The East Rand Mine is the largest mine in the Witwatersrand basin:
yearly production around 80.000 ounces, but look at the costs: around $ 750/oz (!!!) due to depth of over 3.500m = 10.000ft. !
East Rand Mine
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East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM) is a 100-year-old underground gold mining operation on the Witwatersrand Basin at Boksburg, to the east of Johannesburg. The mine employs 2,740 people. It was the deepest mine in the world until 2008 at 3,585 meters depth, slightly more than the TauTona mine, also in South Africa, which was 3,581 meters at the time (in 2008 the TauTona mine completed a digging project that extended the depth of the mine by several hundred meters.)[1]
[edit] Production
Recent production figures:[2]
Year |
Production |
Grade |
Cost per ounce |
2007 |
80,216 ounces |
1.23 g/t |
US $ 641 |
2008 |
79,479 ounces |
1.14 g/t |
US $ 748 |