Kathryn Valdal Mining Weekly Features Reporter Mining house Gold
Fields is improving its mine security by adopting a more systematic
and holistic approach, that optimises current security systems,
corporate affairs manager Willie Jacobsz tells Mining Weekly.
As a result, it is increasing research and development in the form
of multidisciplinary project teams and aligning security-risk
management strategies, with the overall management of
mining-related risk. This approach also involves optimising the use
of reliable technologies, which the mining house regards as one of
the main challenges facing its gold- mine security.
In compliance with this perspective, Gold Fields is maximising the
use of automated securitquartz crushing plant in indiay management systems as a countermeasure
against collusion.
He reveals that, in this regard, the company is considering the
implementation of video surveillance and biometrics.
Biometrics is the automatic identification of a person on his or
her physiological or behavioural characteristics. Examples include
identification based on body weight, metal content of the body,
facial thermograms, hand geometry, scrusher industry in nepalpeech, face recognition,
fingerprint-matching, and iris and retinal scans.
The mining house has also embarked upon a communication and
education campaign – a preventative measure, not usually
associated with mine security.
The campaign aims to increase awareness that stealing gold deprives
the community of jobs, robs the government of revenue and impedes
the African Renaissance. The general assumption is that bettindian stone crusher marketer
security should cost more money, however, the lower gold price has
led the company to consider maximising the efficiency of limited
available resources to be one of the main challenges facing mine
security.
The mining house reveals that, although smarter spending and the
pressure of a lower gold price has resulted in security investment
remaining static, the focus on optimising investment has increased
attention on the analysis of the dynamics of gold theft on a local,
regional and national level and on co-operation between the police,
mining houses and the State.
Gold Fields is an active participant in the National Precious
Metals Forum and all of its regional bodies.
The mining house believes that national strategy co-ordination is
enabling a more unified drive against gold theft, with a broader
role player involvement ensuring a more accurate analysis of the
extent of the gold theft due to industry-wide input,” he
continues. The mining company also works closely with various
government departments involved in crime prevention, as well as
other civic and industrial bodies with similar objectives.
This is evident in the increased activity in the form of joint
operations with the South African Police Services Diamond and Gold
branches to counter gold theft with medium- and long-term
initiatives, as well as operations for particular incidents.
Learning from each other, through the sharing of knowledge,
information and resources, enables the mining industry, government
agencies and the private sector to reap the maximum cost-effective
rewards from financial investment in the prevention, detection and
prosecution of gold-related crime.
Gold thieves have resorted to stealing higher volumes of lower
grade material, as security at high-grade plants has been enhanced,
reports Jacobsz.
Syndicates are continuously developing new modes of operation to
combat the innovative security measures of mining houses and are
increasingly infiltrating mining operations.
“As a result, the mining company has identified managing
discontinuities in its crime risk management strategy by
continuously producing innovative and inventive countermeasures and
exploiting these to the benefit of the mines and society at large,
as one of the main challenges facing its gold mines,” reveals
Jacobsz.
This means proactively finding the loopholes in the system and
providing solutions to be one step ahead of the criminals and, in
this regard, the mining house believes it is winning the ongoing
battle against gold theft.