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May 2015
MODERN MINING
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MINING News
at a rate exceeding 100 t/h and, once
established, development will commence
on a full-scale 250 t/h plus long-term main
production facility which is earmarked to
be operational and producing within 18
months of initiation. Productionwill initially
be concentrated on the high-grade/high-
value Southwest/Southcentral resource,
which has been shown from previous drill-
ing programmes to exceed 25 Mt and over
0,7 Mct with an in-situ value of US$867 mil-
lion. This high value kimberlite can sustain
full production, as planned, for a minimum
of 12 years, yielding annual revenue in
excess of US$60 million, says Paragon.
Paragon already has extensive knowl-
edge of the lay-out and internal structure
of the existing process plant, and is
working with its plant designers and
manufacturers to rationalise the design,
upgrade the capacity and install the lat-
est X-ray Transmission technology (XRT)
in order to increase capacity to in excess
of 100 t/h and recover diamonds in excess
of 200 carats at high efficiencies and with
minimised likelihood of breakage.
Tom Dale retires from CEO position at Sedibelo
Sedibelo Platinum Mines, whose main
asset is the Pilanesberg Platinum Mine
(PPM), has announced that its CEO,
Tom Dale, is to retire. He has been with
Sedibelo and its predecessor companies
since 2009. During his four-year tenure,
he was instrumental in building Sedibelo’s
operations and oversaw significant
increases in output and recoveries, and
reductions in unit operating costs. The
company recently reported its maiden
year profit for 2014.
He will continue to be associated with
Sedibelo as an advisor so that his in-depth
knowledge of the company and its opera-
tions will be available to the management
team and the board during the transition.
The search for a new CEO has com-
menced. Erich Clarke, the current CFO, will
act as CEO for the interim period, and be
closely supported by Casper Badenhorst,
the current COO. They will report directly to
Arne H Frandsen, who has been appointed
Executive Deputy Chairman of Sedibelo,
responsible to the Board. Under their
leadership, Sedibelo will continue the
development of its shallow orebodies, and
its preparations for its IPO once commodity
and equity markets improve.
Chairman Brian Gilbertson said: “I have
worked with Tom since the eighties, and he
is one of the true stalwarts of our industry.
On behalf of the board and our sharehold-
ers, I want to express our gratitude for the
unique contribution Tom has provided.
Under his leadership, Sedibelo has grown
into an exciting PGM producer. I wish him
all the best in his well-earned retirement.
That said, I am delighted that Tom has
agreed to continue in a part-time capac-
ity for a transition period, as adviser to the
board and management.”
Dale arrived as a youngmining engineer
in South Africa more than 40 years ago. He
started at JCI and for most of his career he
worked in hard rock mining, leading the
turnaround of Randfontein gold mine and
later working at Gengold and Gold Fields.