Nine old tailings dams in the Welkom area are being considered as part of this project. The proposed operations would process about 240 million mt of tailings from the dams. In addition to re-mining of the dams, other principal elements of the project would include installing pipelines to supply water to the re-mining areas, and to transport the slurry to the processing plant; recovering gold from the slurry at the existing St. Helena processing plant; and installing additional pipelines to supply water to the processing plant and to transport tailings residue from the processing plant to tailings deposition facilities.

Harmony CEO Graham Briggs said, “The re-mining of tailings presents an ideal opportunity to consolidate tailings facilities spread across the region into three tailings facilities. This will allow for better management of the facilities and the implementation of stricter control on environmental management, which earlier facilities may not have taken into account during design.”

The company noted that the main focus of the project is on gold extraction, although potential extraction of uranium also is being assessed.

The St. Helena processing plant, located southwest of Welkom, was mothballed almost three years ago and could be brought into production again, according to Harmony. It may be expanded to allow for the treatment of the required volumes of slurry.

Several regulatory processes are being conducted, including an Environmental Impact assessment.

Should the re-mining project be approved by regulatory authorities, Harmony expects construction to begin late in 2008.

Harmony’s R41-million ($5.4-million) Phoenix tailings project, near Virginia, was successful enough to warrant an upgrade to process 500,000 mt/month, and the company said it anticipates that the St. Helena plant would also be a profitable business, although capital and working cost estimates were yet to be finalized.

The company also announced that it expects cost-cutting measures instituted in the latter half of 2007 to pay off in 2008. Among these measures were the termination of 2,827 external contract employees, voluntary retrenchments and attrition involving another 2,123 employees, and transfers of almost 5,000 workers to more efficient shafts. The transfers, according to the company, involved mainly service staff from Randfontein central offices and from nonproduction to production areas. Harmony also placed its St. Helena No. 4 and No. 8 shafts on care and maintenance and redeployed 650 workers from those sites to other operations.