FREE STATE STRUGGLES WITH GOLD GEOLOGY AND ILLEGAL MINERS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 001145 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE PLEASE PASS USAID STATE PLEASE PASS USGS DEPT FOR AF/S, EEB/ESC AND CBA DOE FOR SPERL AND PERSON DOC FOR ITA/DIEMOND E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EMIN ELAB ENRG KHIV SF SUBJECT: FREE STATE STRUGGLES WITH GOLD GEOLOGY AND ILLEGAL MINERS REF: A) Pretoria 842 B) 08 Pretoria 565 PRETORIA 00001145 001.5 OF 002 This cable is not for Internet distribution. ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Gold-mining in the Free State Province is emblematic of broad challenges in profitably mining gold in South Africa. Controlling costs, managing labor, assuring safety and power, and exploiting remaining low-grade deposits are difficulties that have caused South Africa's production and ranking to slip over time (Reftels). The Free State was once a significant contributor to South Africa's ample production, but gold-mining there is in decline as high-grade deposits have been depleted. Harmony Gold is selectively developing and operating brown- and green-field production around the Welkom area, but illegal mining is an incessant problem given abundant abandoned, interconnected shafts, nagging unemployment, and relatively high gold prices. The bodies of 81 illegal miners were recently recovered from a derelict Harmony shaft, apparently afflicted by an underground fire. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) Minerals/Energy Officer and Specialist went underground at two of Harmony Gold's Welkom, Free State mines - Target and Phakisa - on May 27-28. The Embassy team visited with Harmony Free State Chief Operations Officer Tom Smith in Welkom and earlier in the month at the Johannesburg offices of Harmony's BEE partner African Rainbow Minerals (ARM). -------------- Harmony Targets Low-Grade Deposits -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Harmony Gold is one of the largest gold producers in South Africa, accounting for about one-third of the gold produced in the country. Harmony specializes in reinvigorating mature gold mines of marginal profitability by applying low-cost methods of extraction and refining for low-grade gold deposits in the Free State and Northwest Provinces. COO Tom Smith told Minerals/Energy Officer that 43 percent of Harmony's shareholders are in the U.S. The largest shareholder at 16 percent is the BEE company ARM, thereby allowing the company to comply with BEE and Mining Charter requirements for black ownership. The company is also developing gold mines in Papua New Guinea and Australia. ¶4. (SBU) Target Gold Mine encompasses a number of legacy mines north of Welkom around the site of the first discovery of gold in the then Orange Free State in the 1940s. The deep-level mining currently occurs around 2,500 meters underground, targeting the El Dorado reef mineralization. The Harmony Target Mine employs a unique "massive" mining approach to exploit areas where a number of economic gold-bearing reefs have been compressed and up-turned. The company uses remote loaders in 15-25-meter dimensioned underground chambers to assure safety from rock falls and fragmentation. (Note: most deep South African mines use hand hydraulic drills to mine narrow reefs. End Note.) The Target mine mined and processed 622,000 tons of ore to produce 2,644 kilograms of gold in 2008. The Embassy team also witnessed the pouring of the final gold product QEmbassy team also witnessed the pouring of the final gold product into 23-kilogram, 90-percent gold bars, which are sent to the company's refinery in Johannesburg. ¶5. (SBU) The Embassy team also visited the newly developed Phakisa mine where management has devised some innovative projects, including a "rail-veyor" for shipping the gold ore underground to the hoisting shaft and a specialized ice plant for cooling of the mine working areas. Harmony management at both mines described the company's demonstrable commitment to worker safety and the company's commitment to manage mine development and operations to control costs. They were frustrated with the combativeness of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the high cost of labor in the mining sector (about 60 percent of operating costs). Both mines' deposits exhibit unique challenges in profitably developing and exploiting the mines. The neighboring mines of the Pamodzi Mining Company are PRETORIA 00001145 002.3 OF 002 suffering a painful liquidation affecting thousands of workers, showing that management has little room for error in controlling costs and financing. Harmony is considering bidding on the liquidated assets. Both mines' management said that HIV/AIDS was a dire problem, estimating prevalence at 20 percent. They said that some locals were "denialist" in their approach to the risks associated with HIV/AIDS, as well as to the risks associated with illegal mining. -------------- -- Illegal Mining Highlighted by Rising Death Toll -------------- -- ¶6. (SBU) Harmony officials complained about the growing and difficult problem of illegal or - as they label it - criminal mining. The Free State is particularly susceptible to this threat, because of the presence of interconnected, derelict and current mine-shafts and high-carbonized gold reefs. Harmony claims it is difficult to keep the illegals out of the shafts because they are abetted and fed by legal workers. Over the past week, 81 dead illegal miners have been brought to the surface and 294 illegals have been criminally charged, in a sensational incident reportedly related to an underground fire in an abandoned Harmony shaft. Harmony has already been adopting measures to combat this problem, such as tightened security, improved access control, and daily search operations underground. Harmony has made clear that the safety of its workers is its top consideration and it has refused to send its workers into risky areas to search for illegals - alive or dead. New Mining Minister Susan Shabangu visited Welkom and she and labor unions called for a probe and a multi-stakeholder task force to address this incident and the long-term problem. Smith told Minerals/Energy Officer that rising unemployment and high gold prices have fed illegal mining by both locals and foreigners from Lesotho and Mozambique. A Lesotho official said one-third of the dead illegal miners were from Lesotho. Mine employees are tempted to profit by abetting the activities. He said it was difficult to quantify, but as much as 100 tons of gold per year is reportedly exploited by organized criminal syndicates. He complained that the unions often are more concerned about protecting the rights and interests of criminal miners than legitimate mining. Most recently, Harmony announced the suspension of 57 of its permanent staff for illegally processing gold. ¶7. (SBU) Comment: The Free State's historic mines show-case two huge challenges, both with great public relations risks - illegal mining and legacy tailings with environmental consequences. Harmony appears to be working hard to manage these issues, but they add to the existing threats of rising costs, labor complaints, and volatile gold prices. Huge capital investment and operating costs are evidenced by Harmony's average yield of 4-6 grams of gold per ton of processed ore. This is an immense rock-moving (from deep in the Qprocessed ore. This is an immense rock-moving (from deep in the earth),milling, and processing business and margins are at risk from both ends - rising costs and volatile prices. The Free State faces declining production and employment, but Harmony intends to keep extending the life of its mines, so there will remain some gold-mining for the foreseeable future. La Lime