The bullish trend of the gold price opens the way for new
developments and projects in the South Africa gold industry.
So asserts gold-mining giant Gold Fields Ltd (GFL) CEO Ian
Cockerill.
“The medium-term future of South African gold-mining is more
positive than it has been for some time,” he affirms.
“I think that at these gold prices, and, if one assumes
we’re moving into a higher price range – and we seem to
be – it does make it more attractive for the industry to
consider longer-term investments,” he points out.
“material mixture equipmentsI think it means that a lot of companies will start dusting
off projects that were previously not viable but will now be
viable,” he forecasts.
There is, however, a key precon-dition. “It’s simply an
issue of controlling costs, managing margins, and increasing
profits,” stresses Cockercalcite powder machinery supplierill.
“There is still a lot of gold here in South Africa;
it’s a matter of cost-effectively developing the means of
exploiting that gold.
“The key is managing the margins through innovative,
cost-effective and safe means,” urges Cockerill.
“I thisand mining agents in hyderabadnk that there is a very real possibility that in future
decades gold-mining in South Africa will be very different,”
he says.
“Very deep mining is likely to be different to current
mining.
“It will, perhaps, require more technology; it will certainly
require innovation, compared mobile crusher plant dolerite bouldersto what we do today,” he
affirms.
But perhaps Cockerill’s key phrase is “future
decades”.
“I certainly hope that gold will still be mined in South
Africa for decades to come,” he asserts.
GFL already has development projects for its Soutstone crusher project in the philippinesh African
operations in the pipeline, although these are aimed at replacing
ounces of gold already mined, not increasing total reserves –
still, these projects will extend the lives of the mines concerned
by years, if not longer.
The Driefontein Drop-down pro-ject and the Kloof Extension Area
(KEA) project have already been submitted to the board for
approval; both involve developing the existing mines below their
current infrastructure.
The Driefontein Drop-down project would see that mine’s No 9
shaft deepened from its current 3 060 m to 3 831 m.
The KEA project would involve continuing the excavation of Kloof No
4 shaft’s Three D subvertical shaft for an extra 337 m over
and above the original plan; this would take operations at Kloof
down to a depth of 3 554 m.
The conclusion of these projects should give GFL access to some
10-million ounces of gold.
Additionally, in the longer term, the company could exploit
10,9-mil-lion ounces in the Elsburg area of Kloof. The group has
further increased its stake in Western Areas to 18%; Western Areas
owns 50% of South Deep, which possesses one of the biggest and
richest gold orebodies in the world today, but also one of the
deepest.