Modern Mining September 2018

SHAFT SINKING AND RAISEBORING

Aveng Mining employees and rocker shovel in Shaft 1. says the contract is proceeding very well. “The shaft has an internal diameter of 7,25 m and we are currently contracted to sink to a depth of 820 m although our understanding is that this could be extended to 982 m, which is the projected final depth,” he states. “Our performance during the earlier phase of the contract was not where we wanted it to be but over the past year the progress has been excellent, with advance rates of up to 54 m a month being achieved, which is exceptional. We’ve also hugely improved our safety record.” As is mentioned elsewhere in this issue, the contract for the main production shaft of the Platreef project – Platreef Shaft 2, which will be over a kilometre in depth and 10 m in diam- eter – is still to be awarded. White expects this to be keenly contested. “With so little shaft-sinking work around, every shaft-sinking company will be keen to secure this contract, which is really one of the few deep shaft projects on the hori- zon at the moment.” Looking to the future, White says that the underground min- ing capability, including shaft sinking, of Moolmans remains a crucial part of the Moolmans offering and a key factor differen- tiating it from its competitors. “Certainly, in the African market, I can’t think of any other mining contractor with anything like the broad capability we have. At the current time, surface min- ing contracting is by far the bigger side of Moolmans but it is very possible that we will achieve a much more even balance in the future, as the underground market picks up pace,” he says. Whilst White acknowledges that market conditions remain tough, Moolmans nevertheless has a current order book totalling over R8 billion spread over 11 projects. Most of the contracts are in South Africa – with one of the latest being for Vedanta’s Gamsberg zinc project near Aggeneys in the Northern Cape – but the company is also working in Botswana, Namibia, Burkina Faso and Guinea and has recently completed a contract in Mali. It has worked outside the African continent in the past and probably will again in the future. As White says, “We are primarily an African contractor, but we are keen to enter the international market outside Africa and this is one of our priori- ties moving forward.” 

September 2018  MODERN MINING  43