COVID-19

Pan African restarts tailings plants

Pan African Resources expects only a limited impact from the virus outbreak on production.

The Elikhulu project in South Africa

The Elikhulu project in South Africa

Mining Magazine is making some of its most important coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic freely available to readers. For more coverage, please see our COVID-19 hub. To subscribe to Mining Magazine, click here.

The Elikhulu and Barberton tailings retreatment plants have been producing at close to full capacity from early May. These fall under the country's "level-four" regulations, a downgrade from the 'level-five' hard lockdown, which since May 1 have allowed opencast mines and surface operations to operate at up to 100% of normal capacity.

The group expects gold production for this year to be revised down to about 176,000oz, only 5% lower than the previous guided production of 185,000oz.

The impact from restrictions was mitigated by the group's ability to increase output from surface toll treatment and low-grade surface stockpile processing initiatives, in substitution of underground production.

The group also continued mining activities at surface operations with reduced staffing as well as limited high-grade underground mining at Barberton Mines.

"We have implemented preventative and precautionary measures at our operations to ensure the health and well-being of employees as they return to work, and we look forward to working with all stakeholders in the operational ramp-up," said Cobus Loots, chief executive of Pan African Resources.

"The strategic repositioning of our group some years ago, as a safe and high-margin producer with multiple operations and the flexibility to withstand short-term external shocks, should continue to serve all stakeholders well."

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Magazine Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Magazine Intelligence team.

editions

ESG Mining Company Index: Benchmarking the Future of Sustainable Mining

The ESG Mining Company Index report provides an in-depth evaluation of ESG performance of 61 of the world's largest mining companies. Using a robust framework, it assesses each company across 9 meticulously weighted indicators within 6 essential pillars.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Exploration Report 2024 (feat. Opaxe data)

A comprehensive review of exploration trends and technologies, highlighting the best intercepts and discoveries and the latest initial resource estimates.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Future Fleets Report 2024

The report paints a picture of the equipment landscape and includes detailed profiles of mines that are employing these fleets

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Digitalisation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations that use digitalisation technology to drive improvements across all areas of mining production