Modern Mining February 2016

PLATINUM

These were excavated into the mountain- side by famed geologist Hans Merensky – the Merensky reef, of course, is named after him – when he explored the area in the 1920s and it was important that they remained undisturbed. In the event, the blasting operation was executed successfully, with no damage to either infrastructure or the historical sites. For interested readers, the precise meth- ods used to achieve this outcome were the subject of a technical paper by Eddie Badenhorst of DRA Global which was published recently by the Association of Mine Managers of South Africa. Summing up Murray & Roberts Cementation’s involvement with Booysendal, Blom says that the company is proud of its association with the mine. “Booysendal now ranks as one of our flagship contracts – with our employee complement on site numbering in the region of 1 200 people (excluding sub-contractors),” he says. “We enjoy an excellent relationship with the mine’s management team and are fully com- mitted to achieving the mine’s goals – not just in respect of production but also, of course,

safety, environmental care, training, employ- ment equity, and social and labour objectives. Even though our current contract only runs until the end of 2017, we are hoping that we will continue as part of the Booysendal team for many years to come.” Photos courtesy of Northam Platinum unless otherwise acknowledged

The Merensky boxcut during construction. Note the proximity of the Eskom substation.

Booysendal’s world-class infrastructure The Booysendal underground infra- structure incorporates a reverse decline system consisting of two barrels (exclud- ing the Merensky reef access barrel). The main barrel contains the conveyor belt and chairlift for the transfer of rock and personnel. The other barrel is for the movement of mechanised equipment into and out of the mine.

type plant and has a nameplate capac- ity of 187 500 ROM tonnes per month (although in practice it has proved quite capable of handling 200 000 tonnes per month). The processing facilities include a DMS plant – commissioned but not yet operational – designed to remove approximately 20 % of waste from the ROM material and improve the head grade to the primary mill and a spi- rals plant which removes the saleable chrome fraction from the ore prior to the tails thickener. 

some 24 m below the reef horizon. This decline is connected to the reverse decline and contains the conveyor and chairlift for the conveyance of rock and personnel respectively. The placement of the conveyor in the footwall (ore pass capacity) generally allows for rock hoist- ing to surface to take place during off peak periods. On surface, the Booysendal con- centrator plant is a typical MF2 circuit

Unique to the Booysendal design is the footwall decline which is placed

The concentrator plant has a nameplate capacity of 187 500 tonnes per month.

February 2016  MODERN MINING  27