Where is grootvlei mine

Search label Search Search. Add to cart. Share link. Contact us about this report Close Contact us Submit your details to receive further information about this report. S Minor Outlying Islands U. Consent Please keep me informed about Wood Mackenzie products, services and events. For details on how your data is used and stored, see our Privacy Notice. Report summary In the mine was acquired from Harmony by Petra Mining, owner of the neighbouring Nigel operation, which is included in the analysis shown here from onwards.

Table of contents Mining Process. Tables and charts No table or charts specified. Other reports you may be interested in. Jones and Wagener suggested a canal be built to reduce ingress volumes and to significantly reduce the volume of AMD and the amount of pumping and treatment required.

But as another study felt that the canal would negatively affect the Blesbokspruit, it was not built Palmer et al. No other plans to limit surface water ingress were ever tabled. By the s, gold mining on the East Rand was in decline. During the s, GenGold Ltd.

By October , the volume and the cost of pumping and treatment of what was essentially the entire Eastern Basin overwhelmed Grootvlei and massive volumes of untreated AMD between 75 and 80 megalitres per day flowed into the Blesbokspruit McCarthy The result was salination of the soil within the region and a decrease in water quality Thorius In late , a second dewatering permit was issued but stipulated that Grootvlei had to install six iron and sulphate settling ponds and a HDS water treatment plant to remove metal contaminants Fourie ; Lea et al.

Despite this, the water still contained high levels of sulphates. Once the HDS plant was fully operational, Grootvlei was issued a third permit to legalise the discharge of this partially treated water into the Blesbokspruit Lea et al.

In , Harmony Gold Pty Ltd. Soon thereafter in Petrex Pty Ltd. Pamodzi Gold Ltd. Things did not go well, and by early , Pamodzi Gold Ltd. With Pamodzi Gold Ltd. At this point, the South African government committed to spending at least R2.

One reason for the delay in payments may be owing to Grootvlei failing to submit external laboratory certified water quality reports. Cash-flow problems had resulted in the laboratory been unpaid; consequently, they refused to do more work for the mine. Consequently, the AMD concentrations in the Blesbokspruit worsened. By late , Pamodzi Gold Ltd. Many employees were put on unpaid leave, whereas others were on a work stoppage over non-payment of wages.

Six liquidators were appointed. At the time, financial backing was said to be coming from Malaysia and the Middle East. The mine also suffered from intermittent work stoppages, as miners downed tools demanding their salaries. Both Solidarity and another trade union, the National Union of Mineworkers NUM , claimed that Aurora either underpaid or failed to pay its estimated employees. As the mine appeared to be bereft of any on-site managers, shop stewards were forced to engage directly with the liquidators.

Trade unions were by now openly expressing their unhappiness with the situation. At the behest of the unions, a management and gold sales audit was undertaken. By June , roughly pump station workers downed tools over non-payment. Aurora management again persuaded the workers to return to work on the promise of payment.

Despite the urgency with which AMD pumping and treatment needed to be undertaken, by mid, the six of the virtually new heavy duty pumps were removed by Aurora, who claimed the pumps had to be relocated to a higher level to protect them from possible flooding of the shaft Bell The pumps were never reinstalled.

As Grootvlei only had two pumps left, by July only 40 megalitres of AMD was being pumped per day, causing the mine to flood. In August when it was apparent that this had not occurred, Aurora said it needed to repair the pumping equipment, but pumping at full capacity would resume within days and the electricity to do so had been secured from Eskom.

Mine management denied that untreated AMD was flowing into the Blesbokspruit. Owing to the ongoing non-payment of wages, Solidarity requested an insolvency inquiry relating to the activities of the directors of Aurora and their business consultants.

By early , only a handful of employees remained. It is just a matter of time. During this time, the Chinese deal fell though and so Aurora was unable to come up with the required funding to pay for Grootvlei. Nevertheless, the High Court gave the directors yet another extension until 16 August to come up with the money. In May , Solidarity lodged a liquidation application against Aurora, for a sum of R3. Subsequently, it was claimed that DWA was proceeding with the criminal case, with respect to the AMD pollution, with charges having been laid and advice being sought if the directors and the liquidators should be charged as well Balzer, Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Water and Environmental Affairs, AMD public hearings 20 June The new liquidators denied that they could be held criminally liable, maintaining that they had done all that was necessary to ensure that AMD from Grootvlei would not enter the surface water.

Grootvlei was so irreversibly stripped of equipment and vandalised that it could not be revived as a mine. Thus, most of the environmental liabilities fell to the State. A smaller claim for R Failure to do so meant that Aurora faced a claim of R1. At the same time, Sections , and hearing into Aurora went ahead.

Judge Bertelsmann finally made the transcripts of the insolvency enquiry public in August The case against the Aurora directors was postponed several times. The case was finally heard in and Judge Bertlesmann ordered that the Aurora directors be held jointly and severally liable, in their personal and private capacities, for the damages to the mine.

The liquidators are now pursuing the directors and managers for the Aurora debt of R1. Grootvlei was historically a financially marginal mine because of frequent flooding, declining gold ore reserves and volatile gold prices.

Thus, Grootvlei often required capital injections and was ill placed to deal with the cost of an AMD problem generated by the entire Eastern Basin. This was most certainly an indication of mine managers trying to contain costs. The Department of Labour briefed the Committee on the background to and progress of the case arising out of non-payment of wages and salaries at the Aurora Grootvlei Mine in Springs.

