South Deep gold mine - Brief history

1990 Western Areas Gold Mining Company Limited transferred land and mineral rights to South Deep Exploration Company Limited.
1995 Western Areas Gold Mining Company Limited (WA) and South Deep Exploration Company Limited merged. Sinking of Twin Shaft and access development from South Shaft commenced.
1999 Placer Dome/WA (PDWA) joint venture was formed and in 2000 the mine was renamed – South Deep Gold Mine.
2002 New South Deep gold plant commissioned and the South Shaft plant decommissioned. Sinking of the main shaft was completed and in 2004 the Twin Shaft system was commissioned.
2006/07 Barrick Gold Corporation acquired a majority interest in Placer Dome Inc. Gold Fields Limited (GFI) acquired Barrick's 50% JV interest in the PDWA JV and in 2007, GFI acquired all remaining WAL shares and consequently owns 100% of South Deep gold mine.
2008/09 Stopped all conventional mining and low profile mechanised destress mining started in 2009.
2010 New-order mining right granted, with the addition of the contiguous area known as Uncle Harry's.
2011 Establishment of Newshelf 899 (Pty) Limited (Newshelf), which holds a 100% interest in South Deep gold mine. Newshelf is a 90% subsidiary of Gold Fields Limited and the remaining 10% is held by outside shareholders as part of the BEE transaction.
2017 High profile destress method successfully implemented. Rebase plan initiated.