Harmony Gold Mining Co. is considering digging deeper into the ground at the world's deepest Gold mine, as South African producers find it increasingly difficult to tap dwindling ore reserves, Bloomberg News reported Feb. 24, 2021.
Peter Steenkamp, chief executive of Harmoni, said the company was looking into mining gold at Mponeng at depths deeper than the current 4km, which could extend the life of the mine by 20 to 30 years.
He believes there are "huge" deposits beyond that depth and that Harmony is exploring the methods and investments needed to develop them.
Harmony gold mine company is South Africa's only several squeeze profits from aging assets, one of the producers of the black billionaire Patrice Motsepe Rainbow's Africa mining co., Ltd (substitutes Rainbow Minerals ltd.) supported, last year from Anglo gold company (AngloGold Ashanti Ltd) acquired wave can gold mine and its assets, become the largest gold producer in South Africa.
Harmony on Tuesday reported a more than fourfold increase in first-half profit.
The company aims to maintain annual production at the Mponeng mine at around 250,000 ounces (7 tons), which may help maintain the company's total production at around 1.6 million ounces (45.36 tons).
However, as drilling deepens, so does the risk of seismic events and the death of workers trapped underground.
The company said six workers died in mine accidents during its operations between June and December last year.
The mporneng world class gold mine is the deepest mine in the world and one of the largest and highest grade gold mines.
The mine is located in the northwest margin of the Witwatersrand Basin in the North West Province of South Africa. It is a Rand-type paleoconglomerate type gold-uranium deposit.
As of December 2019, proven and potential ore reserves of Mpeng Gold Mine are approximately 36.19 million tons, with a gold grade of 9.54g/t and containing approximately 11 million ounces (345 tons) of gold reserves.
The Mponeng mine produced 224,000 ounces (6.92 tons) of gold in 2019.
South Africa's gold industry, once the world's largest, has shrunk as the cost of mining deep deposits has increased and geology has become more difficult.
South Africa's Gold industry produced 91 tons of Gold last year and now employs just 93,000 people, as big producers such as Anglo Gold Corp. and Gold Fields Ltd. shift their focus to other lucrative deposits in Africa, Australia and the Americas.
