Pan African Resources will lose a quarter of a billion rand on its decision to shut underground production at its Evander mine for two months to refurbish two ageing shafts. Pan African said the closure of Evander’s number 8 and number 7 shafts after an employee was killed last week while working at the bottom of the latter shaft was critically important to upgrade ageing shaft infrastructure to lower and hoist employees safely out of the mine and lift ore to the surface. The closure would strip 14,000oz out of the mine’s production and the company would invest R40m on the work. The lost gold output represented an opportunity cost of R226m, said CEO Cobus Loots. “This is a real setback,” he said, adding the management was looking for alternatives to replace the lost tonnes.
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