TauTona Mine

EN Texto en inglés Aún no hay artículo en tu idioma: extracto en inglés.

The TauTona Mine, formerly Western Deep Levels No.3 Shaft, is a gold mine located in the West Wits gold field west of Johannesburg. The mine is near the town of Carletonville in South Africa. At approximately 3.9 kilometers (2.4 mi) deep, it is home to the world's second deepest mining operation, rivalled only by the Mponeng Gold Mine, formerly Western Deep Levels No.1 Shaft. TauTona was temporarily closed in 2018. The mine was one of the three Western Deep Levels mines. TauTona neighbours its sister Mponeng and Savuka mines, with which there are interconnections underground on various levels. To the north-east lie the Driefontein shafts, which were developed around the same time by Goldfields. Ore from TauTona and Savuka were formerly processed at the Savuka Gold Plant. Mponeng, the newest of the three, was built with its own gold plant. All three were owned by AngloGold Ashanti until they were purchased by Harmony Gold in 2020. Savuka was placed on care and maintenance in 2017, but continued as a pumping shaft to dewater the region to enable mining at active shafts, until it was finally closed in 2024. TauTona closed in 2018, but was re-opened in 2020 as part of the Mponeng operations. It is now known as Mponeng Mine: Carbon Leader Operations. TauTona Shaft remains in commission, but Carbon Leader reef mined at TauTona is trammed underground to Mponeng, where it is hoisted to surface and processed at the Mponeng Plant. The Savuka Plant continues in operation only as a tailings retreatment facility. Its 'front end' (milling) has been mothballed. TauTona mine was built by the Anglo American Corporation. Shaft sinking operations started in 1956 and the 2km-deep main surface shaft was commissioned in 1961, serving all levels down to 66L. The name TauTona means "great lion" in the...