Modern Mining January 2016

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January 2016 MODERN MINING45
DIAMONDS
Top projects
Early stage of construction
on the recycle silo.
and ‘switch-over’ challenges which are typi-
cally associated with projects of this nature but
these are known to us and have been properly
planned for,” he says. “We do not anticipate any
impact on day-to-day operations or throughput
at Cullinan while the new plant is being con-
structed as it is being built separately to the
existing plant.”
The new processing plant is not the only
new investment underway at Cullinan. Petra
is also currently busy establishing a new block
cave (C-Cut Phase 1) on the western side of the
orebody in the upper portion of the major C-Cut
resource (estimated to contain some 133 Mct
in total). The project is reportedly progressing
well, with the first rings in the undercut hav-
ing been blasted in June 2015, the deepening
of the men-and-material shaft completed and
the deepening of the ore shaft on track for com-
missioning during H1 FY 2017 (i.e. July to
December 2016).
The C-Cut project, together with a large
tailings operation being developed, will take
annual production at the mine from 0,7 Mct
in FY 2015 to around 2,4 Mct by FY 2019,
with 2,2 Mct being derived from ROM and the
balance from tailings. Petra’s current mine plan
extends to 2030 but major residual resources
indicate that mine life could be in excess of 50
years. Whatever the case, the new plant will
ensure that Cullinan’s needs are catered for in
terms of processing through to the end of its life.
Photos courtesy of Petra Diamonds