July2013

Vol 9 No 7www.crown.co.za

MODERN MININGIN THIS ISSUE… Galane Gold makes progress at Mupane Impala No 16 Shaft handed over Botswana Resource Sector Conference SA innovates in ‘green mining’ arena DFS underlines viability of Makhado

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MODERN MININGCO

NTEN

TSJuly 2013

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MINING NEWS4 Synclinorium shaft reaches the 700 m mark

5 Near-term route to production at Manica

7 Barberton plant completed within budget

8 Gold price slide highlights need for partnerships

10 Wits Gold the preferred bidder for Burnstone

11 Lace block cave development progressing well

12 African Eagle to sell assets to Blackdown

13 Mansa manganese project now fully operational

14 Komatsu begins delivery of trucks to Husab

16 North River now focused on Namib project

17 Keaton Energy reports strong production growth

ARTICLES

Cover18 Allight provides mine wide lighting coverage

Gold22 Galane Gold gets to grips with Mupane

Platinum28 No 16 Shaft officially handed over to Implats

Botswana32 Diversity on the way for Botswana mining

40 Gaborone conference now into its tenth year

Green Mining42 South Africa innovates in ‘green mining’ arena

Coal49 DFS confirms Makhado as a robust coal project

PRODUCT NEWS54 Husab CCD circuit will be biggest in Africa

55 Ground-breaking K series sets new standards

57 Air cannons solve blockage problems at Phola

58 Multotec and Longi seal partnership agreement

59 RopeCon® ropeway system spans the Nile

60 IMS now marketing Steinert sorting technology

61 Cummins motivator powers Jwaneng shovel

62 MBE supplies washing screens to coal mine

63 Latest version of VUMA3D-network released

64 Switched mode power supplies from ifm

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MODERNM I N I N G

COvERAn Allight mobile lighting tower provides illumination at a South African mine. See page 18 for further details of the Allight range, available locally from Barloworld Power.

PublisherJenny Warwick

EditorArthur Tassell

Advertising ManagerBennie Venter

Design & LayoutDarryl James

CirculationKaren Pearson

Subscriptions:Wendy CharlesR410 (incl. Vat) per annumPostage extra outside RSA

Printed by:Shumani Printers

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher.

Published monthly by:Crown Publications ccP O Box 140, Bedfordview, 2008Tel: (011) 622-4770Fax: (011) 615-6108e-mail: mining@crown.co.za

Average circulation(January–March 2013)

4 454

As readers will see, we give some quite detailed coverage in

this issue to the Botswana Resource Sector Conference

held in Gaborone last month (June). Most of the presentations were on diamonds, coal and copper but there was also one delivered on uranium. This was presented by Paul Thom-son, MD of A-Cap Resources, the Australian company which holds the Letlhakane urani-um project south of Francistown. I know Paul well and was impressed by his account of Letlhakane (see also page 37), which has the potential to be turned into a fairly substantial uranium mine with the ability to produce up to 3 Mlb of U3O8 annually.

Unfortunately there is a problem with Letl-hakane. Its operating costs (as estimated in a recently completed scoping study) would be US$42/lb in its first five years of operation whereas the spot price of uranium (as I write this) is hovering around US$40/lb. This is a far cry from a spot price of US$72/lb in early 2011 – and an even farther cry from a peak of US$135/lb recorded in mid-2007 at the height of the commodities boom.

Letlhakane, of course, is not unique in being challenged by current market conditions and I would guess there is scarcely a single proposed uranium project anywhere in the world that’s going to be viable in this uranium price envi-ronment. Most uranium producers would need a price almost double the current one before committing to new uranium mines. Indeed I recall Paladin Energy’s John Borshoff saying in November last year that Paladin – which has uranium mines in both Namibia and Malawi and which recently announced a record an-nual production of 8,25 Mlb for FY2013 – was of the view that a price at or above US$85/lb would be required before Paladin would con-template any further expansion or new mine development.

Uranium’s woes have hit the Namibian ura-nium sector particularly hard and the flood of positive news that we used to get from com-panies with projects in the country’s uranium belt – also sometimes called ‘Alasakite Alley’ – to the east of Swakopmund has slowed to a trickle, with most proposed developments (with the notable exception of Chinese-owned Husab) now effectively on hold. Companies operating in the area are taking strain and Deep Yellow, for example, has just announced cuts in board fees and executive remuneration (on top of cost-saving measures already imple-mented last year).

The weakness in the uranium market is partly attributable to the global slowdown which has affected virtually all commodities and resources. But the real damage was done in March 2011 when a tsunami hit Japan in the wake of a major earthquake, in the process damaging – and disabling – the Fukushima nuclear power station. In response to the di-saster, Japan closed the bulk of its considerable nuclear fleet of 50 reactors while Germany an-

nounced that it would close all 17 of its nucle-ar plants by 2022.

As a result of Fukushima, 2012 was a bad year for the nuclear power industry – with nuclear power generation experiencing its big-gest ever one-year decline.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, they say the darkest hour comes just before dawn and it could well be that a dawn for uranium is on the way. Certainly, I’m seeing more and more reports suggesting that the uranium price has bottomed and will soon start to recover with some analysts predicting a rise to US$70/lb plus in 2014 and to US$90/lb by 2016.

It’s also becoming clear that while Fuku-shima was a terrible disaster, the Fukushima plant stood up remarkably well to the battering it received. As a recent article by John Watson in Australia’s The Age newspaper comments: “Let’s be clear, Fukushima was hit by a worst-case scenario: the world’s fifth-most-powerful earthquake since 1900, a tsunami twice as high as the plant was built to withstand and follow-up quakes of magnitudes 7,1 and 6,3. … This ‘perfect storm’ hit a nuclear plant built to a 50-year old design and no one died. Japan moved a few metres east during a three-minute quake and the local coastline subsided half a metre, but the 11 reactors operating in four nu-clear power plants in the region all shut down automatically.”

He adds that none suffered significant dam-age as a direct result of the tsunami (although Fukushima, of course, was severely damaged as a result of the disabling of the plant’s cool-ing system and the subsequent overheating of two of the reactors).

Watson continues: “Yet such is the imbal-ance of dread to risk on matters nuclear that this accident was enough to turn public opin-ion and governments against nuclear power. Never mind that coal mining kills almost 6 000 people a year, or that populations of coal-min-ing areas have death rates about 10 per cent higher than non-mining areas, or that coal emissions drive global warming.”

I know Watson’s views will be controversial but it is certainly true that Asian countries in particular seem to have renewed faith in nu-clear energy. In Japan itself power companies have applied to restart 12 reactors while China is pressing on with its plans for a huge expan-sion of its nuclear power capacity. Although figures tend to vary according to the source, the country has around 15 nuclear power-generating facilities in operation with another 30 under construction. Predictions are that by 2020 it will be second only to the US and France in terms of the number of reactors it has operating.

This is all good news for potential urani-um producers in Southern Africa and – who knows – perhaps by next year’s Botswana Re-source Sector Conference A-Cap’s Paul Thom-son might be able to give us a more positive update on Letlhakane than was possible at this year’s event.Arthur Tassell

URANIUM ready to reverse?

mining news

4 07.13

Synclinorium shaft reaches the 700 m mark

Murray & Roberts Cementation Zambia is 19 months into a major contract, awarded in July 2011, for the shaft sinking and equipping of the Synclinorium shaft for Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) in Kitwe, Zambia. The main sink began in May 2012 and the shaft has now reached the 700 m mark. Project completion is scheduled for June 2015.

This is the second biggest contract award-ed to Murray & Roberts Cementation Zam-bia and the first awarded to the company by MCM. In 2010 the company was awarded a decline sinking project at Konkola North (now Lubambe), a joint venture between Vale and African Rainbow Minerals.

MCM, an integrated copper and cobalt producer operating in the Zambian Copper-belt, is owned by Carlisa Investments Cor-poration, a joint venture registered in Zam-bia comprising Glencore International AG (73,1 %), First Quantum Minerals (16,9 %) and ZCCM Investment Holdings (10 %). Its opera-tions comprise underground mines, concen-trator plants, smelters and refineries located in Nkana, Kitwe and Mufulira.

The Synclinorium shaft project will estab-lish a hoisting and ventilation facility to extract ore from the Nkana Synclinorium orebody which is incorporated into the MCM complex in Kitwe. The new shaft will enable ore pro-duction at the Nkana mines to be maintained above 4 Mt/a by 2017 and increase the life of mine by 25 years.

Murray & Roberts Cementation’s project manager, Neil Mackay, says site establish-ment began in September 2011 with pre-sink civil work provided by Murray & Roberts group company, Concor Civils.

The original contract called for blind sink-ing, equipping and commissioning of the 7 m diameter downcast rock hoist shaft to a depth of 1 277 m. This main shaft will be equipped as a rock hoisting shaft on the brownfields mine to service a new area under development. Murray & Roberts Cementation Zambia has also been awarded the pre-sink contract to a depth of 50 m of an associated

6 m diameter upcast ventilation shaft that will reach a depth of 1 166 m.

The shaft is being sunk by drilling and blasting with support provided by mesh and bolts. The lining will be installed using the Canadian shutter method that uses admix-tures to self-level the concrete and ensure that there is no honeycombing. This method was chosen because it was deemed to be a safer approach and represents the latest trend in shaft sinking globally. It has already been used by Murray & Roberts Cementation for other recent shaft sinking projects and its sister company in Canada has been assisting local teams with the process of skills trans-fer to make this the company’s shaft sinking method of choice in the future.

Mackay says a unique feature of this proj-ect is that the first Murray & Roberts Cemen-tation e-learning computer training centre has been established outside South Africa.

“Our main training academy is at Bentley Park near Carletonville in South Africa and all our expatriate site personnel are trained there

before being deployed to projects outside the country,” he explains. “However, we identi-fied the need for a satellite training centre in Zambia to instruct our local personnel. We’ve installed a bank of 10 PCs complete with headsets and e-learning training comprises a full set of procedures for each job category — for example, the engineering sinking crew. Each person works through the relevant set of procedures and is required to complete a test at the end of the session. Those who don’t achieve a 100 % pass rate on this test must start again from the beginning until they do.

“Safety procedures are an important com-ponent of this training and we’ve just rolled out the ‘Stop.Think.Act.24/7’ approach that emphasises the importance of taking action to correct unsafe conditions and behaviour while giving recognition to positive behaviour. ‘24/7’ highlights the need to be safety-aware at all times, both at work and after hours. All shifts begin with a safety talk and we encour-age the local personnel to run these meetings according to a given agenda. Every person entering the site must also pass a breath-alyser test.”

Mackay says the core of senior Zambian supervisors in the sinking crew were flown to South Africa where they spent six weeks at Bentley Park going through the actual sinking procedures that will be applied at MCM on mock-up shafts. He believes this transfer of practical and theoretical knowledge will also prove beneficial for the Zambian mining com-munity in the future.

The current MCM project team comprises 32 Murray & Roberts Cementation personnel and between 200 and 300 local recruits in-cluding mine captains, shift supervisors and persons in charge, as well as artisans and general labourers.

Murray & Roberts Cementation Zambia is poised to establish an office in Kitwe which will centralise all project administration, pro-vide a workshop and storage facility and a permanent base for the e-learning training centre.

The roll out of the Murray & Roberts ‘Stop.Think.Act.24/7’ programme at the main shaft bank area.

The main shaft with the new permanent hoist room under construction.

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mining news

Near-term route to production at Manica

Maintenance Management in Mining course

Drilling underway at the Guy Fawkes deposit at the Manica gold project (photo: Auroch Minerals).

ASX-listed gold explorer Auroch Minerals NL says that that an independent scoping study has been completed on its existing non-re-fractory and Fair Bride transitional resources at its Manica gold project in Mozambique. The study confirms the technical and com-mercial viability of a +40 000 oz per annum mine at Manica to provide near term cash flow. Auroch reports that a Definitive Feasibil-ity Study (DFS) will commence immediately.

“The development of Manica will give us a first mover advantage and allow us to accel-erate our consolidation strategy in the area, giving the company momentum and critical mass. This will provide a stable platform from which the company can create cash flow and operate at the lower end of the total cash cost curve. These are exciting times for all stakeholders as we make the transition from exploration to development,” says Auroch’s Managing Director, Dean Cunningham.

Adds Chairman Glenn Whiddon: “As Au-roch has successfully progressed its explo-

ration programme, the technical teams’ un-derstanding of the Manica Northern Shear Zone has improved greatly. The company has considered the results to date and its cir-cumstances to formulate a decisive strategy which provides a path to production and a potential source of near term cash flow. Au-roch has every confidence in the robust na-ture of the Manica gold project and we are excited to be moving towards production.”

The scoping study, prepared by indepen-dent advisers JP Mining Consulting (Pty) Limited, revealed viable simple shell open pits for the Fair Bride and Dot’s Luck depos-its and potential for a shallow depth under-ground open stoping operation at the Guy Fawkes deposit. It envisages a centralised processing plant being established on the mining concession with a throughput rate of 720 000  t/a at an average head grade of 2,23 g/t Au. The initial capital expenditure is estimated at US$31,62 million in May 2013 constant money terms.

In a mechanised mining environment, mining equipment is vitally important in determining the success of the mining process and equip-ment performance is often the production constraint that determines the performance of mineral extraction and processing opera-tions. Maintenance in mining remains a chal-lenging area. Innovative, futuristic thinking and challenging the ideas of the past are re-quired to ensure the economic viability of the mining industry going forward.

In order to address some of these chal-lenges, The Centre for Mechanised Mining Systems (CMMS), Wits University, will be pre-senting a three-day course entitled ‘Mainte-nance Management in Mining – from strategic management to field practice’ from the 26 – 28 August 2013.

The course content includes: real time monitoring of machine and com-

ponent health, data interpretation and ac-tions required;

strategic management of mining equip-ment maintenance;

machine application and the resulting wear and tear of various components including tracks, tyres, ground-engaging tool cutting edges and drill bits;

optimising part and component life; global and national data links for support-

ing maintenance and repairs; oil sampling for component wear detection; principles of out-sourced service agree-

ments; basic workshop and field service planning.

Professor Zvi Borowitsh of the Wits School of Mining Engineering and the Israeli Institute of Technology will lead the course. Edgar Bradley, experienced lecturer in reliability and maintenance and well-known maintenance consultant, will present the latest thinking in maintenance management. Guest presenters will include leading specialists from equip-ment producers, mining companies and con-sulting firms.

Further details are available from the CMMS, tel (+27 11) 717-7329, e-mail: Patricia.Hadebe@wits.ac.za.

mining news

707.13

Pan African has successfully commissioned the Barberton Tailings Retreatment Project (BTRP) at its Barberton Mines (BGMO) and on Friday 28 June 2013 undertook its inaugu-ral gold pour. The BTRP, which commenced construction in April 2012, was completed on schedule and within budget.

Situated adjacent to the Bramber Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) at the Fairview mine, the retreatment project is designed to retreat 100 000 tonnes of gold tailings per month at an estimated average cash cost of US$800/oz. The plant utilises a CIL process followed by electro-winning and smelting to produce a saleable gold product. The project will source about 12 000 tonnes per month of current tailings via a pipeline from the Fairview con-centrator and BIOX® plant and some 88 000 tonnes per month from the TSF.

The BTRP is expected to ramp up to full capacity of 100 000 tonnes per month at an average recovered grade of 0,52 g/t by the second quarter of 2014. It has a current life of mine of six years and will provide Pan African with an additional 20 000 oz of gold per an-num, increasing BGMO’s gold output by ap-proximately 20 % to 115 000 oz per year.

The total capital expenditure budget of the project was R305 million (US$31million), of which approximately 90 % has been in-voiced to date. Pan African reports that all of the construction capital requirements were

ASX-listed Tiger Resources reports it has set a new record for monthly production at its Kipoi copper project in the DRC’s Katanga Province.

Tiger produced 4 422 tonnes of copper in concentrate in June from its heavy media separation (HMS) plant, 47 % above the HMS plant’s nameplate capacity and 10 % higher than the previous monthly record of 4 007 tonnes achieved in March 2013.

In April the company produced 3 263 tonnes of copper and 3 431 tonnes in May. Total quarterly production was 11 116 tonnes of copper, a record quarter.

“As we proceed deeper into the Kipoi Cen-tral deposit, the rock becomes stronger with higher contained copper content,” says Ti-ger’s Managing Director, Brad Marwood. “We find increasing production performance with better recovery, better concentrate grades, and lower costs.”

Tiger has produced 20 604 t of copper so far this calendar year, 11 % higher than the budget of 18 500 t of copper. Waste mining has been accelerated to maintain production, which should reduce operating costs during the latter part of the year.

Modifications to the processing plant, which include the replacement of conveyors and other minor changes to enhance the pro-duction performance, have reportedly been completed at nominal cost.

Barberton plant completed on time and within budget

The Barberton Tailings Retreatment Project has been commissioned and recently poured its first gold (photo: Pan African Resources).

funded via internal cash flows from BGMO. Basil Read Matomo, which successfully

constructed Pan African’s Phoenix Platinum Chrome Tailings Retreatment Plant, designed and constructed the BTRP. The project is managed by an experienced team including BGMO’s General Manager, Casper Strydom, and Metallurgy Manager Jonathan Irons. The BTRP has created an additional 86 direct em-

ployment opportunities in the Barberton area. Ron Holding, joint interim CEO, comment-

ed: “We are proud to have commissioned this project on schedule and within budget. The achievement reaffirms our ability to deliver on our development plans at our operations. It also demonstrates the potential for future success of our other organic growth projects at Barberton and Evander.”

David Knox has retired from the position of CEO of Firestone Energy, effective immediately. He had been CEO of the company since September 2011 and oversaw the recent reorganisation of the com-pany and the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on Firestone’s main undertaking, its Joint Venture ‘in-terest’ in the Waterberg coal project in Limpopo. The company is listed on the ASX and JSE.

The DFS is expected to be complete at the end of July 2013. Firestone says it is anticipated that it will confirm the economic viability of develop-ing the Waterberg project. The Joint Venture has a Memorandum of Understanding with Eskom to provide 10 Mt/a of coal from the project and it is

expected that deliveries of coal to the utility will start in Q1, 2015.

Knox has been replaced by Stephen Miller who has significant experience in the financing and development of large scale project developments of this nature. This experience will be drawn upon, says Firestone, as the Waterberg project progress-es towards the completion of the DFS, the project financing and expected start up in Q4, 2013.

The first stage of the project is to develop both the Smitspan mine, which has a substantial mea-sured thermal coal resource, and the Vetleegte mine, which ranks as a substantial metallurgical coal deposit.

Change at the top at Firestone Energy

Kipoi project sets new production recordThese enhancements allow for increased

materials handling and better separation of concentrate from the waste rock. Coupled with the improving properties of the ore, this should result in sustained outperformance of the plant, says Tiger. The increased quantity of ore established with grade control should also help to sustain higher production levels throughout 2014.

The Kipoi project covers an area of 55 km2 and is located 75 km NNW of the city of Lubumbashi. The project contains a 12 km sequence of mineralised Roan sediments

that host at least five known deposits. The principal deposit is Kipoi Central, which con-tains a zone of high grade copper mineralisa-tion within a much larger, lower grade global resource.

