Modern Mining January 2016

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MODERN MINING

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January 2016

Top projects

COAL

nlike the nearby greenfields

Thubelisha and Impumelelo

projects – taking the batons from

Sasol’s Twistdraai and Brand-

spruit operations respectively

– Shondoni is a brownfields expansion that

essentially continues and extends Middelbult

into new reserves around the recently com-

pleted Shondoni shaft complex.

Kobus Louw, Vice President Projects &

Sigma Colliery, who oversees a 32-strong own-

er’s projects team for these expansions, said the

rising cost of maintaining ageing infrastructure

at Middelbult was a key reason for the transi-

tion to Shondoni, as well as the need to move

closer to the new reserves.

Budgeted at over R15 billion, the three

replacement projects will together aid the total

production of 40 million tons and take the life-

of-mine horizons to about 2050. At Shondoni,

work is over 85 % complete – including an

11-m diameter man-and-materials shaft reach-

ing a depth of 155 m, set for full operational

duty early in 2016.

Among its notable achievements to date, the

project has dealt with various ground and water

challenges in its development stages, rolled

back delays with an innovative option to com-

plete and place the winder house, and will soon

boast the world’s longest single-flight overland

conveyor with no mid-way drive assistance.

Headed by EPCM contractor Worley Parsons,

work has been ongoing since 2012, with Aveng

Mining overseeing shaft-sinking and under-

ground development, Aveng Inland tackling

the surface infrastructure and buildings, and

Sandvik Mining providing the materials han-

dling systems for both underground and

surface.

Early development work on the 6-m wide,

3-m high incline shaft was bedevilled by

weathered dolerite near surface and a high

water table, requiring extensive cementation of

the porous areas.

“We addressed this using ‘tube a manchette’

Wealth of experience

drives

The new surface infrastruc-

ture at the Shondoni shaft

complex – seen here nearing

completion – includes

production offices (on

the right hand side of the

photo), change houses (left),

management offices (far

left) and ventilation fans (in

the background).

As Sasol’s Middelbult mine near Secunda in Mpumalanga

reaches the end of its 35-year life, the energy and

chemical giant is nearing completion of the R5,5 billion

Shondoni (‘Place of Wealth’) replacement project. As

Paul

Crankshaw

explains in this article, Shondoni – being

developed by Sasol Mining – is due to deliver over 9 million

tons of coal per annum toSasol’s synthetic fuels plant.