JOHANNESBURG, May 27 (Reuters) - A loss-making South African gold mine partly owned by Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD) (DURJ.J) might be shut by the end of June, the owners said. The East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM), which produces around 280 kg (9,002 ounces) of gold per month, will stop pumping out water on May 31 after the government suspended a pumping subsidy, they said in a statement late on Wednesday.
The mine has been losing around 10 million rand ($1.5 million) per month and the loss of the 1.7-million-rand subsidy will push the operation further into the red, it said.
Losses were mainly due to the strong rand cutting export income from dollar-denominated gold.
"We estimate that we have approximately one month from the suspension of pumping on 31 May, before the resultant rise in the water level starts to have an irreversible impact on underground mining," the statement said.
EPRM, which said recently that it was reassessing the mine's future, was willing to discuss alternatives with stakeholders, it added.
EPRM is owned by Crown Gold Recoveries, which is in turn 60 percent owned by black empowerment group Khumo Bathong and 40 percent by Durban Deep.
Durban Deep shares were up 1.2 percent at 17.30 rand at 1005 GMT, in line with the gold mining index (^JGLDX - News).
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