LIMITING AND OPTIMISING THE RESOURCES WE USE
The primary materials used by Harmony are: the rock we mine, the ore we process and the liquefied petroleum gas, grease, cyanide, fuels and lubricating and hydraulic oils we use.
| FY14 | FY13 | FY12 | FY11 | FY10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rock mined (ore and waste) (000t) | 39 133 | 38 668 | 34 868 | 30 250 | 31 037 |
| Ore mined (000t) | 14 798 | 13 312 | 14 010 | 12 063 | 12 336 |
| Waste rock recycled (000t) | 7 058 | 8 008 | 8 191 | 3 200 | 1 763 |
| Slimes recycled (000t) | 5 933 | 5 358 | 6 955 | 5 236 | 7 306 |
| Liquefied petroleum gas (t) | 1.21 | 1.08 | 0.55 | 0.62 | 0.60 |
| Grease (t) | 87 | 61 | 51 | 22 | 182 |
| Cyanide (000t) | 14.7 | 8.0 | 11.1 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Petrol and diesel (000l) | ***27 148 | **61 354 | 30 135 | 44 788 | 51 826 |
| Lubricating and hydraulic oil (000l) | 3 011 | 3 860 | 2 457 | 2 206 | 3 986 |
- * 2013 excludes Evander. Previous years not restated
- ** Increase was predominantly due to increased usage at Hidden Valley for the period during which the overland conveyor malfunctioned
- *** Reduction in petrol and diesel consumption a result of closure of Kimberley reef area at Doornkop and the decline in the consumption at Hidden Valley with the increased use of hydropower
CYANIDE
Harmony is a signatory to the International Cyanide Management Code for the manufacture, transport and use of cyanide in producing gold (the Cyanide Code). This voluntary industry programme was developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Council on Mining and Metals. All of our major gold mining operations and most of our metallurgical plants are certified as being compliant.
- Six in all of our plants are certified in terms of the Cyanide Code – the Harmony One, Central, Target, Joel, Kusasalethu and Doornkop plants
- At Kalgold, a cyanide decontamination plant is being planned and studies are under way to overcome technical challenges and optimise the consumption and disposal of cyanide. We continue to implement controls to move closer to compliance, following which the plant's application for certification will be reviewed
- The Phoenix retreatment operation (Saaiplaas plant) was voluntarily deregistered following an external audit which confirmed that there was a problem with weak acid dissociable cyanide concentrations in the tailings. External experts have been commissioned to investigate potential solutions
- The Hidden Valley plant received its Cyanide Code compliance certificate in FY14. Both Harmony and Newcrest are signatories of the Cyanide Code and, since the commissioning of the process plant at Hidden Valley in FY10, monitoring has shown that cyanide concentrations at the Nauti Village compliance point (as stipulated in the permit) are in line with environmental permit limits
Harmony used 14.7 kilo tonnes of cyanide during FY14 (FY13: 8 kilo tonnes). The increase in cyanide consumption was largely due to the processing of increased volumes of low-grade ore from surface sources and the Phoenix reclamation project.