[miningmx] — GOLD Fields’ Kloof-Driefontein complex (KDC) on the West Rand, one of
the country’s largest gold mines, will be exhausted by 2028.
A year ago, it was still estimated that the huge gold mine would continue until 2040.
But according to the group’s latest annual reserves estimate, about a quarter of the
reserves in the complex have been removed from the mine plan.
The reserves are gold that can be mined profitably at the current gold price after
allowance is made for the capital expenditure.
Reserves removed from the mine plan can therefore, according to Gold Fields, not be
mined profitably at the current cost structures.
The sharp fall in the reserves of the KDC complex, despite the higher gold price, is in
line with the trend at other SA gold mines which, in the midst of a gold bull market,
are also rationalising on a large scale because they are struggling to produce
profitably.
The result is that the country’s remaining gold mines are fading much faster than gold
is being removed from underground.
Driefontein and the neighbouring Kloof mine were amalgamated in 2010 to form KDC,
and the operations were rationalised to a large degree.
However, the amalgamation to a certain extent disguised the fact that Driefontein,
previously regarded as Gold Fields’ major long-term resource, was rapidly
deteriorating.
Now virtually all the ore underneath Driefontein’s existing infrastructure has been
removed from the mine plan – an indication that this ore can no longer be mined
profitably.
The underground gold reserves of Driefontein – now known as KDC West – were
reduced in the year from 11,85m fine ounces to just over 6,38m fine ounces. The
underground reserves of the old Kloof mine – now KDC East – were reduced from
7,94m to 6,95m fine ounces.
Gold Fields spokesman Sven Lunsche told Sake24 at the time of a
provisional-reserves estimate earlier in the year that these reserves could be included
in the mine plans later again.
Apart from KDC, Gold Fields has an attractive and growing portfolio of mines
elsewhere in the world, but the deterioration of such giant mines holds serious
consequences for employment in the sector as well as for the mines’ role as input
consumers.
According to the report issued on Monday, employment at the two KDC mines fell by
one-fifth, from 33,500 to 26,700 between 2009 and 2011.
The gold-mining industry currently still employs about 150,000 people.
When KDC’s large mine dumps are included in the reserves estimate, the figure
increases by 2.8m fine ounces.
The group has indicated that it is planning to form a mine-dump partnership with Gold
One International on the West Rand.
– Sake24
