| FY14 | FY13 | FY12 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of employees | |||
| – Permanent | 1 594 | 1 570 | 1 582 |
| – Contractors | 189 | 182 | 137 |
| Total | 1 783 | 1 752 | 1 719 |
| Operational | |||
| Volumes milled (000t) | 548 | 611 | 557 |
| Gold produced (kg) | 2 335 | 3 228 | 2 663 |
| Gold produced (oz) | 75 072 | 103 782 | 85 618 |
| Grade (g/t) | 4.26 | 5.28 | 4.78 |
| Productivity (g/TEC) | 125.78 | 173.77 | 146.19 |
| Development results | |||
| Total metres (excl. capital metres) | 2 881 | 3 303 | 2 861 |
| Reef metres | 1 079 | 947 | 1 252 |
| Capital metres | 993 | 1 271 | 195 |
| Financial | |||
| Revenue (Rm) | 995 | 1 452 | 1 124 |
| Average gold price received (R/kg) | 430 929 | 454 880 | 419 677 |
| Production profit/(loss) (Rm) | 327 | 798 | 559 |
| Capital expenditure (Rm) | 145 | 160 | 84 |
| Cash operating cost (R/kg) | 294 493 | 206 737 | 208 807 |
| All-in sustaining cost (R/kg) | 338 957 | 252 342 | 247 814 |
| Safety | |||
| No of fatalities | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Lost-time injury frequency rate per million hours worked | 3.25 | 2.42 | 1.77 |
| Environmental | |||
| Electricity consumption (GWh) | 103 | 105 | 103 |
| Water consumption – primary activities (ML) | 498 | 654 | 1 007 |
| greenhouse gas emissions (000t CO2e) | 102 | 104 | 102 |
| Intensity data per tonne treated | |||
| – energy | 0.19 | 0.17 | 0.18 |
| – water | 0.91 | 1.07 | 1.81 |
| – greenhouse gas emissions | 0.19 | 0.17 | 0.18 |
| Number of reportable environmental incidents | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Community | |||
| Local economic development (Rm) | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| Training and development (Rm) | 10.6 | 7.8 | 6.6 |
A trying year resulted in production declining by more than a quarter. Occasional work stoppages, a blasting fatality and various infrastructural malfunctions including flooding of the shaft bottom negatively affected production and development. Remedial action was taken to address these and normal operations have resumed.
The focus of operations is on maintaining mining grades. During the third quarter an agreement was reached with Sibanye Gold Limited (Sibanye) to exchange two sections of Joel for two sections of Sibanye’s Beatrix mine. The sections involved are best and moreprofitably owned by their new managers and will provide additional reserves in the short term. In addition, Joel has acquired a further two sections from Beatrix and, in exchange, will pay Beatrix a royalty of 3% of the value of gold extracted.
Joel’s future operating life will be determined by the successful completion of the decline shaft system.
Despite operating at its optimum, the limited capacity of the North shaft, used for hoisting ore, remains a bottleneck for Joel in terms of throughput.