JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Johannesburg- and New York-listed Gold Fields said on Friday that it is taking steps to set up its big South Deep gold mine on Gauteng’s West Rand for the long-term production of quality gold ounces at a time of strong gold prices.

With its significant long-life resource endowment, it has often been said of South Deep that it will be the last major gold mine in South Africa to turn its lights off.

Against that backdrop, sustainability-focused improvement measures are being implemented amid its below par performance of 117 000 oz in the six months to June 30.

Blamed for the half-year output being below the 152 000 oz that it yielded in the last year’s comparative half-year period are backfill rehandling challenges and poor ground conditions at this bulk mechanised mining operation located in the Witwatersrand basin, near Westonaria, 50 km south-west of Johannesburg.

Backfill seepage constrained access to stopes, while the backfill rehandling added complexity to the planning and mining process. Stope turnaround and delayed access to the higher-grade areas of the mine resulted from these impacts.

“We are making progress accelerating backfill placement to address the historic backfill leakage,” Gold Fields stated in a release to Mining Weekly, in which it pointed out various solutions to minimise backfill leakages going forward.

Other recovery activities are focused on improving long-hole stope drilling and overall productivity.

To set up the mine for an improved 2025 performance, 2024 production guidance has been reduced to the range of between 250 000 oz and 264 000 oz, with 2024 all-in sustaining costs (AISC) guidance lifted to $1 980/oz. Higher volumes are forecast to lower AISC in the six months to December 31.

Group gold mines that stood out in a period of half-year profit falling from $458-million to $389-million were Granny Smith and Agnew in Australia and Tarkwa and Damang in Ghana, and a gross interim dividend of R3 a share is payable on September 16.

In Australia, Gruyere’s mining and processing operations were suspended for six weeks following a significant rainfall event, and St Ives’ planned lower first-half production was further impacted by a delay in the development of two new opencast operations, Swiftsure and Invincible Footwall South.

In Peru, Cerro Corona’s inclement first-quarter weather affecting the stability of the north wall of the pit, resulting in a resequencing of mining to lower grade areas, resulted in the copper/gold price ratio also impacting the gold-equivalent production performance.

In Chile, the early onset of winter resulted in a slower-than-planned ramp-up at Salares Norte.

Regarding the Tarkwa/Iduapriem joint venture announced in March last year by Gold Fields and AngloGold Ashanti, what is described as “significant progress” has been made, Gold Fields CEO Mike Fraser reported.

Tragically, Gold Fields suffered two fatalities.