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January 2016
MODERN MINING
7
MINING News
The School of Mining Engineering at the
University of the Witwatersrand reports
that it awarded seven doctoral degrees in
2015 – a record surpassing previous years’
achievements.
“ This achievement indicates the
School’s commitment to our strategic goal
of raising research productivity, which
aligns with the Wits Vision 2022 of being
a global top-100 university within the next
seven years,” said Head of School Professor
Cuthbert Musingwini.
Kenneth Rhodes
– known to many as
the ‘father of hardrock mechanisation’ in
South Africa – focused his DEng on the
implementation of mechanisation efforts
in gold and platinummines between 1983
and 2008.
PJ le Roux’s
thesis investigated insta-
bility in open stope mining, developing a
new design criterion to calculate, with cer-
tainty, the stability of open stopes.
Henn i e Grob l er
, Head o f t he
Department of Mine Surveying at the
University of Johannesburg, proposed an
alternative method of mine surveying to
improve the safety and accuracy of pri-
mary survey network control in a narrow
tunnel environment.
Bekir Genc
, senior lecturer at the Wits
School of Mining Engineering, used his
PhD to understand how mine planning
software can be utilised strategically for
optimal benefit – developing a methodol-
ogy for evaluating the use of this software
Wits School of Mining Engineering notches up a new record
and predicting future utilisation.
Victor Akinbinu
conducted research
into the links between fragmentation and
brittleness of Class II rock types, and suc-
cessfully proved the relationship that will
find application in blasting design in min-
ing and civil construction work.
Markus Mathey
conducted research
into the strength of coal mining pillars at
high width-to-height ratios, demonstrat-
ing that while an exponential strength
increase may be applicable to other rock
Seen here at a breakfast held to celebrate the award of the seven doctoral degrees are (standing, left
to right) Gafar Oniyide, Markus Mathey, Victor Akinbinu and Dr Bekir Genc and (seated, left to right) Dr
Halil Yilmaz, Prof Emeritus Dick Stacey, Prof Emeritus Huw Phillips, Prof Cuthbert Musingwini (Head of
School), Kenneth Rhodes and Prof Fred Cawood.
types, it cannot be justified for coal; he
argued that application of the largely the-
oretically-based formula currently in use in
South Africa should be discontinued.
Gafar Oniyide
earned his PhD by
investigating the increasing rock tem-
peratures that arise with deeper mining
operations; his thesis improves the under-
standing of the mechanical response of
rock masses under high temperatures and
stresses, as well as mining-induced cooling
around excavations.
Jubilee executes agreement to process Hernic tailings
Jubilee, the Mine-to-Metals company, has
announced the execution, on 15 December
2015, of a ‘Co-Operation Agreement’ with
Hernic Ferrochrome on the turning to
account of the platinum containing surface
chrome tailings currently stockpiled and
generated by Hernic to produce chromite
and PGM concentrate.
“I am delighted that we have concluded
this final agreement and we are honoured
to be appointed as exclusive partner inwhat
will be the largest PGM beneficiation plant
of surface chrome tailings in South Africa,”
comments Jubilee’s CEO, Leon Coetzer.“The
Jubilee team is looking forward to moving
from design into implementation.”
The agreement replaces the heads of
agreement, as announced on 19 January
2015, in terms of which Jubilee was selected
as the exclusive party to beneficiate the
chromite and PGMs contained in the Hernic
surface material. Hernic is the world’s fourth
largest integrated ferrochrome producer
with an estimated 3 million tons of platinum
containing material at surface and contin-
ues to add further material to the surface
stock.
The project is the second of Jubilee’s
platinum projects, the first of which is to be
commissioned in early Q1 2016. The com-
pany has targeted a combined processing
of platinum containing surface material
over the two projects in excess of 900 000
tons per annum.
The agreement appoints Jubilee as the
exclusive party to beneficiate the chromite
and PGMs contained in the Hernic surface
material and addresses the project execu-
tionmethodology, as well as the operational
and financial performance targets.
The Hernic surface material has been
independently fully drilled and assayed for
chrome and PGM content. This has resulted
in an independent resource statement of
1,7 million tons, of which approximately
90 % of the resource is classified in the mea-
sured category under the internationally
recognised SAMREC code. Hernic also has
access to secondary surface stocks, which it
has internally identified, and could increase
the surface stocks to in excess of 3 million
tons through further drilling programmes.
The total project is estimated to contain in
excess of 224 000 (3PGM + Au) oz.
The project will be capable of produc-
ing annual revenues of £18,2 million at an
average metal basket price of US$906 per
(3PGM + Au) oz.