Our lead article in this issue deals with a procedure described by the project team as a "once in a decade event" - the roping-up of two Koepe winders at Impala's No 16 Shaft at Rustenburg. The last time a similar procedure was carried out in South Africa was at the Palabora mine over a decade ago.
Since Modern Mining visited the site a few weeks ago to view the rope-up, No 16 Shaft has been officially handed over to Impala by EPCM contractor RSV and shaft-sinking contractor Shaft Sinkers. Work on the project, which has cost R5,1 billion to date, started in 2004 and full production from the shaft is expected in FY2018.
Also in the platinum field we look at the latest developments on Ivanplats' Platreef project near Mokopane. These include the appointment of DRA as the pre-feasibility consultant and the award of a shaft-sinking contract to Aveng Mining to facilitate the extraction of a bulk sample for testwork from the Flatreef deposit. Discovered in 2010, the Flatreef is a zone of high-grade mineralisation that lies within a flat, to gently dipping, portion of the Platreef and is potentially amenable to highly mechanised underground mining methods.
The subject of raisboring is covered in our profile of Fochville-based Master Drilling Group. The company, which listed on the JSE at the end of last year, has a global reputation in its field and has carved out a significant share of the raiseboring market - not only in South Africa but also in several South American countries. Modern Mining recently visited one of Master Drilling's sites in the Marikana area, where the company is boring a 998 m deep, 4,5 m vent shaft using a Wirth HG380 SP machine, one of the biggest raiseboring rigs in the world.
Our special feature this month looks at the topic of safety on mines and includes an article on a new safety bolt from Finnish manufacturer of underground equipment, Normet. The D-Bolt, as it is known, is said to cater for high static loads but also has the ability to accommodate the deformations, either gradual or sudden, associated with squeezing rock conditions or high energy events such as rock bursts.
