As almost all of South Africa’s gold mines are underground operations, the lockdown essentially brought this sector to a halt for some time, says independent consulting firm of engineers and scientists SRK Consulting.
The lifting of restrictions has been marked by disruptions — and some stoppages — that are making it difficult for gold mining to build momentum, says SRK director and principal consultant Andrew van Zyl.
Steady-state production is clearly much more efficient than intermittent activity — resulting from mines' response to infections being detected and addressed — which will inevitably characterise production in the short term, he adds. “The industry is in a complicated adjustment period, which includes interactions with unions and mine communities to address the outbreaks and decide on responses. This is usually time- consuming and will hamper efforts to return to pre-lockdown productivity levels.
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