Copper theft disrupts platinum mines

SA miners are battling a growing threat miles underground in the world’s deepest platinum shafts: gangs stealing copper cables and disrupting operations.

Enticed by high copper prices, thieves are sneaking in, descending deep underground and setting up camp among vast networks of tunnels to strip metal from power cables. The country’s platinum giants are struggling to contain the syndicates of trespassers known as zama zamas.

Illegal mining has long been a problem, though now thefts of equipment are becoming a major worry. The incidents – in some cases daily – can halt work for about a week as cable cuts cripple systems such as locomotives that take ore to the surface.

The looting is part of a crime wave affecting vital infrastructure from railways to telecommunications to utilities, undermining President Cyril Ramaphosa’s efforts to revive the economy.

The thefts have become lucrative with copper recently hitting a record high on expectations that supply will remain tight and mining companies finding it hard to keep the gangs out.

It’s a fresh headache for companies like Impala Platinum, Sibanye-Stillwater and Anglo American Platinum. They’re the largest producers in South Africa.

“Every single day there is at least one place that’s not working because of cable theft,” said Mark Munroe, head of Implats’s Rustenburg complex.

“At our most marginal shafts, if cable theft is not stopped, we may be forced to shut mining operations because these shafts will not be able to sustain themselves.”

The thefts are difficult to stop because it’s impossible to patrol all the tunnels that cover a vast distance. What started as informal ventures have become so organised that gangs now have their own supply chains to keep groups underground for longer.

Gangs use ropes or handmade ladders to lower themselves down from holes dug on the surface. After the treacherous descent, stripped copper is then hidden in unused tunnels before being taken away at night using pre-arranged transport. Big cables are typically cut into smaller pieces to be carried out.

Roughly 500 people are illegally underground for as long as 60 days at any time, Munroe said.

It takes at least a week to reinstall some key copper cables.

“These guys are well trained, they know where to go underground,” he said.

Sibanye had 120 theft incidents last year and recovered about 5.1 tons of stolen copper.