Tiger is undertaking a phased develop-ment of the resources at the Kipoi site, where the Stage 1 HMS plant is in production and is expected to process 2,7 Mt of ore grad-ing approximately 7 % Cu to produce a total of 113 000 tonnes of copper in concentrate over its 39-month life. According to Tiger, the Stage 2 solvent-extraction electrowinning (SX/EW) plant is targeted to come on stream in 2014.

mining news

8 07.13

The recent drop in the gold price has high-lighted the need for governments of mineral-rich countries to cooperate with mining com-panies in the optimal development of their resources, says Randgold Resources Chief Executive Mark Bristow.

Speaking at a recent media briefing in Johannesburg, Bristow said the two parties should be united in a common purpose but

sometimes seemed like ships passing each other in the night. “Governments are tempted to harvest the green shoots before the en-terprise comes to fruition; the gold mining industry tends to exaggerate the risk without fully addressing its own internal problems,” he said.

This disconnect arose from the mistaken perception that gold mining companies must have made extraordinary profits during the long bull run in the gold price, Bristow said. In fact, with escalating costs cramping margins, most gold companies had not managed to create real value and at the height of the boom the industry had actually been ex growth. The declining gold price meant that many gold mining companies were now again having to fight for survival, as evidenced by a spate of write-downs and abandoned projects.

“The pursuit of quality assets has led gold companies away from their traditional hunt-ing grounds and towards regions which are more prospective but present a greater risk. All these regions are now competing with each other for mining investment, and while Africa has the advantage of great mineral wealth, its competitors generally have better infrastructures, greater skills pools and more sophisticated economies,” he said.

In order for African countries to attract mining investment and benefit fully from their mining industries, they should participate fully in the value creation process.

“Real value is created by the discovery of multi-million ounce deposits and their devel-opment into profitable mines. Governments’

Gold price slide highlights the need for partnerships

A very recent photo of Kibali showing the boxcut with portals to underground declines (photo: Randgold Resources).

Mark Bristow on site (photo: Randgold Resources).

role in this should be firstly to provide a stable, business-friendly regime that will at-tract investors, and then to partner the mining company in the development process, driv-ing the project up the value curve and sharing fairly in its returns,” Bristow argued.

Randgold owns and operates the Loulo complex in Mali and the Tongon mine in Côte d’Ivoire, and also operates the Morila joint venture in Mali. In addition, it is currently de-veloping the giant Kibali project in the north-east of the DRC, which will eventually be a combined open-pit/underground operation producing 600 000 ounces a year.

“When the gold price started turning down, we reviewed all our business plans and ad-justed them where necessary. Our key ob-jectives remain intact, notably the aim of ex-ceeding 1,2 million ounces of production by 2015,” he said.

“With our robust operations, low costs and no debt, and Kibali on schedule to pour its first gold before the end of this year, Rand-gold can face any realistically foreseeable gold price scenario with equanimity.”

Bristow said the current squeeze on the industry had in fact created new opportuni-ties for Randgold, as gold mining juniors with quality assets had to seek elsewhere the sup-port no longer available from bankers and investors. “While our core strategy remains organic growth, we have entered into a num-ber of earn-in joint ventures on promising projects, most recently the agreement an-nounced last week with Taurus in Mali,” he concluded.

907.13

mining news

Vlakvarkfontein coal mine breaks multiple recordsContinental Coal Limited reports that its Vlakvarkfontein coal mine is set to achieve its third consecutive record year of thermal coal production, domestic coal sales and earnings in FY2013.

Vlakvarkfontein is an opencast contract mining operation located approximately 90 km east of Johannesburg. The mine is operated under a joint venture, Ntshovelo Mining Resources, with the com-pany’s principal South African subsidiary, Continental Coal Limited South Africa (CCL) holding a 60 % economic interest and having operating and management control.

Conventional opencast mining of two coal seams, each approxi-mately 5 m wide, at a strip ratio of 2:1 to produce 1,2 Mt/a of ROM has taken place since June 2010. With around 11 Mt of JORC-com-pliant proven reserves, the mine has a remaining life in excess of seven years. The mine has to date produced in excess of 3,5 Mt of ROM coal and achieved over 3,1 Mt of thermal coal sales into the South African domestic market.

In FY2013, Vlakvarkfontein is set to achieve a number of opera-tional and financial records for the third consecutive year.

In the year to date (for the 11 months ending 31 May 2013), the mine has produced 1,40 Mt ROM, approximately 16 % above bud-get. For FY2013, ROM production of around 1,55 Mt is forecast. This ROM production is 23 % and 70 % above the 1,24 Mt and 0,89 Mt achieved in FY2012 and FY2011 respectively.

Thermal coal sales of 1,21 Mt have been achieved in the year to date, with total sales of 1,33 Mt forecast for FY2013. Coal sales for FY2013 are forecast to be 5 % and 100 % above thermal coal sales of 1,27 Mt and 0,60 Mt achieved in FY2012 and FY2011 respectively.

For FY2013, Vlakvarkfontein is now forecast to achieve record sales revenue of approximately R244 million and a record gross op-erating profit of R80 million. Gross operating profit for FY2013 is forecast to exceed FY2012’s gross operating profit by over 50 %.

“The Vlakvarkfontein coal mine has been a real success story for Continental. It was our first coal mine into operation, a true green-field project development and first coal production was achieved within 12 months of its acquisition. The operation has fully repaid all its capital development costs and is forecast to continue to gener-ate free cash flow and dividends to its shareholders over the next seven years,” comments Continental Coal’s Chief Executive Officer, Don Turvey.

Contractor mobilises for Mengo potash project in the CongoTSX-listed MagIndustries Corp reports that the first ship carrying construction equipment and materials for construction of the com-pany’s Mengo potash project in the Republic of Congo arrived in Pointe Noire on June 12, 2013.

The cargo – with a total weight of about 4 900 tonnes – originated from the Port of Shanghai, China. It includes some 2 000 tonnes of steel re-bar, 1 000 tonnes of cement, 40 trucks, 12 generators and a gravel crushing plant. The shipment also contains various pieces of earthmoving equipment including an excavator, land leveller, concrete mixer, pile driving machine, weighbridge and a concrete pump.

The shipment, organised by the general contractor for the project, East China Engineering Science and Technology Co, Ltd (ECEC), is a major step in the mobilisation of ECEC and its subcontractors for the full start of construction of the various facilities and installations required for the project.

Mengo, which involves the solution mining of carnallite, has a design capacity of 1,2 Mt/a of potash fertiliser to supply growing demand from major markets. The implementation of this strategic project, says MagIndustries, will position the Republic of Congo as the first potash producer in Africa.

mining news

10 07.13

Uranium explorer Deep Yellow Limited (DYL), which is active in Namibia, has announced additional steps to reduce overhead costs due to ongoing volatility in financial markets and weakness in the uranium sector.

In July 2012 the managing director and non-executive directors implemented a 10 per cent reduction in base salary and fees

and group-wide salaries were frozen in order to protect the company’s cash resources. In addition, DYL’s MD voluntarily waived his FY2012 STI cash bonus and a gradual re-structuring of the senior management team has allowed further reductions in overhead costs.

Effective immediately, board fees and ex-

Wits Gold, listed on the JSE and TSX, has re-ported that it is the sole preferred bidder for the Burnstone gold mining operation near Bal-four in Mpumalanga Province. Burnstone is wholly owned by Southgold Exploration (Pty) Limited, a subsidiary of Great Basin Gold Lim-ited (GBG), and is currently on care and main-tenance under business rescue proceedings.

“Following an intensive due diligence by the Wits Gold team and the submission of our business plan, we are very pleased to have been selected as the sole preferred bidder, and look forward to our offer being accepted when the plan is put to vote,” comments Wits Gold CEO Philip Kotze.

The acquisition of Burnstone is in line with

Wits Gold’s strategy of owning and develop-ing shallow mines in South Africa and is an important step in the company’s develop-ment.

Chairman Adam Fleming comments: “Wits Gold has indicated for some time that we would want to return value to shareholders through dividends, and I see this as a first step in moving towards achieving that goal. What we will acquire at Burnstone is an asset where some 80 % of the capital has already been spent and state-of-the-art infrastructure put in place, which significantly reduces the project risk and time in which production can commence. I believe this represents excellent value for Wits Gold shareholders.”

Wits Gold the preferred bidder for Burnstone The key terms of Wits Gold’s offer for Burn-stone, disclosed in the business rescue plan, are: payment of US$7,25 million on transac-tion completion; reduction of the operation’s total existing debt by 55 %; and provision of up to US$100 million over time by Wits Gold as working capital to support the chosen production plan, in the form of a shareholder loan to be paid back on a preferential basis from operating cash flow.

Kotze further stated that Wits Gold has developed a new, underground mining plan for Burnstone, which is realistic, deliverable and aims to ensure maximum benefit for all stakeholders. The plan allows for flexibility in the production approach and this will be confirmed once the transaction has been fi-nalised.

The Burnstone gold mine, which is to be acquired by Wits Gold.

Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation has informed Consulmet Metals of South Africa of the award of the plant contracts for its Kigosi and Bingwa/Tembo prospects located within the area covered by the Buckreef mining licence in Tanza-nia.

Tanzanian Royalty says it is adequately financed to begin construction at the properties and there

will be no equity or debt offering, and no forward sale of gold, in order to launch these projects.

Consulmet will provide all necessary services to support the design, supply and construction of the modular plants and mineral processing solu-tions at the Kigosi and Bingwa/Tembo projects on a turnkey basis, including plant design, fabrication, project management and process engineering.

Consulmet to build Tanzanian plants

ecutive remuneration will be reduced by a fur-ther 5 per cent for at least six months (to be reviewed in November) and salary scales will remain fixed at 2012 rates. In addition, no STI cash bonus will be paid to the MD for FY2013 due to market conditions.

DYL’s Perth head office has been down-sized to three people (MD, financial controller and office manager) and plans for an office move to smaller premises by the end of the year are well advanced.

“We have been closely monitoring the vola-tility in financial markets and ongoing weak-ness in the uranium sector and recognise that cost discipline is an essential component of optimising the company’s cash position,” DYL’s Chairman, Mervyn Greene, comment-ed. “Having already taken significant steps last year to reduce corporate overheads, it is prudent to implement further reductions until there are tangible signs of an improvement in sentiment, which we believe is only a matter of time.”

Deep Yellow reduces its overheads

mining news

1107.13

AIM-listed DiamondCorp has provided an up-date on activities relating to the 47 level block cave development at its Lace mine near Kroonstad in the Free State.

The company has completed the required modifications to the 1,2 Mt/a Lace process-ing plant to allow seamless transition from treatment of the tailings to underground kim-berlite. The modifications were completed on schedule and within budget.

Surface and underground development ac-tivities accelerated in the period April to June. Trackless mining crews focused their blast-ing activities on upper level conveyor belt declines and the loading loop on the 200 m level. A handheld drilling crew advanced the 165 m level vent raise which will allow tempo-rary ventilation for continuous blasting condi-tions down to the 470 m level.

Crews achieved the scheduled develop-ment metres during the period with cumula-tive cost per metre to the end of May around 15 % under budget due to tight cost control and the operational efficiency of the compa-ny’s owner-operated mining fleet.

DiamondCorp continues to be successful in recruiting experienced underground per-sonnel. The total mine workforce now stands at 161 employees and underground devel-opment will move to three shift continuous operations this month (July). Change houses sufficient to accommodate more than 300

employees at full-scale operations will soon be completed.

Excavation of a new 66 000 bank cubic me-tre (bcm) boxcut, which will provide the sur-face entrance to the twin conveyor belt and services declines for the life of the mine, is 75 % complete. The boxcut is three weeks behind schedule due to encountering more competent ground earlier than expected, which is slowing down the mining rate. This delay will have no impact on the overall de-velopment schedule as the activity is not on the critical path and the more competent ground is a positive with respect to mine por-tal stability. The boxcut development is 40 % under budget on a bcm basis, as a result of owner-operated fleet efficiencies.

DiamondCorp says its decision to develop a core competency in rebuilding in-house its heavy equipment mining fleet is already yield-ing results in terms of operating efficiencies. The first fleet of rebuilt underground trucks and loaders is providing better than 90 % availability and operating significantly under budget with respect to diesel consumption.

In the past three months, a 9,5 tonne un-derground loader, a 7,4 tonne low profile underground loader and a 20 tonne under-ground dump truck have been completely stripped and rebuilt in house on schedule and within budget. The company’s heavy equip-ment workshop is rebuilding these machines

for between 25-50 % of the price of new ma-chines. Two more loaders, two more 20 tonne dump trucks and a single boom face drilling rig are next in line to be rebuilt.

During the past quarter, the EPCM contract for the underground conveyor belt design, fabrication and installation was awarded. The design work is 100 % complete and detailed drawings are now being generated and veri-fied. Orders have been placed for the major imported belt and drive components, thereby fixing exchange rates.

The company has taken delivery of a new Boart Longyear LM30 underground diamond drill rig and a programme of 2 000 m of un-derground core drilled is planned to be com-pleted before the end of the year. This drilling will be undertaken from inside the kimberlite to better define the margins of the bulge as well as the 47 level block cave area.

The 47 level block cave development is forecast to cost R286 million (£19 million) and commence commercial production in the first half of 2015. The development is fully financed through R320 million (£21,3 million) of project debt facilities provided by the IDC, Tiffany & Co subsidiary Laurelton Diamonds and DiamondCorp convertible bonds.

DiamondCorp has a 74 % stake in Lace, with the balance being held by its BBBEE partners, Shanduka Resources and Sphere Investments.

Lace block cave development progressing well

mining news

12 07.13

African Eagle Resources, which is listed on AIM and the AltX, has announced that it has agreed to sell substantially all of its subsid-iaries, assets and liabilities to Blackdown Re-sources (UK) Limited, a subsidiary of Cienega S.a.r.l, which is ultimately owned by Nick Clarke and his family trusts.

Nick Clarke went to the Camborne School of Mines graduating with a BSc in Mining and is an entrepreneur, having founded and sold two trading house businesses. The Clarke Fam-ily companies have recently been investing in

mining related businesses around the world.African Eagle’s decision has reportedly been

taken due to current weak market conditions and the consequent inability of its directors to identify any source of funding for the group and for its primary project, the Dutwa nickel laterite project in north-western Tanzania.

On 26 June 2013, African Eagle undertook a restructuring whereby Blackdown Minerals was incorporated as a new subsidiary of the company, in preparation for its potential sale. Blackdown Minerals is the holding company

Platinum Group Metals (PTM) reports that development of the WBJV Project 1 plati-num mine is progressing well. The north mine twin declines are now developed to a length of approximately 1 220 m. An underground drive along the strike of the deposit has now advanced on the Merensky Reef for approxi-mately 130 m with no major offsets.

The first raise position into the Merensky Reef panel has been reached and the raise will commence shortly. The declines them-selves are continuing and turns into devel-opment headings targeting mine blocks be-low the current development level are now underway. Crews are currently achieving the planned advance rates at the north mine.

A second set of twin declines at the south mine is being developed into the orebody 1,8  km south of the north mine portal. Ad-vance to date of the south mine declines is approximately 60 m. The development of these declines is progressing slower than anticipated due to poorer ground conditions than expected in the first 50 m vertical from surface. The south declines are expected to move out of poor near surface conditions shortly and development rates will then im-prove, says PTM.

As a result of the slower development rates in the south mine and a one-month project delay as a result of Section 54 safety work stoppages, the targeted start date for first

Leading local and international suppliers to the industrial and mining sectors will gain valuable exposure to the Southern African mining market at Electra Mining Botswana 2013. Exhibitors at the show – say the organ-isers – will have the opportunity to network with key decision-makers from Botswana’s growing industrial and mining sectors, posi-tion their company brand, grow their client base, and launch new products and services directly to their target market.

According the organisers, Botswana’s thriv-ing mining and industrial sectors make it the natural choice for the expansion of Electra Mining Africa following many successful years in South Africa as the largest mining, industri-al, power and construction exhibition in Africa.

“We’re proud to announce that the Bo-tswana Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Wa-

African Eagle to sell its assets to Blackdown Resources

for substantially all of the assets and business of the group, including but not limited to the group’s licences in respect of the Dutwa nickel project, the Zanzui nickel and cobalt project, its licences in respect of Igurubi and Msasa as well as the 50 per cent interest of the group in the Miyabi gold project in Tanzania.

Under the terms of the agreement, African Eagle has agreed to sell 90 per cent of the is-sued share capital of Blackdown Minerals (it will retain the other 10 %) to the purchaser for a total cash consideration of US$100 000.

African Eagle’s primary asset is the Dutwa nickel project in Tanzania, comprising twin deposits on neighbouring hills, Ngasamo and Wamangola. This is the view from Wamangola towards Ngasamo (the big hill on the horizon). The two deposits are 6 km apart (photo: Arthur Tassell).

Electra Mining Botswana coming upter Resources has endorsed Electra Mining Botswana,” says Gary Corin, MD of Special-ised Exhibitions Montgomery, organisers of the show. “The Ministry recommends stake-holders to support the show as it is believed the initiative will help diversify Botswana’s mining portfolio.

“But its focus is not only mining,” contin-ues Corin. “Based on the successful model of Electra Mining Africa, the Botswana exhibi-tion embraces mining, industrial, power gen-eration and construction which cover a much broader footprint drawing in many stakehold-ers from the various sectors.”

Electra Mining Botswana takes place at the Gaborone Fair Grounds from 3-5 Septem-ber. Further details are available from Veda Koekemoer, Charmainne Wood or John Ster-ley on tel (+27 11) 835 -1565.

WBJV Project 1 platinum mine on courseconcentrate production has been adjusted by six months to mid-2015. The ramp-up pro-file for production from this date forward over the following two years is similar to previous projections.

Surface development is on track, surface earthworks and lay down areas are well ad-vanced, major mill components have been ordered and expected deliveries for all major

components remain on schedule. Power and water requirements are expected to be pro-vided as required. Eskom is currently install-ing transformers for the initial 10 MVA service to site. PTM and Eskom are working on a plan to provide the site with a further 10 MVA for commissioning and early production require-ments, which will be sufficient for all mining and milling operations until the full 40 MVA service is delivered. The operation does not require more than 20 MVA for several years.

mining news

1307.13

Ferrex ups Malelane targetFerrex, the AIM-quoted iron ore and manganese development com-pany focused in Africa, has announced at least a 70-79 % increase in its contained iron ore exploration target to 1,6 billion tonnes (bt) to 2,0 bt at 28 to 30 % Fe at its 74 % owned 4 192 ha Malelane iron ore project located in Mpumalanga.

Comments Ferrex MD Dave Reeves: “We are delighted to report this significant increase in the exploration target for Malelane which supports our long-term view that the project potentially contains a significant large-scale iron ore resource.

“In line with our strategy of developing assets which are close to infrastructure that have near-term production potential and, in turn, cash generating capabilities for the company, we remain committed to commencing development of the smaller scale, low capex start-up operation (1,8 Mt/a over a 16,6 year life) that utilises the existing infra-structure of a main rail route to Maputo in Mozambique 170 km away.

