Given the current shortage of reserves of this metal, and high demand which has suite due to financial crisis, South Africa has decided to dig deeper . Currently there are few profitable gold mines, so we are studying the possibility of much deeper wells than any available today. How much are we talking about? little over 5000 meters.
For this ambitious project to succeed it must take into account various factors and associated problems, such as the possibility of rock slides, floods, ventilation issues, and others most at risk such as earthquakes, explosions of rock and gas discharges, among other problems.
One of the deepest mines is currently the Mponeng , which is located at a depth of 4,000 meters, is owned by AngloGold Ltd. Asganti its executive director, Mark Cutifani, said the expansion of this complex over 1,000 meters.
To accomplish the task, the company AngloGold has brought together 30 companies, including those at General Electric and 3M to develop technology enabling miners Mponeng reach these depths.
The decline of gold mining in South Africa began in 2006 and has remained at a steady pace since then, the reserves are still low and the quality of the deposits as well. South Africa, which not long ago was the first gold producer worldwide, has been lowering its position and in 2009 stood at 4th place surpassed by China, U.S. and Australia . The South African gold production fell 5.8% in 2009 to 204,922 kilos of metal, according to the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, an industry body.
Not only AngloGold plans to start digging deeper, in a statement of Gold Fields Ltd., the second largest extractor of gold in South Africa, reported that they also plan to start digging deep.
Another factor that has stifled the South African mining industry is the rising costs as workers have begun to demand wage increases of more than 10% and rising energy prices by 25% over the past 3 years. The only downside to this has been the increase in gold prices, which doubled in price over the last 4 years, but while the industry is still stuck, net earnings were not expected.
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