A number of the workers were retrenched at this point, but those who were not continued to work for Aurora. From December there had been problems with payment of the whole or a portion of bonuses, wages and salaries.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed, in terms of which Aurora management agreed to pay by certain dates, but it failed to adhere to this. The Department of Labour had formerly issued a Compliance Notice, which was also ignored. The Department then launched a Labour Court case on behalf of the employees, claiming the wages and salaries outstanding.

Aurora indicated that it would oppose the matter, yet in July requested a meeting, with the Department and unions, which it then failed to attend. The Department had then started to obtain affidavits from every traceable worker, to validate the claims in respect of outstanding wages.

Some workers remained untraceable despite efforts by the Department, via the employer, the trade unions and word of mouth, as some were migrant workers, but so far it had obtained about half of the necessary affidavits and was continuing with this task.

Another briefing by the Regional Executive for Gauteng noted that during the taking of the affidavits, the appalling living conditions at the mine had become apparent, which included lack of sanitation, lack of water, no cooking facilities, and health risks.

In addition, Aurora management, despite deducting Unemployment Fund contributions, had failed to pay these over, and was also in breach of South African Revenue Services and Occupational Health and Safety requirements. The Department was assisting with prosecution on these issues.

Members were unhappy that the current reports by the Department did not seem to reflect the current situation and asked that an updated written report must be presented. They questioned why the Department appeared to have dragged its feet, why it was concentrating now on UIF issues, why it was apparently having so much difficulty in tracing people, and why the Department had agreed to a meeting with Aurora despite the Court process.

Members also questioned the number of employees, how many were affected by retrenchment, what the position of the liquidators was, and whether there had been compliance with the Labour Relations Act on liquidation of the former employer, so that the correct employer was cited. Members noted that this was probably not an isolated incident and that other mines were probably also not compliant. They asked what findings the Minister had reached, why the decision was taken to exclude some employees, and how many would be affected, and questioned why the Department of Mineral Resources was not present at the meeting to address issues around the conditions at the mine.

An updated document must be presented to the Committee within a week. Aurora Grootvlei Mine issues: Department of Labour DoL briefing The Chairperson reminded the delegation that recently the Committee had learned that the mine management at Aurora Grootvlei Mine in Springs the mine was alleged to have been neglected to pay salaries or wages to its labourers, and the matter was then taken to the Labour Court.

Mr Sam Morotoba, Acting Director General, Department of Labour, reported that his team had been working on putting together this presentation, including inviting the trade unions, with whom the Department had been working, also to comment. Ms Siyanda Zondeki, Deputy Director General, Department of Labour, started by giving some background to the problem of unpaid wages and salaries at the mine. The mine was previously operated by Pamodzi Grootvlei Mine, who went into liquidation.

An arrangement with the liquidators resulted in Aurora Gold taking over the operations of Pamodzi. In February various newspaper articles reported on the non-payment of wages and salaries at the Aurora Mine in Springs, Gauteng, which the Gauteng Province noted and acted upon.

Together with NUM and Solidarity, the Labour Department determined that a whole range of wages and salaries were outstanding as 23 March Ms Zondeki said that when no firm agreement on the payment of wages and salaries could be reached with Aurora Mine management, the inspectors issued a compliance order to Mr Louis Bezuidenhout, the General Manager of Aurora Gold East Mine, on 31 March She said that when such a compliance order was issued, it gave the mine management a certain number of days within which to comply.

All arrear March salaries and wages must be paid by 29 April Certain payments were paid, but some were still outstanding. The outstanding salaries amounted to R4 Nothing had been paid to March salaries, and R6 was outstanding. Nothing had been paid towards March Wages, of which R4 was outstanding. Ms Zondeki said that, as a result of Aurora neglecting to adhere to the MOU, the Department took a decision to refer the case to the Court. In this, the DoL was claiming R16 plus interest, on behalf of the workers.

Aurora Gold responded that they intended to oppose the matter. However, neither Aurora Gold nor its legal representatives turned up for the meeting and tendered no apologies. NUMSA and Solidarity continued with the meeting, in which it was determined that payments were made to some workers, but that details as to who these workers were and how much was paid could not be established.

The meeting therefore agreed that the DoL should continue with the Labour Court case, although it must now review the original amounts and make the necessary corrections. Ms Zondeki said that it was also agreed at this meeting that all workers who were earning above the threshold would be excluded from the claim. NUMSA and Solidarity, as well as the representatives of the non-aligned workers, agreed to obtain and submit the necessary information to the DoL. The Department had made its inspectors available to assist workers with the preparation and calculation of the outstanding amounts.

Unfortunately, many of the workers had since left the mine and could not be traced. The Department was processing and checking the documents received and hoped that more would be received. All information had been forwarded to the UIF to assist it in recovering arrear contributions and penalties from Aurora. However, at this stage none of the workers were eligible for UIF benefits, as they had not been formally retrenched, and the mine management had not provided any clarity regarding termination of services.

Ms Zondeki then tabled another slide which showed the monies now outstanding, as at 18 August As well as amounts mentioned before, there were also unpaid salaries and wages for May, June and July see attached presentation for details.

DoL had sent a team of inspectors and other officials to take individual complaints and calculate amounts outstanding, including other benefits like leave pay. UIF officials would check whether each worker was now declared on the system and obtain relevant information for UIF applications.