MONDAY, 11.00AM
BARBROOK, a small gold mine outside the town of Barberton in Mpumalanga, closed down suddenly on Thursday, becoming the first casualty of the crisis in the local gold mining industry.
Earlier this month, ERPM announced it was winding up its Benoni Gold Mine, and last week Randgold said ERPM itself might be forced to close, but Barbrook is the first mine to have actually ceased operations.
Barbrook manager Lionel Meyer said the mine had retrenched ”hundreds of workers”, adding the mine was closed ”because we cannot make a profit, even if we double our tonnage. The bullion price is definitely part of it, but this has been compounded by the failure of our gold recovery programme, which meant we had to continuously drain resources from our holding company.”
Meyer said the company had explained its position to the National Union of Mineworkers, and the union had no choice but to accept it. ”What can the NUM do if the company that supplies the capital hasn’t got the money.”