“However at the appropriate point of Malelane’s exploration and development, the company will investigate how best to extract the potential 2,0 Bt iron resource on a much more significant scale to fully unlock the project’s intrinsic value.”

ASX-listed Kaboko Mining reports that commercial scale mining at its northern Zambian manganese project at Mansa is fully opera-tional and exceeding expectations.

The company has removed an initial overburden of 8 000 m3 and extracted an estimated 6 000 tons of high grade manganese ore from the main vein. The main vein ore is currently on site in a stock-pile waiting to be crushed with the arrival of Kaboko’s crusher plant purchased from SBM in China. The plant is scheduled to be erected and operational this month (July). The main stockpile was tested at the company’s on site laboratory and through independent geo-chemical analysis.

Importantly, testing of the overburden has identified that it has manganese mineralisation and can be processed as fines with a 20 % recovery to produce a 50 % plus product. Processing of the overburden was not previously part of the short-term mining plan but test results show that this stockpile contains around 20 % of ‘potato’ manganese, which tests at approximately 50 %. Currently the stockpile of these unprocessed fines is around 6 450 m3. Pro-cessing of the overburden as summarised above decreases overall production costs of manganese ore from the main vein and results in an additional 3 000 tons of sellable ore a month – taking targeted production to 8 000 tonnes/month by Q4 2013.

Comments Kaboko’s CEO, Tokkas Van Heerden: “We are ex-tremely excited as we have achieved the target set in May and the initial indications are that we will be able to continue our produc-tion of 5 000 tonnes per month of main vein production in line with budgeted costs. Where we have exceeded expectations is with the manganese mineralisation of the overburden and the much wider main vein reef than previously targeted.”

Kaboko’s Mansa manganese project now fully operational

Exposed reef at Mansa widening at depth (photo: Kaboko Mining).

mining news

14 07.13

Kentz Corporation Limited, the holding com-pany of the Kentz engineering and construc-tion group, has announced the award by Corredor Logistico Integrado de Nacala SA (CLIN – a Joint Venture company between Vale Moçambique Limitada, 80 % and CFM, the Mozambique Port and Railways Author-ity, 20  %) for the Nacala Corridor project in northern Mozambique.

The project is intended to provide a logis-tics solution for the transportation of coal mined at Moatize in Tete Province to the

maritime terminal located in Nacala on the Indian Ocean, via a new 912 km long railway corridor.

Kentz Engineers and Constructors Lim-itada has been contracted to undertake the structural, mechanical, electrical and instru-mentation erection and provide commission-ing assistance required to construct the main stockyard equipment. Kentz will erect 13 km of interconnecting belt conveyors as well as assemble and install approximately 14  000 tonnes of equipment including tipplers,

Continental Coal Limited, listed on the ASX and AIM, says it will seek a listing on the JSE. Investec Bank Limited has been appointed by Continental as sponsor and financial advisor for the proposed listing.

According to Continental, the listing on the JSE will serve as a strategic initiative and provide a platform for the company to enhance its growth prospects, facilitate in-vestment by African domiciled investors and augment stakeholder relations in South Africa in a more proactive and effective manner as it accelerates its growth profile. Its growth

projects include the proposed De Wittekrans mine, which will be its fourth thermal coal mine in South Africa.

“Being listed in the JSE is an important milestone for Continental, not only because it links us directly to the financial markets in South Africa, but also because it allows stakeholders in our business to participate in the growth of the company,” says Continental Coal CEO Don Turvey.

“African institutional and sophisticated in-vestors are very strong supporters of African focused resources companies, particularly

Komatsu has begun delivering the first of 23 large mine dump trucks to the Husab urani-um mine in Namibia with the first two dump bodies undertaking an epic road journey from Johannesburg to the far flung mine over 2 000 km away.

Planning for the trip was undertaken by a joint team of specialists from Komatsu and transporters Transcor, who aim to safely move the dump bodies over difficult terrain and across borders to the destination. The team believes it is set to surprise many who do not believe it possible to move the 14,6 m long by 10,7 m wide by 5,4 m high dump bodies by road. “For us it goes to prove that where others see problems, we see solutions. We are proud that no matter how big the chal-lenge, Komatsu is able to find the right solu-tions for our customers,” says Gerhard Klop-pers, Sales, Application Engineer Komatsu.

He says that a total of 23 Komatsu 960E trucks will be delivered to the Husab site, where they will become the primary movers of waste and ore on the new mine. The im-pressive dump bodies were manufactured entirely in South Africa by Efficient Engineer-ing and their delivery to site marks the begin-ning of the assembly phase.

Simultaneously, the chassis are being man-ufactured in the USA before being shipped to Walvis Bay for final delivery to the mine about 100 km away. The phased delivery will coin-cide with the ramping up of the new mine to reach full readiness by the end of 2014.

Kloppers explains that moving the dump

Komatsu begins delivery of dump trucks to Husab

Komatsu has begun delivering the first of 23 large mine dump trucks to the Husab uranium mine in Namibia (photo: Komatsu).

bodies requires massive coordination of all parties involved – Komatsu, the body manu-facturers, transporters and road traffic au-thorities alike. Every step of the journey has to be carefully measured and investigated before the 50-ton freight can be granted per-mission to travel.

Even then strict conditions apply and the vehicles need to be accompanied by at least two escorts from Transcor, as well as two road traffic officials from South Africa, at all times. Once across the border at Nakop Bor-der Post, the Namibian authorities will require a similar arrangement.

“Everything needs to be planned – from the distance that can be covered during daylight hours to power line heights and bridge weight carrying capacities and more. Most impor-tantly with one of the widest consignments being carried by road in the region, hazards at the verges of the route needed to be identi-fied and catered for.

“In the end we are confident it will all work out and the assembly project will get under-way without a glitch. We are also looking forward to the next few months during which time all the machines will be brought into op-eration,” Kloppers concludes.

Continental Coal plans listing on the JSE those in production, and in most instances are more comfortable trading on the JSE than other exchanges. The strong performance of a number of South African listed thermal coal companies over the past 12 months demon-strates the level of support possible and the recognition of the strength of South Africa’s coal sector.”

The proposed listing is currently planned for completion during Q4 2013, subject to the release of an independent Competent Persons Report on the company’s mines and development and exploration projects that is being prepared by Venmyn Deloitte and re-ceipt of the requisite regulatory approvals.

Kentz awarded Nacala Corridor contract stackers, reclaimers and shiploaders. The US$38 million contract is scheduled

for completion in November 2014. Carl Dyer, Kentz Regional Managing Direc-

tor for Africa, commented: “With the award of this important project, Kentz is delighted to continue the relationship with Vale in Mo-zambique. Following the successful comple-tion of Moatize Phase 1, the award of this critical component of the Nacala Corridor project demonstrates the confidence this key client has in our ability to deliver complex, fast track projects in geographically chal-lenging areas.”

mining news

16 07.13

bauma Africa show will cement SA-German tiesElaine Crewe, CEO of MMI South Africa, states that the first bauma event in Africa represents an im-portant aspect of the growing partnership between South Africa and Germany, particularly in the min-ing and construction sectors.

bauma Africa, International Trade Fair for Con-struction Machinery, Building Material Machines, Mining Machines and Construction Vehicles, will take place for the first time in Africa from 18 to 21 September at Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

“As the first bauma started in Germany, it is, es-sentially, a German event. Now that we are bring-ing the show to Africa, it is important for the two countries to maintain a strong relationship,” says Crewe.

She adds that the event has been successful in Germany, India (a joint venture with AEM) and

China and that the company hopes to continue this success in Africa.

“The event will serve as a platform to introduce major German players to the South African and Af-rican markets. This will result in increased foreign investment in both mining and construction, ben-efitting the economy of South Africa and Africa as well,” she says.

Crewe notes that the South Africa-Germany partnership also adds a sense of credibility to the event.

“Germany will occupy one of the nine country pavilions at bauma Africa, which is set to be the largest German pavilion at any African event,” she states. Currently, 112 German companies have registered for bauma Africa, including major com-panies such as Bauer, Benninghoven, ELBA-WERK, Herrenknecht, Wacker Neuson and Wirtgen.

North River Resources plc, the AIM-listed re-source company active in Namibia and Mo-zambique, has announced its results for the year to 31 December 2012.

In his ‘Managing Director’s Statement’, Martin French says the company has now de-cided to focus its efforts on re-opening the Namib lead-zinc mine near Swakopmund in Namibia. “The Board believes that the pros-pects of re-opening the Namib mine are good. Adjacent to the mined-out area are a number of orebodies on strike that have been drilled to a depth of around 200 m. There is strong potential that these, and the mined-out orebodies, continue at depth, and that further orebodies will be appraised close to the mine, or in the local vicinity, yielding the required tonnages to re-open a high grade mine,” he says.

“Significant work has been undertaken during 2012 on the Namib project. The bot-tom two levels of the mine were dewatered from September 2011 to April 2012 through the pumping out of approximately 15 million litres of water. We believe when the mine was last in operation the water had entered, via a fault, from the slime pit and had not been correctly disposed of, and as a result was effectively re-circulated into the mine. It is also possible that the flash floods in the area, which generally only occur once every few years, may have deposited some additional water. The mine is now dry and we do not expect water to be an on-going issue at this depth in future. However, water may be pres-ent at near mine targets.

“Dewatering of the mine allowed 3D mod-elling, a photographic survey and a 600 m channel sampling programme to be conduct-ed at the lower levels, producing some en-couraging results and locating pods of high grade ore with up to 20 per cent contained metal. We expect the quantity of in-situ ore identified within the old mine structure to be between 50 000 and 100 000 tonnes. This ore

Australia’s Resource Generation (ResGen) has signed a binding term sheet for a US$55,3 million loan facility with Noble Resources In-

North River now focused on Namib lead/zinc projectwas due to be mined before the operation was shut down in 1992, due to low commod-ity prices and unions problems, and is signifi-cant because it is so readily accessible. Initial calculations indicate that such ore could ac-count for as much as half a year’s resource for the mine’s production plan.”

According to French, the surveys carried out in 2012, in conjunction with the surface drilling programme conducted by Kalahari Minerals in 2007, have enabled the delinea-tion of a maiden JORC resource of 668 000 tonnes at 6,6 per cent Zn, 2,5 per cent Pb, 46 g/t Ag and 33 g/t In (indium).

“In addition to exploration data, we have also located historical production data,” French continues. “We have ascertained that the mine produced at least 104 000 tonnes of concentrate, worth in excess of US$100 million in revenue at today’s commodity prices and normal recovery returns. This con-centrate was extracted from approximately 700  000 tonnes of ore mined to a depth of around 200 m. We calculate that the head grade would have been about 10 per cent combined lead and zinc contained metal.”

A Conceptual Engineering Study (CES) and Development Plan for Namib was developed throughout 2012 and presented in Q4 2012 to the Board for review. The CES will provide im-portant groundwork for a pre-feasibility study and will consequently help accelerate the de-velopment of the project, notes French.

“Following its review of the CES, the Board has initiated a three-stage programme for the Namib project,” says French. “Stage One (designated ‘proof-of-concept’) will comprise further drilling and geophysics over the com-

ing months designed to better understand the extent and the scope of the orebody around the historic mine. We wish to inves-tigate three targets along strike of existing orebodies very close to the mine site, and examine the orebodies at depth via drilling from surface and down hole electromagnetic probes (DHEM). This will hopefully give the company a better feel for the longer-term po-tential of the mine and provide clearer targets for resource drilling.

“Stage Two is anticipated to largely com-prise resource drilling, much of it probably underground, and possibly concurrently with producing the remaining studies and reports necessary to support an application for a mining licence. Stage Three would comprise the development of the mine, and could be completed within a year at low cost by install-ing modular units.

“We are currently planning for a 200 000 t/a processing plant which will make use of the existing excellent road, and power infra-structure. Plant equipment of this scale can be bought off the shelf and in modular form, thereby keeping costs down. We anticipate capacity at Walvis Bay port, located 60 km away, to import the required capital equip-ment during development and to export the concentrate (via container) during produc-tion. The town of Swakopmund is located only 20 km along the Trans-Kalahari Highway from the mine and therefore we will probably not have to build worker accommodation on site. The project benefits from being small and having established infrastructure, re-ducing the anticipated capital expenditure,” French concludes.

ResGen negotiates loan facility for rail linkternational, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Noble Group, which will be used for construc-tion of the Boikarabelo rail link.

The 38 km rail link from the Boikarabelo mine in the Waterberg coalfield to the exist-ing Transnet Freight Rail network is one of the longer lead time items for the construc-tion of the mine. The loan will have a term of eight years and will begin to be drawn down – allowing construction to commence – as soon as possible.

Paul Jury, MD, said: “Commencing the rail link is a major catalyst for the construction of the Boikarabelo coal mine. The loan enabling the works is also another innovative example of our efforts to finance construction and mitigate completion risk. The knock-on effect of this construction activity is significant in terms of physical site establishment, as well as providing a stimulus for further funding of the remaining construction.

“It complements action already undertaken with respect to mobile equipment and mate-rial handling leveraged funding, in addition to the continuing negotiations with ten banks for project finance.”

mining news

Keaton Energy has released its quarterly pro-duction statement for the period ended 30 June 2013.

Production growth continued strongly in the quarter. Vanggatfontein colliery delivered 526 034 t of washed 2- and 4-Seam thermal coal to Eskom in the quarter, an increase of 48 % from the previous quarter’s 356 518 t and some 70 % higher than the correspond-ing period last year.

5-Seam metallurgical coal sales into the do-mestic market increased by 26 % to 25 246 t from 20 111 t in the previous quarter, and were up 43 % on the corresponding period last year. In addition, some 78 071 t of third party coal was toll washed versus 68 110 t in the previous quarter and zero in the corresponding period.

“As expected, the strong end to FY13 con-tinued with record production and cash gen-eration during the first quarter of FY14,” says Mandi Glad, Keaton’s CEO. “Vanggatfontein looks set to deliver outstanding results this year.”

Production at Keaton Energy’s Vaalkrantz colliery in KZN was affected by geological dif-ficulties, but the mine still dispatched 76 454 t of anthracite to domestic and export custom-ers in the three month period to 30 June 2013, down 2 % compared with the previous quar-ter’s 78 348 t and down only 9 % versus the corresponding period last year.

“Vaalkrantz’s performance, in the face of

Keaton Energy reports strong production growth

continuing challenging geological conditions, is pleasing both from production and safety perspectives,” says Glad. “With the long-life Vanggatfontein mine now approaching steady state, our priority remains to grow our

Mining operations by mining contractor Liviero at Keaton Energy’s Vanggatfontein mine. The excavators are a Liebherr 9250 (on the left) and a Liebherr 984 while the trucks are Cat 777Ds.

business by advancing our internal pipeline of development projects, aggressively pur-suing acquisition opportunities and further optimising the performance of our existing operations.”

cover story

18 07.13

For each area of today’s evolving open-pit opera-tion, there’s a purpose-built Allight mobile or skid-mounted lighting tower product that ensures intense

illumination, supplied and supported by Bar-loworld Power.

ALLIGHT provides mine wide lighting coverage

Wi t h i n typ ica l o p e n -

cast production lay-outs, haul road access

and mining bench set-ups keep changing in

line with the extraction programme, so nothing remains fixed in place for too long. That applies in particular to in-pit lighting, which is seldom, if ever, permanent or connected to grid power, and thus needs to be fully mo-bile, and diesel powered.

Balancing manoeuvrability with safe, effective lighting coverage is a key concern for 24/7 mining envi-ronments that must ensure rapid re-deployment of illumination systems. This applies to routine day-to-day operations, as well as after blasting has occurred. In the latter respect, the challenge for on-site managers is to en-sure that all earthmoving machines and associated plant return to their work stations as quickly as possible and the night-time landscape is lit-up in time for the next shift.

A leader in the mobile lighting mar-ket for mines and allied industries, Barloworld Power is meeting the

demand for fixed highwall and in-pit illumination with the Allight range of lighting towers, designed for maximum personnel safety, both in terms of set-up and functionality.

Produced by Perth-based Australian original equip-ment manufacturer (OEM), AllightSykes, the product offered locally is comprehensive, catering for mining, construction and municipal markets. Allight has led the mobile lighting field in the Australasia region for more than two decades, as well as in markets that include the USA, Indonesia and Africa.

Currently, around 3 000 Allight units are manu-factured annually for worldwide distribution, and all products meet the strict health and safety requirements of the Australian mining industry, which is one of the most regulated globally. That includes environmental protection: each unit has a 110 % diesel fluid spillage bund as standard.

Alongside the Allight series is the interna-tionally renowned Sykes mining pump range,

providing high head dewatering solutions that are

There are currently seven Mine-Spec models. Shown here is the MineSpec MS10K-9 unit.

cover story

1907.13

The Allight range of lighting towers is designed for maximum personnel safety, both in terms of set-up and functionality.

making their presence felt on sites that include mines in Botswana, Lesotho, the DRC and Zambia.

Barloworld Power is the Cat and Perkins power dealer for Southern Africa, as well as being the sole AllightSykes distributor in this region. As the Cat and Perkins dealer, Barloworld Power supplies engines, as well as designing turnkey power generation solu-tions for construction and mining – driven by diesel, Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) or gas for prime and standby requirements up to 90 MW.

Since AllightSykes products are driven by either Cat or Perkins diesel engines, this ensures compre-hensive warranty, parts and service back-up by Bar-loworld Power.

AllightSykes products are available ‘off-the-shelf’ or for rental via Barloworld Power’s Rental business unit, with a low hour certified used option available for purchase.

A master in mobile solutions, there is an Allight product for every task across the mining, construc-

Spec model series is completely industry focused with up to seven scopes of lighting direction posi-tioning. Also available as an option are high pres-sure sodium lamps shining powerful yellow light for applications requiring environmental sensitivity, or sites with heavy airborne particulates, such as coal, dust or fog.

Currently there are seven MineSpec models, a popular mid-range example being the MS6K-9T

ALLIGHT provides mine wide lighting coverage

tion and allied sectors – with dozens of mast height options for maximum flexibility – and all units are compact in design and ‘portable’. For mine spec units, these are either wheel-mounted for easy towing, or skid-mounted. On all units, individual horizontal and vertical lamp adjustment enables operators to focus light direction more precisely.

Key products within the in-pit Allight range include the Combilite for heavy construction and light mining environ-ments, and the MineSpec series with the top-end Super Skid line-up for maximum light coverage.

On the Combilite, the tower projects 6 000 W of light via metal halide lamps, and thanks to its unique articulated option for highwall overhangs, maximum illumination up to 2 275 mm can be focused on the work platform to improve productivity and safety.

At the next level, the Allight Mine-

On the Combilite, the tower projects 6 000 W of light via metal halide lamps, and thanks to its unique articulated option for highwall overhangs, maximum illumination up to 2 275 mm can be focused on the work platform to improve productivity and safety.

cover story

2107.13

unit, available in single or double-ax-le wheeled configuration. The unit has a gross weight of 1 500 kg for legal on and off-road towing, enabling rapid deployment. Once erected, the maximum mast height is 9 m, with area coverage provided by a series of four highly durable 1 500 W metal double-ended halide lights that keep on burning through designated shifts thanks to a 130 litre fuel tank.

