South African government issues mining directive - The Northern Miner

South African government issues mining directive

The South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry has directed South African miners DRDGOLD (DROOY-N), Harmony Gold Mining (HMY-N) and AngloGold Ashanti (AU-N) to share the costs of pumping water from the Stillfontein and Buffelsfontein gold mines, in the Vaal River area.

This is an interim solution to a threat by DRDGOLD to stop pumping water from its North West mines. DRDGOLD closed the mines in March and applied to liquidate the properties.

The Harmony and Anglogold mines are downdip of DRDGOLD’s mines, and if pumping were to stop, underground water would flow into these mines and flood them. The pumping is expected to cost R51.6-85 million (US$8.3-13.6 million) per year.

AngloGold maintains that DRDGOLD is legally obliged to continue pumping.

AngloGold says the solution, with costs split three ways, is an emergency measure, and that is will work at finding a long-term solution.

Print

Be the first to comment on "South African government issues mining directive"

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*


By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. To learn more, click more information

Dear user, please be aware that we use cookies to help users navigate our website content and to help us understand how we can improve the user experience. If you have ideas for how we can improve our services, we’d love to hear from you. Click here to email us. By continuing to browse you agree to our use of cookies. Please see our Privacy & Cookie Usage Policy to learn more.

Close