diamond-rich country, where there is growing anxiety over the lack of new diamond discoveries. Perhaps, it is now the turn of the Russians to make the new discoveries using a different technology. Alrosa’s 17 Siberian mines last year produced 36.9-million carats, accounting for 25% of global diamond production.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is not ruling out fresh strike action at the Zondereinde platinum mine over unhappiness with the appointment of Paul Dunne as Northam Platinum’s new CEO, as can be read on Mining Weekly Online. NUM gave notice of its intention to mobilise against Dunne’s appointment at the weekend and warned that Dunne would be “baptised by fire”. In an official media release, the NUM accused Dunne of triggering a “tumultuous tide of turmoil” during his tenure at Impala Platinum. Dunne is due to take office tomorrow but with incumbent Lewis remaining on until June 30. As reported on Mining Weekly Online, on Friday, Northam blamed the recent 79-day strike at Zondereinde for its first operating loss since 1998 and said it had cost the company R750-million in unearned revenue. Unlike Northam’s Booysendal mine, which is fully mechanised, no mecha- nisation is envisaged at the complex Zondereinde mine, where the last bout of 11 weeks of striking lost employees R151-million in wages. In the six months to December 31, sales from Zondereinde fell 16.4% to 4 620 kg, with Booysendal delivering a below-par 1 138 kg.