Hydraulic mast extension and retraction function-ality via a ground level control panel provides ease of positioning for either vertical applications or hori-zontal in-pit lighting, with double acting rams, safety valves and safety micro switches safeguarding mine personnel when locking the mast in one of the seven preset positions. Up to 360 degree rotation for op-timal light direction is possible with the mast fully extended.

“We’ve supplied a number of MineSpec units to major existing and green field projects in Southern Africa in recent months where we’ve assisted in providing optimal pit illumination using a combi-nation of towers to light up working areas that can

typically range up to a radius of 300 metres,” ex-plains Brett Trojanowski from Barloworld Power, based in Boksburg.

Then, when size matters, there’s the Allight Super Skids, available in four models. In addition to the standard MineSpec features and benefits, this model range offers the choice of fifteen 1 000 W high pres-

sure sodium lamps delivering almost 2 million lumens of intense yellow tinted light, or

twelve 2 000 W metal halide lamps de-livering nearly 2,3 million lumens

of clear, true-white illumina-tion for virtual ‘daylight’

coverage.All Super Skid

units come with a 12 m fully ex-tended mast of-fering and 10,7 m highwall overhang capability, which when positioned according to a surveyed lighting plan ensures that working areas, roadways and cross haulages remain highly visible, and mine safe.

The Allight Super Skid series is available in four models. All Super Skid units come with a 12 m fully extended mast offering and 10,7 m highwall overhang capability.

22 07.13

The Mupane mine, which is Galane’s core asset, was developed by Australia’s Gallery Gold as a 1 Mt/a open-pit/CIL operation in 2003/04 and

later became part of the IAMGOLD stable. The mine poured its first gold in November 2004, in the process returning Botswana – which has a long but sporadic history of relatively small-scale gold production – to the status of a gold producer. To date, Mupane has produced nearly 600 000 ounces of gold and should now be in closure mode as the original BFS – based on a mineable reserve of 589 000 ounces – only en-visaged a very limited life. But there is no sign of it closing anytime soon and its current remaining life is four plus years, with every prospect that this can be significantly extended.

“We purchased Mupane knowing that it was a sound asset which only needed focused management to put it on the right path,” says Condon. “It’s clear that it’s one of those mines which can go on for many years provided the gold price holds up. It can draw not only on the mineral resources in the immediate

area of the Mupane plant but also those of a multitude of surrounding prospects, which are all at varying stages of exploration. Over the past year, for example, ore was derived not only from the Tholo pit adjacent to the Mupane plant but also from the Signal Hill pit, now exhausted, and the Golden Eagle pit, which will remain active until the end of next year. Both Signal Hill and Golden Eagle are around 25 km from the Mupane plant – in opposite directions – and illus-trate our strategy going forward – which is to supple-ment the resources at the Mupane site with a series of satellite deposits, all within trucking distance of the plant.”

The plant is a modern CIL facility with a capacity of 1,2 Mt/a of oxide ore and 1,0 Mt/a of sulphide ore. “This is a key asset which is performing well and which potentially has many years of life ahead,” says Condon. “It has the ability to service all our tene-ments within the Tati goldbelt, which extends from the Francistown area down to Matsiloje near the Zim-babwean border over a distance of about 60 km. The

GALANE GOLD gets to grips with mupane

The Tholo pit at the Mupane mine site. A major accelerated cutback at Tholo has now been completed.

Galane Gold, the TSX-V-listed company which in 2011 acquired Botswana’s only active gold mine, Mupane, as well as a dominant landholding within the Tati Greenstone Belt, reports that it is making good progress with its acquisitions. Gold production for 2012 (Galane’s financial year coincides with the calendar year) was just under 50 000 ounces, which was within expectations, while very positive results have been forthcoming from the company’s exploration of its tenements within the Tati Belt. Modern Mining’s Arthur Tassell recently spoke to CEO Philip Condon and Chief Geologist Charles Byron about Galane’s current activities and future prospects.

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Assets at Map Nora include a headgear and winder, as well as a 340 m deep shaft.

The Mupane gold plant seen from the air.

plant is centrally located within the belt so most pros-pects are within a 30 km radius of the facility.”

He adds that an opportunity has been identified to increase the tonnage capacity of the plant from a nominal 140 t/h to 160 t/h (depending on ore type and grinding index) through the addition of a second-ary crushing circuit. The capital cost is estimated at US$3,5 million and Galane is currently reviewing the optimum time to implement the expansion.

During 2012, Galane mined 906 000 tonnes of ore and milled 1 084 thousand tonnes at an average head grade of 1,70 g/t, with the plant delivering a recov-ery rate of 83 %. The total operating cash cost was US$1  027 per ounce (excluding royalties) and the net earnings after tax amounted to US$17,4 million. Condon acknowledges that the cash cost per ounce is high – he attributes it largely to a stripping ratio of nearly 15 to 1 over the year – but says that mining and operating costs on a dollar per tonne basis com-pare favourably with Galane’s peers within the gold mining industry. He also points out that with a major accelerated cutback at Tholo now complete, Mupane will see better grades and a lower stripping ratio in the year ahead.

In a further development, Galane, which has been doing about a third of its mining in house, has opted to totally outsource this function. “We believe that moving to 100 % contract mining will ultimately in-troduce a new level of efficiency to the mining opera-tion,” he says.

Condon, an Australian professional engineer with 26 years of experience in mining (including a stint

as CEO of the National Mining Company of Oman), stresses that Galane is highly committed to Botswana and that its employee complement is overwhelmingly composed of Batswana. “We only have approximately

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Another aerial shot of the Mupane property showing the current tailings dam and (to the right of the photo) the Tau pit.

The results of Galane’s regional soil sampling within the Tati Greenstone Belt.

10 % expats and we have a training and localisation programme in place to reduce this even further over time with promotion on merit,” he says. “All of the senior management up to and including CFO, Chief Geologist and CEO are based in Francistown – it’s the centre of our universe. We don’t believe in the ap-proach adopted by many juniors of trying to manage an African mining operation from offices in Toronto or London or Perth. Mupane needs hands-on manage-ment and that’s what we’re delivering.”

On the exploration side, Galane has made great progress over the past 18 months and earlier this year it issued a mineral resource update on its Tati Belt properties. This defined a total measured and indi-cated resource of 508 400 ounces of gold (including a measured resource of 91 800 ounces within the Mupane slimes dump) and a total inferred mineral resource of 261 000 ounces. Comments Charles By-ron: “The point to notice here is that the resource –

excluding the Mupane slimes dump – has increased by 17 600 ounces since our 2011 technical report de-spite two years of depletion through ongoing mining operations. It demonstrates very clearly our ability to replace resources as we mine.”

Byron, who earned his BSc in geology from the University of Natal, has lived in Botswana since the mid-1980s and has unrivalled experience of the Tati Greenstone Belt. He led the team which discovered the Mupane deposit in the late 1990s and remained involved with the project through to production and beyond. He says that Galane’s tenements cover about 90 % of the Tati Belt and close on 100 % of the “in-teresting parts”.

Among the prime prospects being evaluated by Byron and his team is the Jim’s Luck deposit, which will probably replace Golden Eagle when the mining of the surface resource is completed. Located 25 km to the east of the Mupane plant, Jim’s Luck – which has

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The Mupane plant is a modern CIL facility with a capacity of 1,2 Mt/a of oxide ore and 1,0 Mt/a of sulphide ore.

seen some small-scale mining in the past – hosts some 10 km of strike of gold mineralisation, in three paral-lel reefs, of which 830 m has been drilled in detail. A maiden resource of 139 400 oz (including 93 000 oz in the measured and indicated category) has been de-clared for the property and an application for a min-ing licence has been submitted to the Department of Mines. Byron stresses that Jim’s Luck has excellent potential for expansion, with the resource being open at depth and along strike and with a newly discovered parallel reef currently under investigation.

Other opportunities within the Tati Belt include Tekwane, 11 km north of the processing plant, where Galane is working on defining gold mineralisation oc-curring in a flat-lying quartz rubble bed within the soil profile, close to surface, and the Map Nora pros-pect, just to the south of Francistown.

Pitting at Tekwane has produced very encourag-ing results with around 120 pits carrying auriferous quartz rubble of above 0,5 g/t gold. The quartz rubble is free digging and could be mined at minimal cost.

While Tekwane would be a surface operation, Map Nora – essentially the old Shashe mine – represents an underground mining opportunity. Developing in-frastructure for an underground mine is expensive but Byron points out that much of the infrastructure is already in place. “We have inherited a 340 m deep shaft, as well as a headgear and winder, from the pre-vious operator of the mine, all in reasonably good condition, although some refurbishment would be necessary,” he says. “The only real challenge at Map Nora is the refractory nature of the ore. We’re look-ing at a number of possibilities including bioleaching technology which is now a mature technology and we could either produce a concentrate and treat it on site or toll treat it at a bioleach facility in South Africa. We’re also conducting new metallurgical tests on new ore samples, which will indicate the optimal options that we might have including processing through our existing plant.”

Byron believes there is a potential for 150 000 ounces of gold to a depth of 300 m at Map Nora – with a potential for a further 200 000 ounces for every additional 300 m of depth.

Apart from ‘virgin’ prospects such as Tekwane,

other resources available to Galane include 15 tail-ings dumps scattered throughout the Tati Belt, all of which have been sampled (via auger drilling) and surveyed and eight of which are regarded as probably economic. Comments Byron: “The biggest dump by far is at Mupane itself, where we have just over 7 Mt of material at a grade of 0,4 g/t. This resource was de-clared in our latest mineral resource statement. The other dumps are all of the order of 200 000 tonnes with the average grade being around 1 g/t – which is surprisingly high. We believe that ultrafine grinding could be applicable to the dump material and we’re currently looking at the results other mining compa-nies are getting from this approach.”

At the Mupane site itself, Galane is looking at es-tablishing an underground operation at the Tau pit, where mining was discontinued after the open-pit reserve was depleted in 2009. “We could conceiv-ably do a cutback at Tau but it would involve a ca-pex of around US$36 million and take 14 months to complete,” says Condon. “That’s too expensive and too long so we are looking at going underground via a decline and in fact we’re about to start a feasibil-ity study on the project, which we call Tau Deeps.” He notes that recent drilling results by the previous owners at Tau include a 53 m intersection averaging 4,55 g/t including 24 m at 6,57 g/t gold and 15 m at 5,86 g/t gold.

Looking ahead, Condon says that Galane would like to eventually attain a 100 000 ounce a year level of production – which he describes as the thresh-old which, once achieved, attracts a broader share-holder base. “We think we can certainly up our pro-duction from the Tati Belt assets but it could be that we will also need to acquire further assets,” he says. “Given our expertise, we would probably be looking at other greenstone belts. Zimbabwe is an obvious destination based on the geology of its gold deposits although there are concerns regarding its standing as an investment destination. Whatever the case, we are keeping an eye open for opportunities and it is certainly possible that Galane might eventually be-come a more diversified producer in the region than it is at present.” Photos: Galane Gold

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As projects go, No 16 Shaft is a true mining megaproject and will enable Implats’ Rusten-burg operation to access new ore reserves

and maintain a stable production profile. Once in full production (expected in FY2018), the shaft will produce 185 000 ounces of platinum per year at a life of shaft average grade of 4,19 g/t (3PGE+Au). The expected life of the shaft is 25 years.

During construction, which saw many notable ‘firsts’ (as our article last month made clear), just over 2  200 people were employed on site and, between them, RSV and Shaft Sinkers managed a total of 48 companies involved in the project, which started in 2004. As of the date of hand-over, R5,1 billion of the total capital vote of R6,9 billion had been spent.

Guests at the hand-over included Gerhard Pot-gieter, Implats’ Project Executive; Hennie Read, CEO of RSV, along with colleagues Robin Bremner, RSV’s CEO: Projects, Torra Engelbrecht, RSV Group Con-struction Manager, and Leon van der Westhuizen, RSV Project Manager, No 16 Shaft; and Alon Davidov and Louis Germishuys, respectively CEO and COO of Shaft Sinkers Holdings. Potgieter, Bremner, Germi-shuys and No 16 Shaft GM, Frikkie Höll, all spoke at the event. Introducing the speakers was Impala’s No 16 Shaft Project Manager, Jako Pienaar.

Addressing the guests, Potgieter said the new shaft

was the second of Implats’ fourth generation shafts, which had constituted the vast majority of Implats’ capital expenditure programme over the last few years. “The first shaft to be commissioned at Impala was the No 20 shaft complex in 2012, the second, the No 16 shaft complex which is being handed over to-day, and thirdly, the No 17 shaft which is still being developed,” he said. “In addition, Implats has invest-ed in the Zimplats phase 2 project.”

The combined impact of the new shafts being com-missioned and developed in Rustenburg will, over the next five years, increase the ratio of Merensky Reef milled. This is forecast to increase from the cur-rent 43 % of total throughput to 50 % due to the ex-ploitation of reserves at the new 20 and 16 shaft com-plexes. The increased Merensky production will have a beneficial impact on both headgrade and recoveries.

The new No 16 shaft infrastructure, which has been designed to support mining operations at a rate of 226 500 reef tonnes a month, is designed to strict standards that are proven as best practice within the Impala Group. The system consists of a 10 m diam-eter, 1 675 m deep main hoisting shaft and a 6,8 m diameter, 1 440 m deep ventilation shaft. The seven levels of the main shaft will access both the Meren-sky and UG2 reef horizons, with the emphasis being on mining the Merensky Reef during the initial ramp up phase.

The No 16 shaft headframe, at 108 m, is now the

NO 16 SHAFT officially handed over to implats

Gerhard Potgieter (left), Implats’ Project Executive, and Hennie Read, CEO of RSV, at the beneficial hand-over.

In last month’s issue, we published an article on the rope-up of the Koepe winders at Impala Platinum’s No 16 Shaft complex near Rustenburg. Modern Mining visited No 16 Shaft to view the rope-up and has since returned to the site for the handing over of the project, which took place on 21 June. Those attending the hand-over included senior representatives of Implats, RSV (the EPCM contractor) and Shaft Sinkers Holdings (the shaft-sinking contractor).

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Above: The headframe of Impala’s No 16 Shaft – at 108 m, it is believed to be the tallest concrete headgear in the world.

Left: The hand-over was attended by representatives of the client and the main contractors.

Pictured here (from left) are No 16 Shaft General Manager, Frikkie Höll; RSV’s CEO: Projects, Robin Bremner; and Louis Germishuys, COO of Shaft Sinkers.

tallest known concrete headgear in the world, and is equipped with two Koepe winders for man/material transport and rock hoisting. The rock winder is de-signed to hoist 226 500 reef tonnes a month whereas the man winder will be capable of transporting 2 300 employees per hour through the use of a double deck man cage, with each deck having a capacity of 150 people.

Potgieter added: “To ensure the planned produc-tion build-up, early development commenced out of the ventilation shaft on four of the seven produc-tion levels concurrent with the sinking, construction and equipping activities on the main shaft. Despite the constraints experienced with development sup-ported through a sinking shaft configuration, this ini-tiative successfully managed to complete the capital footprint on all four levels and established three fully equipped raise lines ready for production.”

RSV’s Bremner (who previously worked for Im-plats), gave some interesting detail on the history of No 16 Shaft in his address, pointing out that it was originally envisaged as a much bigger project. Taking his audience back more than 20 years, he said “the

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The No 16 Shaft complex. Once in full production, it will produce 185 000 ounces of platinum per year.

economic climate in the early 90s was not good. No 15 Shaft was stopped and No 16 Shaft was left on paper. At this time Impala went through a major restructur-ing and No 16 Shaft went through many options.

“These options and trade-off studies carried on over the next 10 years and eventually – in 2002 – a final option was tabled. No 16 Shaft was a large com-plex, producing over 500 kt/month. It had 10 levels, twin production shafts and four other vent/fridge shafts. There were trackless and hybrid mining sec-tions, as well as conventional mining sections, and it was located over the road near to where No 17 Shaft is today. It was a very exciting proposition and looked like it held promise to go forward.

“However, there was also a substantial capital outlay and the NPV financial model did not give a positive return,” Bremner continued. “We could not make it work. All stakeholders then requested that due diligence be carried out to identify issues and opportunities.”

Bremner said the result of the due diligence was that Impala reverted to its “traditional model” and what it did best on other shafts. “The first thing we did was to revert to the traditional 2 km dip and 4 km strike mining block with six levels,” he said. “This moved No 16 Shaft to the current block. We then derived the resource to set the initial criteria for the project at a very high level to determine if we had a viable opportunity or not.”

The Feasibility Study was started in mid-2003 and, according to Bremner, this was when the challenges started. “We had no geotechnical evaluation holes for the shafts (essential to determine the structural integ-rity amongst others) and we also had to locate them in the mining block,” he said. “The old ones were in the block across the road. So they were drilled. Also we had low resolution 3D seismics of the block and new high resolution 3D seismics were also carried out to improve the confidence levels and reduce the risks of the unknown.

“As the information came in, we had to make changes. First, the dip of the reef changed in the up-per levels and we had to add a level. This was after we had done a lot of work on the mine design. Then

the Hex River Fault hit us and we had to address the challenges – including water – associated with this geological anomaly.

“We identified the opportunity of developing a RAW from No 1 Shaft to utilise spare vent capacity and for a second outlet to reduce risk and improve safety. There were others and eventually in 2004 we had a project that worked on paper and we secured Board approval in 2004 with lots of lobbying and pre-sentations.”

Recounting the early months of the project, Brem-ner said site establishment took place in September 2004 and that soon thereafter holes being drilled for geotech work hit water a few metres below surface. This resulted in the shaft layout being changed, with the main shaft moving to the vent shaft position and the vent shaft moving to a new location.

Concluding his talk, Bremner listed some of the highlights of the project including the slide of the con-crete headgear in just 33 days – which he described as “fantastic to witness” – and the start of sinking on both shafts ahead of schedule. He also noted that the project team had delivered the project on time de-spite many heated – but always constructive – meet-ings and “much planning and replanning”.

The final word on No 16 Shaft should probably go to Implats’ CEO, Terence Goodlace. In a statement released to coincide with the beneficial handover, he said the project team could be extremely proud of its safety performance and project milestone achievements. “This team has achieved more than two million fatality free shifts and the shaft has been equipped and commissioned within planned param-eters and budget,” he said. “Preparations for mining operations will start immediately and first stoping is expected to start in the September 2013 quarter. The new shaft complex ensures that Implats remains in an excellent position to benefit from the long term PGM market fundamentals, specifically in an indus-try in which the supply side is being constrained by a lack of investment. This will also secure jobs for 6 500 people that are currently employed at the older generation Rustenburg shafts.”Photos: Arthur Tassell

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Putting Botswana’s mining industry in context, economist Dr Keith Jefferis of Econsult Bo-tswana said that mineral exports were project-

ed to grow steadily till they plateaued at around Pula 65 billion in 2021. He predicted a considerable drop from around 2026 onwards, as diamond resources depleted. He said that coal would become increas-ingly important as a source of export earnings over the next 10 to 15 years but cautioned that coal exports would be unlikely to ever generate the revenues his-torically associated with diamonds. He also said that government revenues from mining would drop quite precipitously in the late 2020s with the decline in the diamond sector, a result of coal and other miner-als being far less lucrative from a fiscal perspective than diamonds. He concluded that Botswana needed to start preparing for a life after diamonds.

