7.3 Responses In response, the Chairperson of the board stated the following: . Mr Mike Mpanza was appointed in April 2010 as the new Mine Manager, hence there was an increase in salary. There were processes underway to fill the other vacant posts. Mr Wiaan Basson, General Manager for operations was a contractor reporting to the board of the PSJV. . The PSJV was focused on developing a new diamond mining strategy, and work was underway to see how the new state-owned mining company could work with Alexkor. . There was one doctor on site for occupational health and safety reasons. . The Northern Cape provincial government had not yet taken over the schools, hospital and services. . Higher-grade diamonds had been exhausted and the production had decreased from 1 000 000 carats in 1960s to 35 000 in 2011. . The PSJV would begin exploration in June 2012. It would take six months in order to identify land to mine. In the last financial year Alexkor used to charge 4% royalties on diamonds, but now charged 0.4% as per the new formula developed by National Treasury. . Alexkor was facing insolvency after effecting transfers to the Community and was in need of recapitalisation.