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MODERN MINING
January 2016
DIAMONDS
Top projects
E
xplaining the background to the
VUP, Kühn says the project will
extend Venetia’s life to 2043. “Ve-
netia mine was opened in August
1992 and ranks as a Tier One mine
and De Beers’ flagship operation in South Af-
rica, producing 3,2 million carats in 2014,”
he states. “It currently mines three orebodies
– K01, K02 and K03 – via open-pit methods.
The open pit is heading towards its economic
limits and has to be replaced in 2021 by an un-
derground mine – hence the need for the VUP.
The project represents the biggest ever invest-
ment by De Beers in South Africa and – very
importantly – will ensure that Venetia con-
tinues as one of the main employers and gen-
erators of economic activity in an area where
work opportunities are in short supply.”
Projects such as the VUP require years of
planning and the first concept study on the
development of an undergroundmine at Venetia
was undertaken in 2003. A pre-feasibility study
What is believed to be the biggest diamond mining project currently underway anywhere in the
world, the US$2 billion Venetia Underground Project (VUP) at De Beers’ Venetia mine in Limpopo
Province, is making excellent progress, as
Modern Mining’s
Arthur Tassell recently witnessed
on a visit to the site. He spoke to Graham Chamberlain, Project Executive with Murray & Roberts
Cementation (MRC), and De Beers’ Christoff Kühn, Head of the VUP. The project – MRC’s biggest
current contract – is seeing the deployment – for the first time in South Africa – of a new shaft-sinking
methodology derived fromMRC’s sister company, Cementation Canada.
The steel headgears of
the service shaft and the
production shaft. They were
erected by Genrec using
a 750-ton mobile crane
(photo: De Beers).
Canadian-style shaft sinking