Modular breakthroughOf the presentations on diamond exploration and mining at the conference, one of the most interesting dealt with the new Modular Tailings Treatment Plant (MTTP) at Jwaneng mine. The presenter was Benja-min Baeletse, Group Manager – Process Engineering at Debswana, who said the new facility – currently under construction by EPCM contractor ADP Projects – would be able to treat 2,4 Mt/a and produce 18 mil-

DIVERSITy on the way for BOTSWANA MININGWhile this year’s Botswana Resource Sector Conference – held in Gaborone on 11 and 12 June – attracted a healthy number of delegates (around 370), the mood at the event was definitely more subdued than in previ-ous years, reflecting the global downturn in mining. Nevertheless, the presentations at the conference empha-sised the fact that Botswana – long regarded as a ‘one-trick pony’ because of its dependence on diamonds – has considerable minerals potential, with copper and coal (and, to a lesser extent, uranium) offering the prospect of a more diversified mining sector in the future, once market conditions improve and infrastruc-tural constraints are removed. Modern Mining’s Arthur Tassell attended the conference and reports here on some of the highlights of the event.

lion carats over 20 years. He noted that the plant had been designed for easy replication at other Debswana sites and was, in a sense, a ‘proof of concept’ project which would herald “a new frontier in marginal re-source exploitation.”

Baeletse said the pre-assembly and testing of all structures and equipment was designed to eliminate site erection difficulties, reduce overall construction time and ensure reliable operation on commissioning. He added that the modular concept made the design ideal for remote sites with minimal infrastructure and that it reduced the skill levels needed on site during construction. He also pointed out that plants of this type would have a low impact on the environment. He said the use of modules built on boxed steel skid frames reduced the need for on-site concrete founda-tions and he stressed that minimal site rehabilitation would be required at plant closure.

Ghaghoo through the sandAnother diamond project currently under construc-tion in Botswana is the Ghaghoo diamond mine in the Central Kalahari, which was covered in a presenta-tion by Haile Mphusu, MD of Gem Diamonds Botswa-na. Ghaghoo, which will enter operation in mid-2014 with an initial production of 230 000 carats a year, will be Botswana’s first underground diamond mine.

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The processing plant at Gem Diamonds’ Ghaghoo diamond mine in the Central Kalahari, now on care and maintenance till the start-up of the project (Photo: Gem Diamonds).

A visualisation of the Modular Tailings Treatment Plant (MTTP) at Jwaneng mine. The new facility will treat 2,4 Mt/a and produce 18 million carats over 20 years.

Access to the kimberlite orebody – covered by 80 m of Kalahari sand – is being provided by a decline. Mphusu said the sand portion of the decline – the so-called ‘Sand Tunnel’ – was nearing completion with (as of 10 June) 445 m of tunnel completed and only 14 m to go. The contractor responsible for the ‘Sand Tunnel’, Redpath Mining, has deployed an hydrauli-cally operated Open Face Tunnel Shield (OFTS) on the contract, which is probably the first time a ma-chine of this type has been employed in a decline anywhere in Africa. Among other things, the shield has been used to place the precast concrete segments – around 7 650 of them, each weighing approximately 400 kg – used to line the tunnel.

Once the ‘Sand Tunnel’ is complete and the OFTS removed (which should have taken place by the time this article is published), Gem Diamonds will take over the mining function for the remaining part of

Another view of the Ghaghoo plant with (in the foreground) the Motor Control Centre (MCC) and the 100 t/h AG mill (photo: Gem Diamonds).

the decline – the approximately 600 m long hard rock section through basalt (the ‘Basalt Tunnel’). Mphusu said the development fleet to be used by Gem – a drill rig, loader and truck, all from Atlas Copco – was al-ready on site and that completion of the Basalt Tun-nel would take place by the end of Q1 2014.

Providing an update on the Ghaghoo plant, Mphu-su said it had largely been completed earlier this year and was now effectively on ‘care and mainte-nance’ until the start-up of operations next year. De-signed and built by Consulmet, the facility includes a 100 t/h autogenous mill (only the second AG mill in Botswana), a 65 t/h DMS section and a 2 t/h X-ray recovery section.

The excavation of the ‘Sand Tunnel’, although suc-

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The ‘Sand Tunnel’ at Ghaghoo (photo: Gem Diamonds).

Botswana’s projected mineral exports through to around 2030 (taken from the presentation by Dr Keith Jefferis of Econsult Botswana). As can be seen, exports of diamonds tail off in the mid to late 2020s with coal and other minerals failing to make up for the loss of export revenues.

cessful, was marred by two fatalities in May last year. Mphusu said that in the aftermath of this incident, Gem Diamonds had instituted a number of measures to ensure safe working conditions and heighten safe-ty awareness. Senior safety appointments had been made, safety systems and procedures properly for-malised and leading indicators identified and imple-mented for regular review and action. In addition, senior mining contracting staff had been replaced. Modifications had also been made to the shield (es-sentially a safety platform and canopy were installed) to enhance safety and the shield’s mechanical excava-tor removed. Moreover, the advance rate of the shield was slowed.

The result, he told the conference, was a major im-provement in safety statistics, with only one LTI hav-ing being experienced since the fatalities, which he said was noteworthy given the dangerous conditions. He added that the site had earned an IRCA 4 Star Rat-ing during the February 2013 audit.

AG milling at KaroweThe new Karowe mine’s experience with an autog-enous mill was described by its GM, Gerald Ndlovu. The presentation was similar to one made by Ndlo-vu (and Lehman van Niekerk of DRA) at the recent SAIMM colloquium in Johannesburg entitled ‘Dia-monds – Source to Use 2013’ and readers are referred to our May 2013 issue for further details. Karowe (de-veloped from the AK6 project in the Orapa area and owned by Lucara) was opened last year and recently recovered a 239 carat stone, one of the largest dia-monds ever produced by the Orapa kimberlite field. The 28 ft diameter by 13 ft (EGL) variable speed mill, supplied by Outotec, is one of the first AG mills to be installed at an African diamond mining operation,

the only other examples being at the Catoca mine in Angola and the Ghaghoo mine in the Central Kala-hari. The Ghaghoo unit is much smaller and (as ex-plained above) not yet in operation. Ndlovu indicated that Karowe was broadly satisfied with the operation of its mill, although further work on optimising its operation remained.

Only two presentations covered the field of dia-mond exploration in detail, these being by John Teel-ing, Executive Chairman of Dublin-based Botswana Diamonds, which has tenements not only in Botswa-na but also in Cameroon and Mozambique, and Dr Leon Daniels, who is Chairman of Pangolin Dia-monds. Both are well-known in diamond exploration circles. Teeling, described on Botswana Diamonds’ website as “a serial entrepreneur in the resource sec-tor”, was involved in the sale of African Diamonds (and, along with it, the AK6 project) in 2010 to Lucara in a deal worth approximately US$90 million while Daniels has enjoyed a long career in exploration, with his many successes including the discovery of the only kimberlite (DK4) in the Orapa field not to be found by De Beers. He also played a major role in identifying the economic potential of AK6.

The Russians are comingIn a typically upbeat presentation, Teeling exuded optimism about the prospects of Botswana Diamonds and said the company was in negotiations with Rus-sian diamond mining giant Alrosa which could result in a joint venture to explore various properties in the Orapa area. Although he was vague about the details, he said the JV, if realised, could see “new technology to identify large diamondiferous kimberlites” being deployed. He described the technology as “incred-ible” and said it had already been used successfully in Russia to discover 17 diamond deposits in Sibe-ria and was able “to identify kimberlites under 80 to 100 m of sand, salt and basalt.”

Elsewhere in Botswana, the company has taken out an exclusive option on 13 licences in the Gope area of the Central Kalahari. Teeling said these were in the vicinity of the new Ghaghoo mine of Gem Dia-

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A drill site at Pangolin’s Tsabong North project in the south-west of Botswana. Two kimberlites have thus far been discovered by Pangolin at Tsabong North (photo: Pangolin Diamonds).

A drill rig working on the Ghanzi-Ngamiland copper project. Cupric Canyon Capital (CCC) is planning to develop a 3 Mt/a opencast and underground mining operation in the project area (photo: CCC).

monds, presently under development, as well as the new Petra discovery KX-36. He noted that Botswana Diamonds had taken out options on two blocks on the Save River in Mozambique which drains the Marange diamond field in Zimbabwe. Marange, he pointed out, was one of the biggest diamond finds of recent years with truly spectacular grades of around 8 000 carats per hundred tonnes having being recorded in localised parts of the deposit. It was expected to pro-duce nearly 17 million carats in 2013, he said.

Exploring out of the boxIn his presentation, Daniels put forward the view that a new approach was needed to kimberlite explora-tion. He said most of the prospective diamond areas of Botswana had been subjected to at least two phas-es of exploration and that it was pointless for new explorers to apply the same techniques to the same ground and expect a different outcome. New thinking was required, he argued, and he said that – amongst other things – Pangolin was looking at the craton edge and slightly off-craton, as exemplified by its 1 545 km2 Tsabong North project in the south-west of the country which lies on the margin of the Kaapvaal Craton and where it recently discovered a kimberlite.

In his address at the conference (and in private dis-cussions with Modern Mining), he also put forward the (probably controversial) view that all Botswana’s diamond mines (with the exception of Jwaneng) and those in neighbouring parts of South Africa were off-craton, lying between the Zimbabwe and Kaapvaal cratons. He listed these off-craton mines and kimber-lites as being Lerala, Venetia, The Oaks, the Orapa kimberlites and the Gope Go25 kimberlite (which is now being developed as the Ghaghoo mine). He also noted that there were several significant craton-mar-gin kimberlites/mines in Southern Africa, these being Dokolwayo, Jagersfontein, Letseng and Liqhobong. “The conventional wisdom is that you need to look for kimberlites on craton but the conventional wis-dom is wrong,” he told Modern Mining.

Since the conclusion of the conference, Pangolin has announced the discovery of a second kimberlite at Tsabong North, which it believes to be over 20 ha in extent. It has also reported that well-known geologist Manfred Marx (who led the field team that discov-

ered the Orapa kimberlite in the 1960s) has been ap-pointed as a consultant. Marx will work closely with Daniels and Pangolin’s CEO, Dr Willem Smuts, an-other highly experienced geologist with a strong track record in Africa.

The promise of copperWith the big Jwaneng and Orapa pits now very ma-ture, Botswana faces the prospect – as Keith Jefferis emphasised – that its diamond production, the main-stay of its economy, will inevitably decline. There have been big hopes that copper from the develop-ing copper region between Maun and Ghanzi would help to diversify the minerals sector and reduce the dependence on diamonds. The first mine in this area – Discovery Metals’ Boseto – opened last year but its ramp up has been slower than expected and Discovery reported recently that it “continues to be

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How big a coal industry can Botswana’s coal resources support? According to Mashale Phumaphi, MD of Shumba Coal, which holds the 1 billion tonne Sechaba thermal coal project near Palapye, as many as 24 new mines producing over 190 Mt/a could eventually be established. He told conference delegates that the Mmamabula and Morupule areas had the most potential, with the ability to host up to nine mines each.

He said that 50 % (96 Mt/a) of the planned annual mine output was past the scoping study stage with 39 % (74 Mt/a) being past the preliminary feasibility stage. Of the planned mine output beyond scoping study stage, 63,5 Mt/a was intended for export by rail. He added that the coal intended for power generation in projects beyond scoping study could sustain a power industry producing over 7 GW for domestic and regional consumption.

Existing and proposed routes for exporting Botswana’s coal, as identified by African Energy’s Frazer Tabeart in his presentation. The proposed new routes include the TFR (Transnet Freight Rail) Lephalale link, the Trans-Kalahari Railway and a line to Ponta-Techobanine in Mozambique which would broadly follow the Limpopo River down to the coast.

Coal ‘tsunami” on Botswana’s horizon?

in discussions with interested parties in relation to a potential transaction.”

Given its corporate problems, it was no surprise to see that Discovery, breaking the pattern of the past several years, was not a presenter at this year’s con-ference. Copper was, however, covered by Johannes Tsimako – representing Cupric Canyon Capital LLC (CCC) – who provided delegates with an update on what is now called the Ghanzi-Ngamiland project. The previous owner of the project – Hana Mining – was acquired by CCC earlier this year and Tsimako stressed that CCC’s management team (who, he said, had previously managed the 1,3 Mt/a mining opera-tions of Phelps Dodge, which were acquired by Free-port McMoRan in 2007 for US$25,9 billion) had vast experience in all phases of the mining process from exploration to development and operations.

As outlined by Tsimako, CCC is planning to devel-op a 3 Mt/a opencast and underground mining opera-tion at its Ghanzi property with the ore being treated via a conventional process route incorporating grind-ing and flotation to produce a deliverable concen-trate grading 46 % Cu and 414 g/t Ag. He said head grades were expected to be 1,02 % Cu and 12,13 g/t Ag with the plant achieving an average copper re-covery of 87 %. Whereas the nearby Boseto mine is owner-operated in terms of its mining, Tsimako said CCC would adopt a contract mining model. Look-ing ahead, he said CCC was planning to fast track the project. A feasibility study would be launched in September this year for completion in September 2014. He added that construction would take place in 2015/2016 with production starting in 2017.

While the sediment-hosted copper mineralisation occurring in the corridor between Maun and Ghanzi – now referred as the ‘Kalahari Copperbelt’ – is said to be similar in style to the deposits of the Central African Copperbelt of Zambia and the DRC, another company to present at the conference, TSX-V-listed Tsodilo Resources, believes that its properties in north-west Botswana, in the vicinity of the Tsodilo Hills, actually host an extension of the Copperbelt. As Mike de Wit, the company’s President and COO, made clear, the sequence of rocks identified by Tso-dilo on its tenements is identical in age and composi-tion to those in the Copperbelt. Tsodilo is also explor-ing for diamonds and iron ore and an article on its activities will be published in our next issue.

Gold was the focus of a presentation by Philip Con-don and Charles Byron of Galane Gold, who outlined the progress being made on the Mupane gold project near Francistown. The project is separately covered in this issue but suffice it to say here that Mupane, which started production in 2005 as a limited life operation, potentially has plenty of life left in it and could well go for another decade or more.

Uranium and coalMoving on from diamonds and copper, Botswana has considerable energy resources in the form of coal and uranium and these were the subject of several pre-sentations by companies such as Shumba Coal, Af-rican Energy Resources, Minergy, Hodges Resources and A-Cap, many of them of high quality. Space does not allow Modern Mining to review all of them here but two, in particular, were very impressive – the pre-

sentation by Paul Thomson on A-Cap’s Letlhakane uranium project south of Francistown and Frazer Tabeart’s account of the activities of African Energy, which owns the 2,5 billion tonne Sese coal project and which is in the process of acquiring the 1,3 bil-lion tonne Mmamantswe coal project.

Letlhakane (which also hosts a promising coal deposit) is the most advanced uranium project in Botswana and Thomson – who is CEO of A-Cap – ar-gued very convincingly that it has all the ingredients to be developed into a successful mine. While Letl-hakane is low grade, it contains a large high grade re-source – 143,2 Mt at 284 ppm U3O8 – which is easily mined by open-pit methods (Thomson described the orebody as “shallow, soft and flat”) and amenable to treatment in a standard heap leach process. He de-scribed the deposit as one of the few in the world ca-pable of production within the next three years and said it offered competitive operating costs (estimated at US$42/lb in the first five years) and a low capex (es-timated at under US$400 million for 3 Mlb/a produc-tion). The project is currently in the feasibility stage with Lycopdium appointed as the lead consultant. Thomson said Letlhakane could, in principle, be in operation by 2016 although this seems unlikely given

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the current state of the uranium market. Nevertheless, Letlhakane represents a big asset for Botswana and will probably be the project that will eventually lead to the country entering the ranks of the world’s ura-nium producers.

Logistics the keyMoving onto African Energy, this company has argu-ably been the most proactive in Botswana in advanc-ing its coal assets and has been attacking the problem of how to commercialise its coal resources on multiple fronts, pursuing – at Sese – both an integrated power project consisting of up to two 300 MW power sta-tions, allied to two captive, 1,5 t/a coal mines, and an export coal project with the potential to produce up to 20 Mt/a for export, primarily to Asian markets. Inade-quate rail infrastructure is currently the biggest single impediment to the development of Botswana’s coal-fields but African Energy’s Tabeart pointed out that the company had successfully trialled the route from Francistown through Zimbabwe to the Matola coal terminal in Maputo in November 2012. He said this route could support a low cost 2 Mt/a export project, the only prerequisite being some low-cost track im-provement. He added that a recently completed study had indicated that the route could be upgraded to in-crease the rail capacity to between 10 and 20 Mt/a.

Looking longer term, Tabeart said that if Botswana wanted to become a major exporter of coal, it needed to make significant investment to improve rail in-

frastructure to ultimately bring capacity to plus 100 Mt/a. There was also a need for consolidation of the country’s coal industry into fewer players with larger project portfolios (5 to 10 Bt minimum) “to attract multi-billion dollar infrastructure linked to equity participation in project development.” Concluding, he said that the long-term fundamentals for energy coal were robust, particularly in terms of Asia and Southern Africa, and that African Energy was well placed to take advantage of this demand.

A core sample from Shumba Coal’s Sechaba coal project. A prefeasibility study on the project, which is located 30 km north-west of Palapye, is currently underway (photo: Shumba Coal).

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GABORONE conference now into its TENTH yEAR

Paul Day, COO of Lucara Diamond Corp, pictured with Felicia Modise and Ribson Gabonowe of Boteti Mining (Lucara’s subsid-iary in Botswana). Gabonowe is MD of Boteti Mining.

Dr Frazer Tabeart (left), MD of African Energy, with Jerry Shar-rock, MD of exploration and geophysical consultants Gondwana Ventures.

Paul Thomson (left) and Andrew Groves, respectively CEO and GM, Exploration of A-Cap Resources.

The Galane Gold team. They are (from left) Thebe Fresh Tlhaodi (Senior Geologist), Nick Brodie (CFO), Philip Condon (CEO) and Charles Byron (Director and Chief Geologist).

Dr Willem Smuts (left), CEO of Pangolin Diamonds Corp, with Dr Leon Daniels, Chairman of Pangolin.

This year’s Botswana Resource Sector Conference, organised by Capital Resources and held in Gaborone on 11 and 12 June, was very healthy in terms of the number of delegates it attracted despite the downturn in min-ing. Our photos on this page show some of the exhibitors and delegates who attended the conference, now in its tenth year. Photos by Arthur Tassell and Bennie Venter of Modern Mining.

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Pictured on the Gecko Africa stand are (from left) Enwee van Blerk, GM, Gecko Drilling (Namibia); Rory Power, Engineer: Group Maintenance, Genet Mineral Processing; and Kobus Mul-der, Project Manager: Drilling & Blasting, Genet Mining.

Seen here (from left) are James Bruchs, Chairman and CEO of Tsodilo Resources, John Teeling, Executive Director of Botswana Diamonds, and Dr Mike de Wit, COO of Tsodilo Resources.

