Opening of mine could increase gold production

Frank Nxumalo
The opening of the Ndlovu Shaft in Modderfontein on the East Rand and the recent acquisition of Orkney and President Steyn gold mines by black South African junior gold miner Pamodzi Gold will help lift production to 1 million ounces a year over the next two years from the 135 000 ounces presently.

The company made the announcement today during the release of its first quarter results for 2008 in Johannesburg.

In South Africa junior miners refer to mining houses with a market capitalisation of less than R1 billion. The company reported a net operating loss of R104 million after taxation for the quarter which included a foreign exchange loss of R56 million. However, a strategic approach to operational challenges saw Pamodzi Gold cut its operating loss for the quarter by 71% compared with the previous operating loss of R24.4 million.

Safety first
Pamodzi Gold chief operations officer, Tony Murdoch Eaton, explained that although both Orkney and President Steyn mines were 'stressed' or marginal assets when they acquired them only recently, this critical success was achieved on the back of a strategic approach the company calls the 'Pamodzi Culture'.

He said the 'Pamodzi Culture' was an operational philosophy that was grounded on a focus on profits rather than cost savings and which placed a high premium on workforce safety. "If you have to make money by spending money on safety then you have to spend that money on safety," Murdoch Eaton said. "We don't do production at all costs, we stop sections, and we stop shafts if they are not safe enough to work in."

Murdoch Eaton's sentiments were corroborated by the chairperson of Pamodzi Holdings, Ndaba Ntsele - the parent company of Pamodzi Gold - who said that “effective safety management is a non-negotiable principle at all Pamodzi mining operations.”

"We have continued in this quarter to focus on meeting our deliverables, driving growth, development, profitability and safety for our operations, which remain at the core of the company's mining ethos," Ntsele said.