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February 2015
MODERN MINING
29
EVENTS
Chris Griffith, CEO of
Anglo American Platinum,
explained the group’s
‘modernising strategy’.
get spectacular results from drilling – includ-
ing an intersection in the Big Zinc orebody
which had returned an incredible 44,8 % zinc
over 340 m.
Much of Friedland’s address focused on the
Platreef project near Mokopane, which he said
would eventually be developed into the “world’s
largest and most sustainable platinum mine”
with a stage three production rate of 12 Mt/a of
ore. He said it would be a highly mechanised
bord and pillar mine exploiting the so-called
Flatreef resource – with an average width of
24,5 m – at a depth of about 700 m. Workers, he
said, would be trained professionals and would
be paid accordingly and – with the hyperbole
for which he is well known – he added that “no
one working in the mine would be required to
lift anything heavier than a pencil.”
Friedland also introduced his colleague,
Dr Patricia Makhesha
, MD of Ivanhoe subsid-
iary, Ivanplats, who gave delegates a briefing
on what she called the company’s unique BEE
initiatives, designed to benefit thousands of res-
idents in the Mokopane area. “You will never
find any big name in our structure. You know
why – this is broad based. It’s not narrow based,
it’s not about individuals, it’s about the entire
population.” She added that Ivanplats, despite
being the ‘new kid on the block’, was the top-
ranked PGM sector mining company in terms of
sustainability and had achieved Level 3 status
in its first verification assessment on the BBBEE
scorecard.
Amplats’ modernising strategy
Also presenting on the topic of platinum
was
Chris Griffith
, CEO of Anglo American
Platinum (Amplats), who noted that the price
of platinum had not recovered since the global
financial crisis in 2008 despite input costs hav-
ing continued to rise well above the CPI. Mining
generally in South Africa was also challenged
by a critical energy situation, adversarial labour
relations and declining labour productivity.
He updated delegates on Amplats’ restructur-
ing process. “The restructuring of the operations
is now largely complete, with the consolidation
of Rustenburg from five mines into three and
Union mine from two mines into one. The next
phase is optimising these assets to improve
profitability and sustainability, and the respec-
tive mine plans have been reviewed and refined
with benefits coming through.” He added that
Amplats’ objective “remains to exit our Union
and Rustenburg mines in the most appropriate
manner, whether separately or together, through
either a sale or public market exit.”
Griffith also gave an account of Amplats’
modernisation strategy, including the
mechanisation of mining and extrac-
tion processes. “With industry margins
being squeezed on all fronts, we simply
have to embrace innovation if we want
to find more productive, efficient and
sustainable ways of extracting value
from the minerals we mine. We can’t
rely on only small, incremental changes
and a business-as-usual philosophy to
get us out of this predicament.”
Griffith detailed some of the tech-
nological advances that Amplats
had made and innovations it had
introduced. These included the full
mechanisation of the Bathopele mine,
which he described as a “bord and
pillar operation utilising low pro-
file equipment and operating at three
times the productivity of our conven-
tional mines”, and the replanning of
Twickenham to be the first hard rock mecha-
nised mine to operate with extra-low and
ultra-low profile mining technology.
On the subject of hard rock cutting, he
Rio cultivates innovative partnerships
Alan Davies, Rio Tinto’s Chief
Executive, Diamonds & Minerals,
gave delegates – in a presentation
entitled ‘Cultivate innovative part-
nerships for the long term’ – an
overview of Rio’s activities in Africa.
His division manages Richards
Bay Minerals (RBM) in South
Africa, QIT Madagascar Minerals in
Madagascar, Murowa Diamonds
in Zimbabwe, the controver-
sial Simandou iron ore project in
Guinea and the Mutamba mineral
sands project in Mozambique.
Just prior to attending the
Indaba, he visited QIT Madagascar
Minerals. The project, he said, had
involved an investment of US$1
billion in “a very remote part of
the planet”. Its success, he told his
audience, was attributable to the
partnerships it had established with
the Government of Madagascar,
a 20 % shareholder in the project,
communities in the vicinity of the
mine and the World Bank.
As regards RBM, Davies revealed
that it was currently completing a
feasibility study for an extension of
the operation through the devel-
opment of the Zulti South deposit.
Turning to Simandou, he said it
would involve the investment of
billions of new dollars in Guinea. “A
railway will be built. A deep water
port will be established. Many kilo-
metres of new and upgraded road
will be built.”
Concluding, he said: “I can think
of no good reason why Africa
should not – with its abundant
resources and demography – make
this an African century.”
Rio Tinto’s Alan Davies.