Typical scene at the Botswana Resource Sector Conference.

Seen on the Walkabout Resources (previously Nimrodel Resourc-es) stand are (from left) Bruce White (Walkabout), Russell Ives (Sandvik Mining & Construction), Cheryl Whitaker (Aveng Mool-mans) and Geoff Wallace (Walkabout).

Stuart Bateman, MD of Innov-X Africa.

Phillip van Niekerk (left) of PG industries (Botswana) and Rudi Nagel of Transport Holdings.

botswana

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green mining

Two pilot projects underway at Amplats are aimed at the introduction of platinum-based, fuel cell-powered equipment into under-

ground operations. The projects comprise the de-velopment with original equipment manufacturer Doking of a fuel cell-powered, remotely controlled mini-dozer for ore removal after blasting, and a fuel cell-powered locomotive being developed in part-nership with Vehicle Projects Incorporated, Trident SA and Battery Electric.

Sibanye Gold, for its part, has commissioned a methane-fired electricity generating plant at the Bea-trix gold mine feeding slightly less than 2 MW back into the national power grid and is working on the installation of a second plant of the same capacity to be commissioned early next year. This is the first ap-plication of the use of natural methane for power gen-eration at a gold mine in South Africa and possibly internationally.

Fuel cell technologyExpanding on the pilot projects at Amplats, Michael Joseph, Manager – Industrial Development and Ben-eficiation at Amplats, says that they are being run

separately but on similar timelines with the intention of developing business cases for the introduction of the equipment underground.

“Proof of concept testing of the mini-dozer will be-gin at Bathopele mine in September. If testing is suc-cessful we will proceed with full production testing. With the loco, underground testing will also start in September subject to performance criteria being met above ground.

“Initially, the loco will undergo a three-month proof-of-concept test at our School of Mines in a non-productive environment. Following successful test-ing, production testing will be launched in a fully operational shaft at Thembelani mine. We anticipate production testing will be launched in the first quar-ter of 2014.”

The fuel cell locomotive prototype was launched at Khomanani mine in Rustenburg last year to un-dergo a series of above-ground tests that will con-tinue through to August this year. Joseph indicates that testing progress was delayed as a result of minor technical issues with the pilot programme.

Referring to the positive environmental impacts arising from the use of fuel cell technology, Joseph

south africa innovates in ‘GREEN MINING’ arena

Underground testing of the fuel cell loco is due to start in September. Inset: The control cabin of the fuel cell loco (photos: Amplats).

South African mining houses Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Sibanye Gold are pushing ahead with ground-breaking technological innovations that provide positive environmental benefits as well as economic and safety impacts. Modern Mining contributor Blake Wilkins reports here on the projects.

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The methane flaring point at Sibanye Gold’s Beatrix mine (photo: Sibanye Gold).

points out that it is common cause that fuel cells have zero emissions. Should the fuel cell-powered equip-ment prove feasible, it will replace the acid lead bat-teries currently used to power underground locomo-tives in Anglo American mines. Such replacement will do away with the issues of lead recycling and disposal of environment-unfriendly battery acid.

“Both the loco and the mini-dozer have hybrid systems comprising lithium ion batteries and fuel cells. With the loco, we will do away with the need to charge the acid lead battery for eight hours at the end of a shift and will charge the lithium ion battery through the fuel cell in little over half an hour. Pro-ductivity will be substantially enhanced.

“With a dual system, both the loco and mini-dozer will be powered by the fuel cell when undertaking light work but they will draw from the lithium ion battery when peak power is required.”

He says that the development of the business case for the fuel cell locos and mini-dozers includes ele-ments such as developing a total cost of ownership model that can be compared to alternatives, and eval-uating emissions and safety advantages.

“Underground testing is critical because the degra-dation of the fuel cell stack needs to be established in the challenging underground environment. We need to track performance over a period in order to estab-lish comparative data against the performance of lead batteries (in the case of the loco), which last between 18 months and three years depending on the nature of the underground environment.

“Another challenge is the supply and logistics of providing hydrogen to underground locations,” says Joseph. “We are working with Air Products on devel-oping hydrogen infrastructure solutions for under-ground testing.

“Attention is also being paid to developing operat-ing procedures in conjunction with health and safety experts to ensure that underground operation will comply with all relevant regulations. We have com-pleted all the necessary risk assessments in order

to get approval from the Department of Mineral Re-sources for the supply of hydrogen to underground locations.”

Joseph says that should the business cases prove feasible, identification of partners for local assembly and sourcing will be initiated.

With the fuel cell locos, the main focus of surface testing currently underway at Trident SA in Germis-ton revolves around ensuring that performance met-rics meet underground requirements. The loco has performed exceptionally well above ground.

“The project team is getting up to speed on oper-ating processes such as re-fuelling, discharging the fuel tank and learning the control mechanisms. At-tention is also being paid to maintenance processes, including evaluating the design of the casing for the fuel cell power system in order to establish ease of access for maintenance. The team is also working on understanding the design and assembly of the fuel cell power system. In addition, comprehensive risk assessments and development of standard operating procedures are being undertaken,” he says.

“If the growth of fuel cell technology in under-ground applications grows beyond a certain point, the introduction of on-site production – possibly powered by solar photo voltaic panels – could be con-sidered. The ultimate dream, given current economic and other challenges, is to look at the replacement of diesel fleets with fuel cell-powered alternatives in decline mines.”

The dual feed cell stacks used in the power sys-tems of both the loco and mini-dozer are being sup-plied by Ballard Power Systems. In partnership with Ballard, Amplats is funding the development of a methanol-based fuel cell home generator for rural, off-grid usage.

Ballard said in a statement published in June after the Hydrogen + Fuel Cells 2013 International Con-ference and Exhibition in Vancouver that platinum-based fuel cells provide a significant economic and environmental development opportunity for South

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The Beatrix methane extraction system indicating the position of the flaring point and the methane-powered generating system.

Africa by facilitating the provision of clean, reliable and cost-effective power. South Africa holds 75 % of the world’s supply of platinum, a key component of Ballard’s proton exchange membrane fuel cell prod-ucts.

Andrew Hinkly, Anglo American Platinum’s Ex-ecutive Head of Marketing, quoted in the same state-ment, says: “Anglo’s involvement in fuel cell market adoption extends beyond the implications for plati-num utilisation to the potential transformational im-pact fuel cells could have on the economy in South Africa. Fuel cell-based product deployments enable the platinum beneficiation strategy in Africa and cre-ate jobs in a key growth sector for the economy.”

Godfrey Oliphant, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources announced at the conference that the government would provide investment funds to support the field trials of the home generator prod-uct being developed by Amplats and Ballard. “Proj-ects such as this are key in the development of new technologies which will stimulate the creation of jobs for the South African economy.”

Methane usageMoving on to the use of methane in power genera-tion, the Sibanye Gold project is the second phase of a methane capture initiative launched towards the end of 2006 at Beatrix to reduce the danger of explosions, cut down greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the mine’s carbon footprint by flaring the gas rather than releasing methane to atmosphere.

Beatrix worked with carbon project development firm Promethium Carbon to design and develop a sys-

tem to mitigate the global warming impacts. A project design document was approved by the United Na-tions Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2008 and a carbon credit project was registered un-der the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol in 2011. Methane is an explosive greenhouse gas with an environment impact 21 times higher than that of carbon dioxide in terms of global warming and climate change.

Dirk van Greuning, Environmental Engineering Manager at Beatrix mine, says the underground meth-ane emission rate at the mine is 1 600 ℓ/s with the main drawdown target area being the western boundary of the south section where the highest rate of methane emission takes place. A reticulation system was de-signed and constructed to transport 400 ℓ/s of the gas 3 600 m underground at a depth of 866 m to surface to a flaring point. Methane at 260 ℓ/s is currently being drawn to generate electricity. The methane in the un-derground atmosphere is diluted to below explosive levels.

“Our first intention with the methane capture proj-ect was to reduce greenhouse emissions and there-after to address the power generating issue. With that progression in mind, we provided space and constructed the plinth for four generating sets when the design and construction project for the flaring point was finalised. When the decision was taken to proceed with the onsite generation of power, all we needed to do was to set up a metering column from the flaring point to the power generation site, adapt an Eskom substation and place and commission the generator sets.

“Two gas-powered generating sets rented from Ag-greko Energy Rental in Midrand were delivered to site earlier this year. ADS Projects was contracted to undertake the modifications to the onsite electri-cal substation with the approval of Eskom in order to feed power back into the grid.

“Savings of R1,2 million per annum arising from the power generation project accrue because of the

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differing per kW/h cost rates between our onsite pro-duction and the rate we pay Eskom. Beatrix currently uses 82 MW of electrical power per month,” says van Greuning.

The project is reducing the mine’s carbon footprint by 28 % and includes the destruction of methane from underground sources, as well as from several legacy geological boreholes.

Chris Davison, Aggreko’s Regional Operations Man-ager for southern eastern Africa, says the gas-powered generators are currently operating at slightly below optimum output pending minor improvements to variables such as gas flow rate, pressure and purity.

“These variables are being addressed by the mine and Aggreko, and in due course the generators will be operating at 2 MW. A further two gas-powered gener-ating sets will be supplied to Sibanye Gold as soon as the mine is ready to receive them.”

He says Aggreko installed and commissioned the project with ongoing support provided by a resident service team. “The 1 375 kVA units offer full synchro-nisation and load sharing capabilities as well as be-ing enclosed in bespoke sound suppressive contain-ers linked to an Aggreko 2-22 kV range transformer providing the required 6,6 kV. Aggreko has similar generating sets operating in various parts of Africa.”

Sibanye Gold derives income from the sale of carbon credits arising from the destruction of natu-ral methane at the mine. The methane project was originally launched by Gold Fields Limited prior to

that mining house launching an unbundling process which resulted in the establishment of Sibanye Gold as the owner of Beatrix, Kloof and Driefontein gold mines.

Gold Fields Limited set in motion the process to sell certified emissions reductions (CERs), the finan-cial securities used to trade carbon emissions, de-rived from the capture and destruction of methane gas at Beatrix. The CERs were sold to energy trading company Mercuria Energy Trading SA under forward contracts which will run until 2016 in a deal worth R200 million at the time.

The gas-powered generating sets in position in sound suppression containers at Beatrix. A further two generating sets will be added early next year to bring total generating power to 4 MW (photo: Sibanye Gold).

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The DFS has defined a 16-year LOM at a mine average gate cost of R865,00 (US$88,71) per saleable hard coking coal tonne (after thermal

coal byproduct credit). Mining is expected to take place at an average rate of 12,6 Mt/a ROM in order to produce 2,3 Mt/a of hard coking coal and 3,2 Mt/a of thermal coal, at a steady state. The resource would be mined on an opencast basis with the potential for expansion into underground operations. The capex is estimated at R3,96 billion (including contingency) and the non-discounted peak funding requirement at R4,2 billion.

“We are delighted to announce the results of our Feasibility Study on our flagship, Makhado project,” comments CoAL’s Chairman, David Brown. “This high quality hard coking coal project will not only deliver robust economic returns but also contribute meaningfully to the economic development of the Limpopo Province in South Africa. Makhado further provides South Africa with a new coking coal pro-ducing asset in the region, utilising established in-frastructure for domestic and international markets. The Makhado project represents the future of the

company and is the first step in the development of a major 8 billion tonne resource across our Soutpans-berg coalfield.

“We have now embarked on the financing stage of the Makhado project and have already commenced discussions with both potential Black Economic Em-powerment (BEE) groups, including our communi-ties and strategic partners. We are working towards a funding structure which will include debt funding, whereby CoAL retains majority ownership with the incoming partner’s contribution meeting CoAL’s full equity requirement for the project. Our regulatory ap-proval and funding requirements are targeted to be completed by H1CY14.”

Makhado is located 36 km north of the town of Makhado in the Tshipise South subdivision of the Greater Soutpansberg coalfield. Within the project area, a number of coal seams occur within a 30 m to 40  m thick carbonaceous zone of the Madzaringwe Formation. The seams dip northwards at approxi-mately 12 deg. The coalfield was extensively ex-plored by Iscor in the 1970s and 1980s. CoAL pur-chased Iscor’s dataset in 2007 and in the same year

DFS confirms MAKHADO as a robust coal project

Makhado project site plan. Makhado has been divided into three separate mining areas, namely East Pit, Central Pit and West Pit.

Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) has announced the results of a Class II Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on its Makhado coking coal project. Makhado is CoAL’s anchor project in the Soutpansberg coalfield, where the company has access to a significant hard coking and thermal coal resource, with the estimated in situ resource being in the order of 8 billion tonnes. The DFS indicates that the project would deliver a favourable IRR of 30,1 % (unleveraged) and an NPV of R7,69 billion (US$697 million) at a real discount rate of 8 %.

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Bulk sample pit on the farm Tanga 849 MS.

started prospecting and exploration drilling. Up until 2012, out of a total of 506 boreholes, CoAL has drilled a total of 214 boreholes within the project area.

Between August 2010 and April 2011, CoAL ex-cavated a boxcut on the farm Tanga 849 MS. From this 45 849 t of ROM has been processed, producing 21 800 t of coal, some of which was transported to Exxaro’s Tshikondeni coking coal mine for process testing. This bulk sample was excavated in order to confirm the hard coking coal qualities and coking product quantities and to test various processing op-tions for the coal.

Mine planThe project has been divided into three separate min-ing areas for technical, logistical and practical rea-sons, namely East Pit, Central Pit and West Pit. The East and Central pits are separated by the Siloam fault with a displacement of approximately 50 m. The Cen-tral and West pits are separated by an area of steril-ised coal associated with the village of Mudimeli.

Mining will be staggered, commencing in the East Pit followed by the Central and West pits. This ap-proach enables CoAL to optimise the resources re-quired for mining over the LOM, and also provides a consistent balance of ROM quantity and quality through to the plant. First production is scheduled for month 26 from project start.

Development of the East Pit will include plant and infrastructure components which will cater for the production volumes from the other pits.

Makhado contains a number of coal seams with their dips requiring the walls of the pit to be benched for stability at 15-m intervals and the overburden and interburden to be placed on surface until such time as concurrent backfilling can begin. This geological set-ting is amenable to the proposed opencast large truck and shovel mining method.

To achieve the required steady state production rate, the mining build-up schedule requires over-burden waste material to be pre-stripped in the ini-tial box-cutting and ramp-building stage to establish an in-pit coal inventory before coal extraction pro-ceeds. Thereafter, for the following five years there will be a low to moderate annual overburden strip ratio of 1:3,3.

A Whittle pit optimisation exercise was used to de-velop the economics of the coal deposit in relation to its technical aspects. This allowed the selection of the optimal shell for each of the pits based upon their un-discounted NPV. The practical pits will extend from an average depth of 30 m below surface (to take into account the negative effect of oxidation on the coal in the upper layers) to maximum pit depths of 197 m, 161 m and 121 m for the East, Central and West pits, respectively.

The subsequent increase in stripping volumes, up to a strip ratio of 1:4,1 annually, occurs concurrently with the second pushback in the East and Central pits. Due to the friable nature of the coal and its ori-entations, ‘through seam blasting’ technology will be employed to break the parting and coal seams. This tried and tested blasting technology will minimise coal losses as well as coal contamination during the loading process.

Crusher and screening systems will be located to

the south of each of the pits. The coal processing plant will be located to the south of the East Pit. The processing plant site was selected to minimise haul-age distances as the East Pit is the largest pit with the greatest portion of coal reserves.

The operational expenditure (opex) is based on a contractor mining model with CoAL being respon-sible for mine planning, geological and geotechnical controls, as well as cost management.

Recent work carried out on detailed mine planning has enabled a coal Reserve Statement to be issued by CoAL, confirming a total of 173 million ROM tonnes available to be mined for the project.

Process plantA coal processing plant has been designed capable of handling the 12,6 Mt of ROM per annum needed in order to produce the estimated 2,3 Mt/a of hard coking coal and 3,2 Mt/a of thermal coal. The hard coking coal will have an ash content of 10 %, whilst that of the thermal coal will be 30 % ash.

A Process Design Criteria (PDC) completed by DRA Mineral Projects was used as the basis for engineering studies and the coal handling process plant design. The site plan, plant layouts, equipment lists and as-sociated utilities are at an advanced stage.

The proposed processing route will see ROM being de-stoned in the pit by scalping off the +50 mm which will be discarded. The -50+0 mm stream, which is es-timated to be approximately 77 % of the mined ROM delivered to the tip, will be conveyed to the plant feed stockpile as feed to the hard coking plant.

The processing plant consists mainly of three pro-cessing sections: A double-stage Dense Medium Separation plant for

both de-stoning and beneficiation of the hard cok-ing coal and the thermal product, achieved through a high gravity wash followed by a low gravity wash (for the coarse size fraction of -50+1 mm).

A fines (-1+0,15 mm) circuit comprising a low gravity Reflux Classifier process for the production of the coking coal and a high gravity Reflux Classifier for the production of the thermal product.

An ultra-fines (-0,15 mm) circuit of Jameson column flotation cells for the production of the coking coal and a potential thermal product.The plant has been designed to optimise yields

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with all size fractions being beneficiated. Further design considerations included quality management and environmental protection, with an onsite labora-tory and zero-effluent discharge.

YieldsFull washability testwork was carried out on the various coal seam core samples. The results were im-ported into the Minex™ coal simulation program and used to assess the yields and resultant product speci-fications. These results were utilised for the determi-nation of the potential saleable tonnes and product specifications for reserve purposes.

The theoretical yield variations at the Makhado project are based on a 1,4 relative density (RD) wash product. An initial assessment of the resource indi-cates a hard coking coal yield of 18,8 % at 10 % ash (inclusive of an additional 4,07 % recovery from fines) and a thermal coal yield of 25,8 % at 30 % ash. There-fore, the overall yield as defined by the total product tonnes as a percentage of the ROM tonnes is 44,6 %.

Coal quality and marketingAs part of the DFS, CoAL completed a comprehensive independent coal quality testing and analysis pro-gramme which finalised coal quality specifications and determined the coal yield. The various metal-lurgical testwork programmes, which included both washing and coking tests, were carried out at various facilities and reviewed by both Venmyn Deloitte and A&B Mylec.

The testwork proved that Makhado is capable of producing a hard coking coal product with a 10 % ash content for the export and domestic markets, as well as a thermal coal product also for the domestic or export market. According to A&B Mylec, potential exists to increase the yield for the Makhado project and this will be investigated in due course.

In addition, CoAL contracted the independent ser-vices of Wood Mackenzie (Australia) to assess the

global coal outlook in relation to the Makhado coal quality parameters.

Wood Mackenzie assessed the typical quality of the coking coal at Makhado to be hard coking coal with a relatively high CSR value above 60 – which therefore has an ability to carry weaker coals in the coke blend. The assessment was based on specifications relative to other international hard coking coal producers and on the global outlook for hard coking coal.

The Makhado hard coking coal specification also indicates that it would be a good primary coal in a hard coking coal blend, as demonstrated in blending tests at ArcelorMittal South Africa’s Vanderbijlpark Steel Plant. In addition, the Makhado coal has higher levels of organic sulphur than some competing Aus-tralian products, which have inorganic sulphur that tends to lower steel quality and contributes to emis-sions. As such, this coal should be classified as a high volatile matter hard coking coal and is expected to be priced at benchmark parity. The geographical loca-tion of Makhado is an important factor in determin-ing its likely markets.

