Modern Mining February 2016

PLATINUM

a significant number of years assuming favour- able market conditions. Obviously any decision to proceed with the South mine will be subject to positive feasibility. We envisage roughly a five-year development and build up phase for the project.” Turning back to the current mining opera- tion at the UG2 North mine, Theron says a mechanised approach was adopted for a num- ber of reasons. “The method is well proven and is used at several platinum and chrome mines on the Eastern Limb,” he says. “The UG2 reef lends itself to mechanised mining given its average width of 180 cm compared to 80 cm for the Merensky package. Moreover, mechanisa- tion is inherently much safer than conventional methods and this is reflected in the fact that the operation has been fatality-free since incep- tion. The mine recently achieved 2 million fatality-free shifts. In addition, our LTIIR to the end of October last year was 0,43 per 200 000 hours worked, which is a very creditable achievement.” Theron – who spent his earlier career with Anglo American Platinum prior to joining Northam in 2010 – is a recognised expert on mechanised mining. He says Booysendal has taken the method to a new level. “There are sev- eral mines that are described as ‘mechanised’ but perhaps the more appropriate term would be ‘semi-mechanised’ as some operations are still carried out using conventional methods,” he maintains. “By contrast, Booysendal is fully mechanised through the entire mining cycle, with drill rigs on the face, LHDs deployed for cleaning and loading and fully mechanised roof bolters installing support. Most other mines

double. “We’re currently undertaking a pre- feasibility study on exploiting the Booysendal South orebody,” he explains. “If we do develop the South orebody, the project will incorporate the infrastructure of the former Everest mine which we acquired recently from Aquarius Platinum for R450 million. The Everest assets include a 250 000 tonne/month concentrator, which is capable of handling all the require- ments of the Booysendal South project. “With both Booysendal North and South in operation, PGMproduction from the Booysendal property could potentially reach half a million ounces a year – with the resource being suffi- cient to maintain this level of production for

LHD working on the Merensky project (photo: Arthur Tassell).

Queen Fana, a Shift Supervisor with Murray & Roberts Cementation. Women constitute 20 % of the workforce on the mine (photo: Arthur Tassell).

24  MODERN MINING  February 2016