Gold mining company Gold Fields has brought in a technical team from Australia to pep up the mechanised mining at its lagging South Deep gold mine on the West Rand.

Surface infrastructure is in place at the mine but it lacks sufficient ore from underground.

Australian Garry Mills, formerly of Gold Fields’ Agnew mine, in Australia, has been appointed the new GM of the behind-schedule South Deep, where the JSE-listed Gold Fields is going all out to eke out a return on the R40-billion that it has invested in the long-life mine that is expected to be producing beyond 2070.

Gold Fields hopes to draw on the experience of the technical team of 15 from Australia, who are well versed in mechanised underground mining, a rarity in labour-intensive South Africa.

Some 2 500 people were retrenched when the decision was taken to fully mecha- nise five years ago.

“It’s a world-class orebody and we must make sure we can deliver,” Mills told Mining Weekly, which formed part of a visiting analyst and media contingent that was taken through South Deep’s impressive simulator – and mock-mine-endowed training facilities, which have been established for the mine’s 5 155 employees, a complement that will rise with full production in 2018 – a year later than previously planned.

Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland expressed confidence that South Deep would reach its required production levels with the help of the Australian team and announced that a follow-up analyst and media visit would take place in August.

“South Deep has got the orebody and it’s got the machines – it’s now down to the performance of the human resource,” Cadiz Corporate Solutions mining head Peter Major commented to Mining Weekly.

The Australians have committed to staying for a two-year period with the option to extend that to three years.

Required is production of 330 000 t a month, which is currently down at 120 000 t to 150 000 t a month.

South Deep’s new full production target for 2018 is between 650 000 oz and 700 000 oz a year, compared with the previous production target of 700 000 oz, a change that follows a six-month review of the mine, earmarked under previous ownership as an operation capable of yielding 850 000 oz a year.

The building of the mine has been kept to within 12% of stated cost targets and output in 2013 was 302 000 oz, 12% up on 2012.

The 2014 production target is 360 000 oz.

“We need to more than double production over the next four years,” said Holland.

Johannesburg Consolidated Investments first tried its hand at South Deep, and then Canadian gold companies Placer Dome and Barrick Gold took over.

Gold Fields acquired South Deep from Western Areas in December 2006 and, under its ownership, management of the mine has changed several times and considerable amounts of money have been spent on consultants, who have left the mine with a complex mining method that could be straightened out under the new Australian technical team.

The 650 000 oz to 700 000 oz a year that South Deep is now targeting by the end of 2017 will represent a quarter of Gold Fields’ output.

The fully mechanised mine has 39.1-million reserve ounces and is looking to produce at an all-in cost of $1 000/oz at full capacity.

The project comprises a main shaft and a ventilation shaft – collectively referred to as the Twin Shaft complex, which has a combined hoisting capacity of 330 000 t/m of ore.

The main shaft was completed in 2004 and comprises a single drop to a depth of 2 995 m.

The ventilation shaft has been deepened from 2 760 m to about 2 950 m and is fully equipped with ore-storage silos and conveyor belts at the shaft bottom, a new rock winder and new headgear.

The mine’s headgear at the vent shaft was completed in 2011 using one of the largest fabricated steel headgear frames in the world.

The South Deep metallurgical plant, which was commissioned in November 2012, has also been expanded and has increased processing capacity from 220 000 t/m to 330 000 t/m.

Between 2010 and 2012, the mine completed the construction of the centralised tailings storage facility, installed infrastructure around the shaft systems and progressed to full plant tailings backfill for increased production levels.