Makhado’s thermal coal is significantly different from the South African coalfields currently produc-ing thermal product for both export and domestic use, mainly because of its high calorific value. There-fore extensive combustion tests were carried out to ascertain its usability primarily in Eskom’s power sta-tions that are able to receive coal on rail. The tests confirmed that it is well within the specifications for Eskom’s power stations and, for export, the grade conforms to coal specifications required by importers and would be a suitable blend product for the power and cement industry in Asia.

CoAL envisages product to be sold domestically and exported through CoAL’s allocation at Terminal de Carvão da Matola (TCM), Maputo in Mozambique. Makhado coal will have a freight advantage in serv-ing the South African domestic market compared to imported coking coals.

Proposed timeline for the Makhado project.

product news

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In response to increased demand from its customers for digital information optimised for mobile devices, Sandvik Mining has launched its Offering Guide, a new applica-tion combining its diverse portfolio of inno-vative products and solutions into one con-venient and easy-to-use resource.

The range of Sandvik Mining equipment and services is now available for iPad and android mobile devices providing mining

companies and other users a comprehen-sive reference anytime, anywhere.

Sandvik Mining modernised its existing iPhone app, originally launched in March 2011, to the iPad version as uptake of the popular touchscreen device continues to increase.

“Our aim is to be able to serve our cus-tomers’ needs at a moment’s notice, regard-less of location, time zone or challenge,” says Alice Ward, Marketeer Southern Africa at Sandvik Mining.

The iPad app offers project managers, foremen and equipment operators instant offline access to a digital catalog of Sandvik Mining equipment and services, whether un-derground, at a temporary office or in transit.

App users can delve into 11 product

groups from an animated home screen of a mine environment. Each group is easy to navigate and features detailed product pag-es that include up-to-date technical specifi-cations and photos of everything from drill rigs and rock tools to crushers and conveyor components.

Embedded film clips and other forms of instruction from real environments comple-ment product information in the new app, which also allows users to print and share information when online.The app can be downloaded at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sandvik-mining-offering-guide/id643885341?ls=1&mt=8

Swakop Uranium’s new counter current de-cantation (CCD) circuit, designed and sup-plied by FLSmidth for the mining company’s new Husab project, will be the biggest of its kind installed on the African continent to date. Located near Swakopmund on the west coast of Namibia, the Husab project is the largest in-situ and highest grade, granite-hosted uranium deposit in Namibia, and cur-rently the third-largest uranium-only deposit in the world.

Swakop Uranium is jointly owned by Tau-rus Minerals Limited of Hong Kong (90 %) and the Namibian state-owned mining com-pany, Epangelo (10 %).

CCD thickener circuits are used to recov-er soluble metal as pregnant liquor solution from ore leach residue. The basis of CCD operation is to concentrate suspended sol-ids, thereby minimising liquor content in un-derflow slurry that flows in one direction. The underflow slurry liquor is then diluted with wash liquor that flows in the opposite direc-tion, while the suspended solids are concen-

Sandvik Mining offers ‘app’ for mobile devices

trated repeatedly. The amount of liquor in the thickener underflow contributes to determin-ing the number of CCD stages required to recover the desired amount of soluble metal.

The scope of the FLSmidth order for the Husab circuit comprises seven 40 m diam-eter thickeners, of which one is a high density pre-leach feed thickener and the other six are high rate CCD thickeners. FLSmidth is also supplying one 25 m diameter ADU (ammo-nium diuranate) high rate thickener for instal-lation further down the process.

“Based on our extensive experience in CCD circuits and on test work we’ve con-ducted on the leach feed, we were able to propose smaller diameter thickeners than the 50 m diameter units originally specified by the client,” says Mark Sheward, FLSmidth Minerals Business Development Manager. “We were so confident that 40 m diameter units would work better that we’ve offered the client a process guarantee in this regard.

“Our latest test work campaign showed that by using 40 m diameter high density

Husab CCD circuit will be biggest in Africa thickeners with our proprietary P-Duc™ feed dilution system, both pre- and post-leach slurries settled extremely quickly and reached the desired underflows in a very short period of time. Effectively, this means that we can achieve higher rise rates – which are the effect of reducing thickener diameter – while still achieving the required underflow residence times.

“There are several benefits arising from this option, including a reduced overall capi-tal cost of the thickeners and reduced site erection time which is associated with cost savings and may also assist in achieving an earlier plant commissioning date,” he con-tinues. “In addition, the raw material costs associated with 40 m diameter thickeners, compared to 50 m diameter units, are signifi-cantly less, considering that the material of construction chosen for this installation is im-ported LDX2404 duplex stainless steel capa-ble of handling the acid leach. The civils will also be completed faster with 40 m diameter thickeners. The overall plant will be smaller, resulting in savings on piping, walkways, pipe rack and services.

“Ultimately we’re looking at saving up to a third of the costs calculated for the original thickeners specified and probably the same amount on the civils and installation costs.”

FLSmidth’s P-Duc™ feed dilution system is the next generation of forced dilution tech-nology and has been designed to offer all the advantages inherent in the company’s origi-nal E-Duc® feed dilution system, as well as the ability to optimise the feed dilution over a wide range of feed stream densities.

The company’s e-volute feedwell system arrangement will also be utilised on the Hus-ab project, offering a number of advantages, such as minimising floc shear and achieving an even spread of material throughout the surface area.

FLSmidth will deliver units to the Husab project between April and August 2014 and will provide technical and commissioning as-sistance. Operational and strategic spares are included in the contract.Terence Osborn, FLSmidth, tel (+27 10) 210-4820

Aerial view of a typical CCD thickener circuit installation.

product news

The Cat K Series Tooth System is a ground-breaking design that is said to set new performance standards for tip reten-tion, ease of change-outs and long-term sharpness.

The low-profile shape of the Cat K Se-ries provides better penetration and dig-ging ability, placing less strain on the ma-chine and extending ground engaging tool (GET) wear material usability by between 10 and 15 % when compared to other GET options, with major downstream benefits that include faster cycle times and greater bucket fills. Tips can be run in one direction, then ‘flipped’, or reversed, to get the maxi-mum use of wear material.

Installation and removal of the K Series GET is facilitated by a twist-on design that fits smoothly onto the adapters welded to the bucket. On both sides of the adapter, rails an-gle or slope in opposite directions to provide this twist-on motion when the tip is installed.

Each GET tooth securely locks in place via the installation of a vertical retainer, which is

Demand from the market has resulted in Lambson’s Hire adding diesel driven gensets to its rental fleet. “These strategically priced Hatz 6 kVA diesel generators are the ideal, cost effective and fuel efficient solution for sites where grid power is either intermittent or not available,” says Rohan Lambson, founder and Executive Director of Lambson’s Hire.

“Rising fuel prices and an increasing fo-cus on environmental stewardship are pre-dominant factors in the inclusion of diesel driven generators in our rental product of-fering. While petrol driven generators prove popular for home applications, diesel driven generators are the first choice of tradesmen and the industrial market. We are focused on supplying suitable product to our entire cus-

Ground-breaking K Series sets new performance standards

inserted and latches securely into a slot in the tip. This retainer is replaced with a new unit following each subsequent GET change-out.

“During operation, the harder the bucket digs in tough materials, the tighter the tip screws onto the adapter,” explains Barlo-world Equipment Group Product Specialist Deon Delport. (Barloworld Equipment is the Cat dealer for Southern Africa.)

The Cat K Series Tooth System is either supplied in hammerless or drive-through

The Cat K Series drive-through system.

configuration, which depends on the size of the GET tip and the wheel loader or hydraulic excavator model match. When removing worn teeth, a standard prying tool is used to disengage the ‘latch’ for re-moval of the hammerless retainer. In turn, the drive-through retainer is removed from the top or bottom of the tip using low force with a light hammer and punch. In both cases, fast replacement of GET minimises machine downtime.

“The vertical orientation of the K Series retainer makes installation and removal

much easier than comparable side-pinned systems,” adds Delport. “Additionally, a pre-cise fit between the tip and adapter limits movement and wear, improving tip retention and providing longer adapter life.”

Comprehensive tip options are available, ranging from Penetration Plus to General Duty, Heavy Penetration and Heavy Abrasion, to suit varied digging conditions. Barloworld Equipment, tel (+27 11) 929-0000

Lambson’s Hire now offers diesel gensetstomer footprint, so the addition of the Hatz 6 kVA diesel driven generators complements our current fleet of Honda 6 kVA petrol driven generators,” says Lambson.

According to Lambson, on-site safety risks are potentially higher than in the home environment, making diesel driven gensets a perfect alternative to their petrol counter-parts. This is because petrol burns at a higher temperature than diesel due to its higher BTU rating. Additionally, unlike petrol, diesel is not explosive.

In addition to the safety advantages of lower temperature burning, the use of diesel also enhances the lifespan of the generator. A knock-on environmental benefit of diesel is lowered emissions.

“When a diesel driven genset is correctly tuned it produces no visible exhaust, except briefly under severe load changes, and the exhaust fumes from diesel are also less toxic than the emissions from petrol,” adds Lamb-son.

Diesel generally burns less than half the fuel compared to petrol when used to com-plete the same amount of work.

The Hatz 6 kVA diesel generators are de-signed to run continuously or as a backup power supply. Weighing 160 kg, with a height of 640 mm, length of 880 mm and width of 480 mm, the units are compact and easy to deploy to site. The generators have an output of 5,7 kW and run at 3 000 rpm. The control panel allows for two 15 amp plug outlets and circuit breaker only.Lambson’s Hire, tel (+27 11) 627-7700

product news

5707.13

Hurricane air cannons solve blockage problem at PholaA high-volume coal handling operation in South Africa has solved material build-up problems in the transfer chute feeding its export silo and discard bin with a strategically-timed series of air cannons that blast the accumulation from chute and vessel walls, preventing bottlenecks and maintaining throughput rates.

A 50:50 joint venture between Anglo American Inyosi Coal (AAIC) and BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa (BECSA), the Phola coal processing plant – where the cannons have been installed – is fed equally by AAIC’s Zibulo colliery and BECSA’s Klipspruit mine. The twin-module coal washing operation delivers a throughput of nearly 1 200 t/h from each module.

Like many newer facilities, the plant does not maintain its fines in a wet slurry for environmental reasons, instead filtering the dry fugitive particles and pressing them into cakes.

Soon after the plant went online, the process began delivering a throughput of more than a million tonnes per month, well on the way to its target of 16 million annually. On its busiest day of that first year, the facility completely loaded eight 100-car trains, each car with a capacity of 84 t.

But as the high-volume operation ramped up, engineers started noticing bottlenecks. They traced the slowdown to material build-up in the chute feeding the export silo and discard bin. Operators determined that the freshly-pressed cakes were sticking to the walls of the chute, narrowing the space for product transfer and leaving ‘rat holes’ which restricted flow. As the blockage grew, it would cause the vessels to fill with material and eventually trip the high level indicator, shutting off the conveyors and forcing down-time for manual cleanout.

Phola immediately began researching possible solutions. Opera-tors met with representatives from Martin Engineering South Africa, who recommended using 70-litre Hurricane air cannons, placed in strategic locations, to knock down the filter cake within the chute. Positioning of the cannons and nozzles is critical to their success, and the technicians installed the four units at a 35 deg downward-facing angle for maximum effectiveness in this application.

The patented design is engineered to enhance material flow with greater force and faster cycling than traditional valve designs. The cannons fire only when the exhaust valve opens in response to a positive surge of air sent by a solenoid or PLC control. This positive-acting valve amplifies the discharge, providing up to 50 % more force than a standard air cannon of the same size. In addition, the improved air path fills the reservoir three to four times faster than typical designs.

With production rates continuing to rise, Phola has commissioned another series of cannons to further improve the material flow inside the discard bin. The company is currently awaiting installation of a larger air compressor to manage the additional load.Martin Engineering SA, tel (+27 13) 656-5135

To address the blockage issue, Martin Engineering recommended 70-litre air cannons, strategically placed to knock down the filter cake within the chute.

product news

58 07.13

In a major development that will see the Af-rican introduction of a broad range of quality magnetic separation products at a competi-tive price, equipment supplier Multotec has entered into a technology and supply part-nership agreement with Longi (pronounced ‘Long-Ji’) Magnet Company Co Ltd in China. Longi is the second largest – and reportedly the fastest growing – magnetic equipment supplier in the world. The agreement will see the full range of Longi magnetic separators

Dosing and transfer pump company Eco-chem Pumps has signed an agreement that will see the company’s products and services being sold and supported in Zambia through newly registered company Aqua Africa.

An investment licence is being finalised with the Zambian Government, after which stock will be transferred to Aqua Africa’s base in Kitwe, Zambia’s second largest city and the Copperbelt’s commercial hub.

Co-shareholder with Ecochem Pumps in the Zambian venture is Aqua 24, an es-tablished South African company supply-ing borehole pumps, motors and equipment to mining and agriculture, and submersible pumps into water and wastewater applica-tions. The two companies have a history of co-operation dating back several years.

Aqua Africa’s main target markets will be Copperbelt mines in Zambia and the DRC. Gold and emerald mines, and the growing agricultural market, will also be pursued.

Alf Jacobsen, MD of Aqua Africa, explained the driving force behind the decision to open in Zambia. “Zambia has for some years ranked among the fastest growing econo-mies in Africa,” he said. “There are major ex-pansions taking place in the mining and agri-cultural sectors, making it an attractive place to open a business. Zambia also provides a springboard into surrounding territories.”

Prior to the establishment of Aqua Africa, Ecochem Pumps made use of agents to

Set Point Laboratories has been an ISO-ac-credited laboratory for minerals and water for more than eight years. That accreditation scope has recently been further extended to include the company’s new coal laboratory in Limpopo Province, which has successfully passed its SANAS audit and acquired ISO 17025 status.

Set Point Laboratories, a division of Set Point Industrial Technology, is an ISO 17025 accredited mineral, water and coal analytical facility, and has the expertise to set up, oper-ate and manage on-site laboratories.

Commenting on the coal accreditation, Kevin Gerber, MD of Set Point Laboratories,

said, “This accreditation speaks of Set Point Laboratories’ dedication to customers and positions us well to provide quality analysis for coal, as we have done in our mineral and water laboratories. We strive to consistently exceed customer expectations in the areas of top quality service, quick turnaround and superior customer relations.”

Set Point Laboratories’ coal speciality laboratory is located in Mokopane, Limpo-po with drop off depots at Francistown and Maun in Botswana. Set Point Laboratories, website: www.setpointlabs.co.za, e-mail: labsinfo@sethold.com

Multotec and Longi seal partnership agreemententering the African market under the new Multotec-Longi brand.

“Through this technology and supply partnership we’re now able to bring Longi technologies, which have successfully chal-lenged the significant Asian market over the last couple of years, into the African market,” says Ernst Maritz, Multotec GM: Solid/Liquid and Magnetic Separation.

“For some time Multotec had been seeking a technology partner of international stature and its synergies with Longi made for an excel-lent fit. Longi brings the technology base to the table, while Multotec brings its depth of local process and applications knowledge, as well as a local equipment manufacturer footprint and support base. Longi has been supplying magnetic separation equipment for more than two decades and its international product range is also a good fit for our export markets.

“In turn, Longi recognised the extensive commercial value of partnering with Multotec, a well-established and respected South Afri-can-based company with extensive African and international footprints,” he continues. “Longi will benefit from our recent advances in magnetic equipment, our multiple product process knowledge, our market footprint and our local support for the imported equipment through our branches and offices.”

All previously supplied Multotec products

Pictured at the official signing of the Multotec Longi partnership are (from left) Zhaopeng Li, Board Director/Chief Engineer/Vice GM of Lon-gi Magnet Co, and Thomas Holtz, CEO of the Multotec Group.

will continue to be supported through servic-ing, repairs and spares. Through the agree-ment, technological advances in low and medium intensity permanent magnet equip-ment will become available locally, including higher force indices of magnetic equipment, employment of rare earth magnets in Wet Low Intensity Magnetic Separators (WLIMS) and duty designed circuits with varying drum intensities to allow engineered cost savings.

Advances in electromagnetic based sepa-ration equipment will promote a full range of Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separators (WHIMS) able to process material with ca-pacities of up to 150 t/h through a single ma-chine. Purpose-engineered electromagnetic overbelt equipment (air and oil cooled) will also facilitate cost savings through efficient designs for specific applications.

Although there will be some local assem-bly and testing, Multotec will primarily import complete manufactured units from Longi.

Prior to the signing of the agreement, teams of Multotec engineers went to China to assess Longi’s manufacturing facility and products and were able to verify that these products will be manufactured under strin-gent quality control systems according to Multotec specifications. Bernadette Wilson, Multotec Group, tel (+27 11) 923-6193

Ecochem and Aqua 24 in Zambian venturechannel its products into Zambia.

“Customers will buy product from what is to all intents and purposes an Ecochem branch, with the added advantage of receiv-ing on-site service from qualified personnel,” Jacobsen said.

Aqua Africa will stock a wide range of prod-ucts. From the Ecochem stable will come Milton Roy dosing pumps and accessories, dosing instrumentation and mixers and agita-tors, and Ecochem slurry pumps and spares. Although not stocked, the company will also make available the Soméflu plastic and stain-less steel chemical transfer pump ranges,

and JMI submersible axial-flow pumps.From Aqua 24 will come Vansan submers-

ible borehole pumps and motors, and Vansan vertical turbine pumps. Electric motors of the Regal (CMG) brand and a full range of sub-mersible dewatering pumps in various volt-ages will also be stocked.

The Kitwe facility incorporates a substan-tially equipped service centre and warehouse space to ensure sufficient stock holdings.

A test bay currently under construction will soon provide customers with test certificates for guaranteed repairs. There are plans to in-corporate a full rewind facility for electric mo-tor repairs later in 2013.Ecochem Pumps, tel (+27 11) 455-5710

Set Point coal laboratory accredited

product news

5907.13

To meet the daily demand of 9 000 tonnes of limestone for Berber Cement Company’s new cement plant, a modern crushing plant has been in-stalled 8 km away from the processing plant on the west-ern side of the River Nile.

When all conventional op-tions to transport the mate-rial from one side of the Nile to the other seemed to meet with difficulties, Berber Ce-ment decided to look into a RopeCon® solution for its problem. The loading station is located on the western bank of the river, immediately behind the crusher, and the crushed stone is loaded onto RopeCon® via a feed conveyor and a chute.

The RopeCon® installation spans the Nile with a single large rope span between two tower structures positioned on either side of the river. It is not necessary to have a support structure in the river. The total length of the system is approximately 3 465 m from the loading station to the discharge station. Its transport capacity is 700 t/h. Due to river navigation requirements, the minimum clearance between the system and the high water level of the Nile must always be 21 m. The tallest tower is almost 80 m in height.

RopeCon® is designed and manufactured by the Austrian com-pany, Doppelmayr Transport Technology. The system combines proven ropeway technology with the features of conventional belt conveyors. The continuous conveyor is elevated off the ground, thus reducing space requirements on the ground to a minimum.

