Harmony Gold's hidden secret

Boardroom Talk focuses on the secret everyone knew about but turned a blind eye until illegal gold miners died.

JOHANNESBURG - 

Last week was dominated by the tragic story of the deaths of almost 80 illegal miners who were working in an abandoned mine shaft at Harmony Gold's Eland operations in the Free State.

While trade unions have laid the blame at the feet of Harmony, the truth is that these miners are part of a highly sophisticated web of organised crime, drawn to these shafts by the lure of high profits. The illegal miners mine the higher grade ore that's left in unsafe abandoned shafts, put it into an amalgam, that amalgam then gets taken to the surface, shipped off to a smelter somewhere, refined into gold, exported and sold internationally on the undercover market. 

These illegal mining operations are highly organised. Some of the illegal miners will spend up to a year underground. They are fed in a variety of ways, either through the illegal tunnels, or they buy it from legal mineworkers of legitimate mines.  In fact, the mining companies have stopped allowing their workers to take food and drink down the shafts because much of it is being sold on to illegal miners at a massive profit.

The illegal miners use all kinds of ways to combat the police.  They have explosives, homemade hand grenades, tripwires; it's a dangerous business for the police to uncover or to attack this problem. 

The network of illegal miners has been strengthened by the strong gold prices enjoyed over the last two years. Gold always performs well in times of anxiety, and the financial crisis and global recession have sent investors flocking into gold as a safe haven from the storminess of global markets.

Moneyweb's subsidiary Mineweb is hosting a seminar on gold later this month, that will explore the yellow metal's rise, looking at why the price is where it is, and where it's going over the next two years.

The seminar, titled "Gold, a safe haven in troubled times" will be facilitated by Mineweb's veteran journalist Barry Sergeant. The speakers are Alan Demby of the SA Gold Coin Council, Vladimir Nedeljkovic from Absa Capital, Issy Bacher of Cycle Trends and Peter Major from Cadiz Corporate Solutions.

The seminar will be held at 7:30am on June 18^th at the JSE's offices in Sandton, and will cost R250. Tea, coffee and muffins will be served. To book, contact Barbara Mazaris on               082 881 0783        or Barbara@moneyweb.co.za, or visit http://tinyurl.com/purbwv

If you're interested in the story of South Africa's illegal miners, check out Alec Hogg's latest Boardroom Talk podcast at http://tinyurl.com/l3gr3m or read Barry Sergeant's expose at http://tinyurl.com/ktqfp9.

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Disclaimer

MINEWEB is an interactive publication, with rolling deadlines through each day, commencing in the Sydney morning,  and concluding, 24 hours later,  in the Vancouver evening.  If you believe your side of an issue deserves inclusion, but has failed to meet one of our deadlines, you are invited to notify the Editor in Chief in Johannesburg, and we will include you in our editing and expanding on our stories. Email him at alechogg@gmail.com

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Related Links ARTILCES:  Death deep in gold's belly  Harmony actively seeking to buy assets, now that it's debt free  Harmony Gold reports lower Q3 output and headline earnings per share  OTHER PAGES:  POLITICAL ECONOMY AFRICA

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responses to this article

Harmony's hidden secret This is a very poorly written article. I understand what's being reported but who do you think is reading this, an elementary school student? by Mike McGregor on June 05 2009, 10:08 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Agree with McGregor : Pidgin journalism : Not interested in Zimbabwean type web rubbish cc by Weskusklong on June 08 2009, 07:07 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Hu? Boardroom Talk focuses ... I read zero focus, other than a shameless pitch by Me on June 08 2009, 11:03 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

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