<Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> DRD Gold website </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Year of acquisition </Th> <Td> 2002 </Td> </Tr> <P> East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM) is a 120 - year - old underground gold mining operation on the Witwatersrand Basin at Boksburg, to the east of Johannesburg . The mine employed 2,740 people . It was the deepest mine in the world until 2008 at 3,585 metres depth, slightly more than the TauTona mine, also in South Africa, which was 3,581 metres at the time (in 2008 the TauTona mine completed a digging project that extended the depth of the mine by several hundred metres .) </P> <P> The mine closed in 2008 . Historical gold production between 1896 and 2008 was 43 Moz at recovered gold grade of 8.1 g / t (95% plant recovery). </P>

When did the expansion of the gold mines take place in the east rand