RopeCon® consists of a flat belt with corrugated side walls. The belt may be fabric-reinforced or a steel cord belt, depending on the application. The corrugated side walls are cold-bonded or vul-canised onto the belt. The individual belt sections are joined by way of vulcanisation to form one continuous belt, just as on con-ventional belt conveyors.

The belt is fixed to steel axles arranged at regular intervals which support the belt. Polyamide running wheels are fitted to either end of the axles. These wheel sets run on track ropes and provide positive belt guidance while preventing the belt from skewing. The combination of polyamide wheels on steel track ropes minimises rolling resistance and therefore energy requirements.

The galvanised, fully locked steel track ropes on which the wheel sets run are of the type used for suspension bridges or ropeways. RopeCon® uses three pairs of ropes: the bottom-most rope pair supports the bottom belt while the rope pair in the mid-dle supports the top belt. The upper-most rope pair gives addi-tional stability to the structure and serves as the travelling rope for the inspection vehicle by means of which each point along the line can be accessed.

The belt performs the haulage function, as on conventional belt conveyors. The belt is driven and turned back by a drive drum in the head or tail station. After the material has been discharged, a turning device turns the belt by 180° to bring the soiled side of the belt upwards once more and to prevent residual material from fall-ing off the bottom belt. The belt is turned once more before it runs onto the drum again in the loading station.

The drive system is similar to that of a conventional belt con-veyor and consists of a gearbox and an electric motor. Doppelmayr Transport Technology GmbH, website: www.doppelmayr-mts.com

RopeCon® ropeway system spans the Nile

The RopeCon® installation for Ber-ber Cement Company’s new cement plant. It spans the Nile with a single large rope span between two tower structures positioned on either side of the river.

product news

60 07.13

The trend in minerals sorting worldwide is to-ward the use of sensor technology, and IMS Engineering says it is at the cutting-edge of this trend through its partnership with Stein-ert Elektromagnetbau GmbH, which special-ises in separation technology for the recy-cling, metals and mining industries.

A formal joint venture agreement between the two companies was recently signed and IMS MD Paul Bracher says that it is now full steam ahead. “This is a technology whose day has come and we look forward to sig-nificant penetration in the Southern African market, which is ideally suited to it,” he says.

Cologne-based Steinert, which started in the scrap and waste recycling business, has a wide range of sensor-based separation and sorting solutions including: X-Ray Transmis-sion (XRT) and XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence) sorting or XSS® (Steinert’s brand name for

Atlas Copco makes RC kit available for blasthole drillAtlas Copco continues to expand its blasthole product offer-ing with the addition of the reverse circulation (RC) kit for the DM45/50 mid-range blasthole drill. Based on proven systems, components, and technology, the RC kit is designed – says At-las Copco – to meet the demands of today’s expanding mining market by offering the added dimension of in-pit grade control.

A number of components are included with the optional kit, which can also be retrofitted on drills currently in the field. The cyclone arm allows for sampling from the ground or platform level, with a vertical raise and lowering function. A cyclone ro-tation of 160 degrees provides safe access for cleaning, main-tenance, and attaching new sample hoses from ground level.

The cyclone is a heavy duty system designed specifically with flexibility in mind. Some of the features of the cyclone as-sembly are: a hydraulic upper knife valve and pneumatic lower knife valve for collecting and isolating the sample; a hydraulic hinge between the dump box and cone splitter that allows for easy cleaning; and a fixed cone splitter with primary and du-plicate sample chutes. All cyclone and sample functions are easily controlled from the operator’s cab.

A 66 litre dump box, with a steep cone for limiting sample hang up, is part of the sample collection feature. The primary and duplicate ports can easily be adjusted from 4 to 15 %. The Reverse Circulation carousel has four 114 mm rod cups and offers a 44 m maximum on-board capacity.

The DM45 and DML reverse circulation drills offer hole di-ameters ranging between 114 mm and 146 mm with maximum hole depths of 44 m based off on-board capacity. Atlas Copco, tel (+27 11) 821-9000

IMS now marketing Steinert sorting technologyX-Ray sorting); Optical Colour Sorting; 3-D Laser Sorting (shape recognition); Induction Sorting (recognition of particle electromag-netic properties); and Near Infrared (NIR) sorting.

Johan van Zyl, Steinert Global Product Manager for Mining, says that he is confident that IMS will make a success of the venture. “They are a thoroughly professional organisa-tion with vast experience in the comminution industry in this region,” he says.

He adds that IMS’s acquisition – through Hazemag, IMS’s largest shareholder – of Allmineral, which is recognised worldwide as an expert in the beneficiation of gravel, sand, coal and ore, combined with IMS’s range of Steinert sorters, enables IMS to provide a more cost-efficient, comprehensive water-less alternative to the traditional wet process-ing methods.

“Sensor sorting is, in general, much more cost-effective than traditional sorting meth-ods,” says van Zyl. “Apart from saving on water, less energy and labour is required and, perhaps most importantly, because one can sort at the point of extraction, only the ore containing the mineral needs to be transport-ed thus saving significantly on transportation costs.

“This makes our technology ideal in tough-er economic periods and for more marginal mines where it has been shown to make the difference between closing down and being

Steinert sensor sorting test plant located at IMS Engineering’s facilities.

able to continue profitably. It is perfect for Southern African conditions.”

Bracher says that IMS will initially focus on the coal mining sector – with XSS® T (XRT) – where there is the biggest opportunity for the technology right now. “There are many smaller, newly-incubated coal mines for which the benefit would be enormous,” he says. “In general, though, we will offer solu-tions for both ROM sorting as well as dumps, which can become profitable with the use of our technology.”

He adds that the Allmineral/IMS/Steinert union creates a significant advantage in the coal sector. “XSS® T works best with particles of 40 mm or bigger and Allmineral’s dry jig works best with particles of less than 40 mm enabling us to provide an unbeatable overall solution,” he says.

Bracher says the XSS® machines are not for coal alone. They increase significantly the range of possibilities for sorting any ‘mixed’ materials.

Bracher says that the new IMS Test Centre will provide initial material testing for XSS® sorting. “We take a bucket full of waste and a bucket full of product and check that the sensor can ‘see’ the difference. If it can, we know that more extensive testing, which may entail the installing of a machine on site, can be undertaken,” he concludes.Paul Bracher, IMS Engineering, tel (+27 10) 001-8200

product news

6107.13

New slurry seal introduced by MetsoMetso is launching a new slurry seal to meet the increased sealing demands from its cus-tomers. The seal offers a sealing solution that minimises dilution of sealing water into product, eliminates leakage to atmosphere, increases life time of the seal by preventing slurry from entering the seal chamber and al-lows easy conversion from box packing solu-tions to mechanical seal solutions.

According to Metso, the ESF design seals satisfy the demand for advanced and reliable sealing solutions on even the heaviest of slur-ry applications.

The ESF seal is designed to fit into the stan-dard Orion Series pump flushed gland and a cartridge design makes it easy to install. In ad-dition, retrofit installations are quick and easy when converting a packed seal pump. Metso, tel (+27 11) 961-4000, website: www.metso.com

The South African division of Cummins is powering an electric rope shovel at Debswa-na’s Jwaneng diamond mine in Botswana.

Cummins South Africa’s GM for the proj-ects division, Werner Bester, indicates that the Bucyrus (now Cat) 495 rope shovel is powered by a 2 MVA Cummins motivator – a containerised diesel generator that is mount-ed on a custom-built Martin trailer, which is pulled by a Western Star 6900XD truck.

“The Cummins C2250-D5 generator is pow-ered by a Cummins QSK 60 G4 engine, which is coupled to a Stamford alternator that pro-duces 2 000 kVA at 6 600 volts prime power. The Cummins PCC 3201 generator controller provides control and protection to the Cum-mins engine and the generator,” he explains.

Cummins South Africa Project Manager Jan Maritz notes that the Martin trailer has heavy-duty axles and a jumping beam sus-pension, which was specifically designed to accommodate the rough road and challeng-ing conditions in the pit. “The axles were also positioned in such a way that the trailer has a small turning radius to easily manoeuvre in-side the open-pit mine.”

The rope shovel requires an electrical sup-ply in order to tram from one point to the next, and the motivator provides this power while the shovel is being moved.

According to Bester, the motivator has been designed with numerous protection features to safeguard the equipment, as well as the operating team. “A regeneration pre-vention feature is built into the motivator, as regenerative power occurs while the bucket is being lowered,” he says. “High volumes of this type of power can cause damage to the alternator, and it is therefore monitored to en-sure that vital equipment is protected.”

Bester highlights the fact that the fire pro-tection system is a dual system, with FM 200

Cummins motivator powers Jwaneng shovelgas in the switchgear section and dry powder in the generator section. “Additional infrared arc detection is installed within close proxim-ity to the switch gear, which will dispense the fire suppression agent as soon as a flash is detected. What’s more, there are a number of easy accessible fire extinguishers mounted on the trailer too,” he continues.

The fire protection system continuously monitors the earth resistance between the components and, should a short circuit or open circuit occur, Bester explains that it will change the value of the neutral earth from the one point to the next. “As soon as there is a fluctuation picked up on the neutral earth, it will open the supply breaker and shut the machine down.”

Another safety feature of the Cummins mo-tivator is the fact that it comes standard with

The Cummins motivator on site at Jwaneng.

an externally visible three colour alarm light-ing system. This system alerts operators of likely problems ranging from minor to major faults, in addition to potential fire hazards. Werner Bester, Cummins SA, tel (+27 11) 321-8700

product news

62 07.13

MBE Minerals has supplied two vibrator mo-tor powered 1,8 m by 4,5 m single deck hori-zontal coal discard washing screens to a coal mining operation in Mpumalanga.

The company has supplied screens with side plate mounted drives to this mine for nearly four decades. Graham Standers, MBE Minerals’ Sales Manager: Vibrating Equip-ment, says the mine recently had an addi-tional requirement for vibrator motor driven screens at one of its operations.

“This is the first time we’ve supplied the mine with motor driven screens, which have become one of our standard screen designs,” Standers comments. “These units are fitted with 10 kW vibrating motors. They are main-tenance friendly and make for reduced down-time to conduct drive replacements. One of our screen experts regularly visits the mine

OMSA launches local valve range

MBE supplies washing screens to coal mine

A double deck linear screen with modular poly-urethane screen decks.

sites to monitor performance and advises on optimisation and maintenance.

“This order strengthens our installed base in the Central Basin coalfields and broadens the range of standard screens we’re bringing into this market.”

MBE Minerals manufactures screens for the entire international group and the com-pany’s screens have been operating in the African mining industry for the past 40 years, primarily in the coal, diamond and iron ore sectors. Each screen is designed with sound mechanical features including vibration damping, side plates, cross members and the appropriate feed and discharge chutes.

All types of screening surfaces can be ac-commodated.

“With more than 400 vibrating screens in operation in South Africa alone, we’re able to assess and provide the competent expertise and know-how in specifying and installing the correct screen for any process application,” says Standers.

MBE Minerals is currently involved in an initiative to re-introduce its range of vibrat-ing feeders, designed in Germany and locally manufactured, to the local mining industry. These feeders are available with feed capaci-ties of 100 t/h up to 3 000 t/h and are suitable for all applications where controllable dis-charge of bulk materials is required.MBE Minerals SA, tel (+27 11) 397-4660

OMSA has launched its own uniquely brand-ed FPV range to the South African market. The range which includes diaphragm, wedge gate and pinch valves will be available via the BMG network of outlets.

While still supplying valves from AVK, Inter-App, ITT, Praher and SED, OMSA says the FPV valve range will be South African manu-factured, thereby meeting the South African Department of Trade and Industry’s mandate for 80 % local content for government pro-curement processes. OMSA will offer valves that serve industry needs from entry level through to niche market requirements.

The OMSA Group views this expansion of its valve line-up as the way forward to market expansion into sectors where less special-ised valves are required, while still assuring the customer of OMSA quality and technical support.

The OMSA Group, known for its valve, fil-tration, lubrication and instrumentation range of products, recently merged with the BMG Group and all OMSA products are now avail-able through the extensive BMG network of outlets.Marco Errath, OMSA, tel (+27 11) 793-7421

6307.13

product news

Latest version of mine ventilation package releasedVUMA Software has launched the latest version of VUMA3D-net-work which it describes as a world leading, windows-based soft-ware package for mine ventilation, cooling and environment con-trol, developed to meet the specific needs of deep hard-rock mines. VUMA3D-network 2.0 builds on the innovative capabilities of the previous version to offer the local mining industry several unique new features.

VUMA, an acronym for Ventilation of Underground Mine Atmo-spheres, was developed by local mining experts to assist mine de-signers to manage and mitigate the high heat loads encountered deep below the surface in South African hard-rock mines.

The software solves airflow, heat flow and pollutant distributions interactively throughout a ventilation circuit. Analysis of ventilation networks is now made significantly easier than before through the ease-of-use of this state-of-the-art engineering package. The pro-gramme can be used both as a planning tool and to verify the envi-ronmental performance parameters of operational mines.

“Thirteen years of continuous development have now brought us to the next version of this pioneering software,” says VUMA Soft-ware’s Director, Wynand Marx. “In addition to order-of-magnitude improvements in ease of use and drastically enhanced 3D graphics, VUMA3D-network 2.0 incorporates some truly innovative features that will facilitate planning and verification of the environmental pa-rameters in an operational mine and boost productivity.

“This windows-based software makes it extremely easy to build a network on a graphical screen and it is just as easy to import a mine design from other graphics programs.”

Differentiating features include uniquely specialised and verified modelling algorithms for most production zone types and develop-ment headings; verified heat models accounting for broken rock and face advance; rock, vehicle fleet and fan libraries; and easy-to-use category-based input.

The package also offers an intelligent on-screen hint system and an improved reporting capability with multi-editing functionality, de-sign checking criteria and effective summary reporting.

“VUMA was first conceptualised in the mid-90s when it became clear that the industry needed a new level of mine ventilation soft-ware,” Marx says. “This software has opened the door for mine designers to enter an entirely new realm of mine planning, via on-screen graphics that were simply not available anywhere before.”

The entire VUMA Software suite of software has been completely home-grown in South Africa and is supported by a team of local experts with decades of field experience.

Users are now invited to attend free regular monthly Friday morn-ing user workshops at VUMA Software’s offices in Sandton that will address application questions and discuss suggestions for improvement in future versions. User training courses for new and existing users are also offered at the VUMA Software office, or at mining companies’ premises.VUMA Software, tel (+27 11) 706-9797

A typical screen shot from VUMA3D-network.

product news

64 07.13

Index to advertisersAZ Hollink South Africa 17 AFROX 46APE Pumps 55Atlas Copco 62B&E International 36Babcock Equipment 38Barloworld Equipment 9Barloworld Power FCBell Equipment Company 5bme OBCCummins South Africa 56Dynamic Fluid Control 50

Eaton Hydraulics 52Eazi Sales and Service 63Ernest Lowe IFCFlexicon Africa 11HFT Baldwin 61Hosch-Fördertechnik (SA) 59IDC 15Krohne 57MDM Engineering 6MET Group 24Minopex 39MMD Mineral Sizing 26

PANalytical 51Sandvik Mining 30Scaw Metals Group 48SKF 60SMEC Vela VKE 47SRK Consulting 34Tenova Mining and Minerals 2TWP 13Vital Engineering 20Zest WEG Group IBC

Canada’s Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) has started work on a N$2,3 billion acid plant at its Tsumeb smelter, which it says will elimi-nate the sulphur dioxide emissions in Tsumeb and, at the same time, create a viable by-product, sulphuric acid, that could be sold to other mines operating in Namibia.

Kwikspace Modular Buildings, in partner-ship with Pupkewitz Megatech, has been contracted to provide six office space units (54 m2 each in size) for the inception phase. This R2 million project has a turnaround time of only four weeks, with completion at

GEOVIA, formerly known as Gemcom Soft-ware prior to its acquisition in 2012 by Das-sault Systèmes, has announced the release of GEOVIA Minex™ 6.2, which includes nu-merous enhancements plus the new Dump Scheduling and Haulage Planning module.

Designed to address the current economic concerns within the mining industry, the new Dump Scheduling and Haulage Planning module enables users to control one of the largest costs associated with the mining of coal and other stratified deposits: the remov-al and haulage of waste. The module allows users to design waste dumps and haul roads, schedule the dumping of waste, calculate haulage cycle times and report on all aspects of the waste removal and haulage process.

“Minex’s dump scheduling and haulage planning tools allow us to easily integrate into the mine scheduling process different sce-

ifm electronic’s switched mode power sup-plies are claimed to offer both value and performance and come in two designs – Basic Line in a compact plastic housing and ClassicLine in a robust metal housing. Both designs only require a little space on the DIN rail, due to their slim housing.

Software module caters for haulage of waste

A screen capture from Minex’s Dump Scheduling and Haulage module.

narios for hauling waste from pits to dumps via haul roads. In addition, they enable us to analyse our major cost drivers, and help us make better decisions about minimising our operating costs. I am very happy with the re-lease and with our investment in Minex. I am also looking forward to future developments and releases of Minex,” said David Delbridge, Manager – Mine Planning and Development, PT Bayan Resources, Tbk.

With advanced haulage planning, mine planners are able to effectively analyse and manage the efficiency of truck cycle times and optimise truck fleet and haul road selec-tion for improved cost control. A Scenario Manager allows users – in a single interface – to create various dump scenarios and take control over the priority, sequence and direc-tion in which dumps are filled.

With advanced reporting, Minex provides

mine planners with the flexibility to sum-marise the movement of waste and effective-ly communicate results to key stakeholders. Quick comparisons can be made between haulage options, leading to the identification and selection of the lowest cost and best al-ternatives.GEOVIA, tel (+27 11) 805-0277

Switched mode power supplies from ifm

Switched mode power supplies from ifm electron-ic come in two designs.

After power-on, the power supplies start, even without minimum load, and are short cir-cuit proof and overload protected. Two LEDs and a DCok output signal the operating states. With their wide input voltage range and cULus approval, they can be used worldwide.

Besides the long mains buffering time of up to 400 ms, another special feature of the ClassicLine is the intelligent power reserve: at a 1,5-fold nominal load the power supplies can provide extra current for 5 s, and for a

longer time in case of lower overload. This additional power allows even difficult loads to start such as motors and DC/DC convert-ers. The input voltage range is from 100 to 240 V AC ±10 %, and the output voltage of the 24 V DC power supplies can be set from 24 to 28 V.

Additional types are designed for the AS-Interface fieldbus system. They have, in ad-dition, an integrated data decoupling and a constant current characteristic.ifm electronic SA, tel 0861 IFM RSA (436-772)

Kwikspace office units for Tsumeb projectthe end of July 2013, and provides valuable space for key decision makers working at the mine. Kwikspace office units are loaded onto trucks in Cape Town and transported 2 000 km to Tsumeb where they are offloaded and commissioned within three hours.

The smelter is one of only a few in the world which is able to treat arsenic- and lead-bearing copper concentrates and is a major custom smelter with brownfields expansion potential. Leon du Plessis, Kwikspace, tel (+27 21) 905-9093