Following the amendment of South Africa’s government regulations on Thursday 16th April, miners in the country can now operate at a 50 percent capacity amid a nationwide lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
The amended regulations allow mines to restart and ramp up capacity depending on conditions including the screening of employees for COVID-19 symptoms, the availability of quarantine facilities and transport arrangements for workers.
Since the announcement of the lockdown, miners have been requesting the government to allow them to resume production with controls in place to detect and contain the virus. The South African government had ordered most underground mines and furnaces to be put under care and maintenance during the lockdown, exempting coal mines that supply the state power utility Eskom.
Mines Minister Gwede Mantashe told a news conference that the government knew there were risks if some deep-level mines were closed for an extended period. “In the amendment we are identifying a risk, particularly in deep mining, (that) if they are left alone for a long time the stability of the ground gets tampered with,” he said.
In over a decade, South Africa’s political social and economic landscape has been dominated by mining, given that the sector has been the mainstay of the South African economy. Although gold, diamonds, platinum and coal are the most well-known among the minerals and metals mined, South Africa also hosts chrome, vanadium, titanium and a number of other lesser minerals.
South Africa is the world’s biggest producer of chrome ore, accounts for around 70 percent of global mined platinum supply and is a major producer of other minerals and metals. South Africa is home to some of the world’s deepest mines, over 300,000 of the 450,000 mineworkers in South Africa work deep underground, in sweaty heat, at depths of up to four kilometres.
The lockdown has affected global commodities markets since several local miners have had to cut production plans or declare force majeure. Henk Langenhoven, the chief economist for the Minerals Council of South Africa- the body that represents most major miners calculates that the industry could lose R1.5 billion-a-day in a business that earns 24 percent of the country’s foreign currency every year.
As of Thursday South Africa reported 2,506 people infected with the coronavirus and 34 deaths.
