Harmony Gold offers up 'blueprint' to thwart spiralling illegal mining

Harmony Gold has effectively reduced the risk of illegal mining impacts at its operations, which are primarily concentrated in the Free State, and says this blueprint could be applied to mining areas in other parts of the country where the problem is spiralling.

"I think we have good control at this point in time," Harmony Gold CEO Peter Steenkamp said on Wednesday, with the miner's methods including not just blocking entrances with concrete slabs, but filling them with rubble from the ground up.

"It is obviously a massive issue, if we look at what's happening on the West Rand, the East Rand and elsewhere - it's still something that needs a real attention from government, the police and the judicial system," he said during an investor presentation. "But I think we have a nice blueprint in the Free State of how to handle it. And we need somebody to take that blueprint and try to apply it somewhere else."