November 2011
Manganese features prominently in this issue, with our two lead articles covering projects in the Kalahari Manganese Field - the world's greatest repository of manganese ore - in the Northern Cape.
One of them deals with the new Tshipi Borwa mine of Tshipi é Ntle Manganese Mining. Currently under construction and due to enter production in the third quarter of 2012, the mine is located adjacent to Samancor Manganese's Mamatwan operation and has a resource base of 163 Mt. This is sufficient to support more than 60 years of mining at the anticipated production rate of 2,4 Mt/a. The entire resource can be mined via open-pit methods.
Our second manganese article looks at the new processing plant that has been commissioned at Assmang's Nchwaning mine - part of its Black Rock Operations. Designed by TWP Projects, which also acted as EPCM contractor, the plant is reported to be performing very well and will be critical to Assmang's plans to lift capacity at its Black Rock Operations from 3 Mt/a of product to 6 Mt/a.
In First Kalahari copper production nears we give an update on Discovery Metals Boseto project in north-west Botswana. When it comes on line next year, Boseto will be Botswana's second dedicated copper mine (the other is Mowana/Thakadu) and will produce approximately 36 000 tonnes of copper and 1,1 Moz of silver a year.
The project is significant in that it is opening up an entire new area of Botswana - between the towns of Maun and Ghanzi - to mining.
The highly competitive field of open-pit mining contracting is covered in a feature on Moolmans, widely regarded as Africa's biggest surface mining contractor. Part of the Aveng group, the company works from South Africa right up to Guinea, Ghana and Mali in West Africa and Tanzania in East Africa. In South Africa, its latest assignment is to undertake the mining at the new Tshipi Borwa mine (mentioned above). In the initial prestripping phase, Moolmans will be using its extensive fleet of refurbished Cat 631D scrapers to remove the Kalahari sand overlying the deposit.
Mining contracting - in this case underground - is also featured in an article on the ‘greenfields' Impumelelo mine project in Mpumalanga. Murray & Roberts Cementation has been awarded the contract to provide a men-and-material shaft and a ventilation shaft, as well as a decline and coal seam development, at this major Sasol Mining development.
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DigiShot Plus - AEL's blasting breakthrough
Our cover story focuses on AEL's latest electronic detonation system, DigiShot Plus, which is able to initiate 1 800 detonators per blast. Benefits of the system are said to include accuracy of firing times, enhanced safety, cost effectiveness, improved overall mining cycle times and a reduction in environmental impact.
Tshipi Borwa speeds towards production
The ‘sod-turning' ceremony to mark the formal start of construction on South Africa's latest manganese mine, Tshipi Borwa, was held in September. This R1,7 billion development is using tried and trusted processing technology allied to a conventional ‘truck and shovel' mining operation.
Konkola North makes "remarkable progress"
Murray & Roberts Cementation reports it has made an excellent start to the Konkola North decline sinking project in Zambia awarded in 2010, achieving 220 m of advance per month in the first 14 weeks. This was during the rainy season using one suite of equipment in adverse ground conditions, where all development ends were wire meshed to the face before the blast, and with site establishment being conducted concurrently.
Transport constraints limit minerals exports
While South Africa's mining industry has undeniably enjoyed boom or near-boom conditions for most of the past decade, it is also common cause that it has not benefited from the commodities ‘supercycle' to the same extent as competitor countries such as Australia and Brazil. One of the reasons for this argues Colin Emanuel, CEO of the Bridge Shipping Group, is that South Africa - and indeed the entire SADC region - is plagued by a ‘tired' and dysfunctional transport infrastructure.
