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March 2017
MODERN MINING
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MINING CONTRACTING
working in Namibia (where it has a presence
at the Langer Heinrich uranium mine) and in
West Africa, where it is working for AngloGold
Ashanti at Sadiola in Mali (where it has car-
ried out the mining since start-up of the mine
in the 1990s) and for Nordgold in Burkina
Faso and Guinea.
Comments White: “We’re thrilled to have
secured Nordgold, a London-listed, midcap
miner, as a client. We are doing the open-pit
mining for the company at its Lefa mine in
Guinea and its Taparko mine in Burkina Faso.
We’ve worked in Guinea before but the Taparko
contract represents our first entry into Burkina
Faso, which is fast emerging as one of the pre-
mier African gold mining countries.”
Turning to Aveng Shafts & Underground,
White says its current flagship contract is the
sinking of Shaft 1 at Ivanhoe’s Platreef proj-
ect near Mokopane in Limpopo Province.
The project is now well into the main sink
phase with the shaft having reached a depth
of over 200 m by early February. Included in
Aveng Mining’s scope is the development of
two main stations at below-surface depths of
450 m and 750 m.
“We’re extremely happy to be involved in
this standout platinum project which ranks
as one of the biggest platinum mining devel-
opments currently underway in the African
region,” says White.
Aveng Mining, along with all its competitors,
will be hoping to secure the contract for the
next phase of the project – Shaft 2, which is the
main production shaft. According to Ivanhoe,
this will be an 1 100 m deep, 10 m diameter
shaft with a hosting capacity of 6 Mt/a. To put
this in perspective, Impala’s Shaft 16 – widely
regarded as being one of the biggest shafts in
Africa – has a capacity of 2,6 Mt/a (although it
is deeper, at just over 1 600 m).
White also notes that Aveng Mining is
in the process of finishing off at Wesizwe’s
Bakubung platinum mine on the Western
Limb of the Bushveld Complex. “This has
been another prestigious – and successful
– contract for us, which has involved the sink-
ing of a main shaft of 820 m in depth and a
ventilation shaft of 810 m.”
Other shafts either recently completed – or
nearing completion – are the main and vent
shafts (both of medium depth) at Kalagadi
Manganese in the Northern Cape and the main
and vent shafts at Sasol Mining’s Shondoni
project near Secunda. The Shondoni shafts
are relatively shallow, as is the norm in South
African coal mining, but have substantial diam-
eters of 11 m (main shaft) and 9 m (vent shaft).
Although much of Aveng Shafts & Under
ground’s work over the past several years
has centered on shaft sinking and associated
development work, it also has the capacity to
undertake contract mining. “We would cer-
tainly like to get some contracts in this field,”
states White. “It’s what I call ‘annuity’ work – it
gives a steady, predictable return and has a bet-
ter risk/return ratio than project work. Coming
from the open-cut mining environment, I’ve
been surprised at the level of risk that under-
ground mining contractors are expected to
assume when they take on capital projects
such as shafts.”
Finally, and outlining Aveng Mining’s strat-
egy moving forward, White points out that
the company is one of the few that can offer
a tightly integrated open-cut and underground
mining contracting capability – a genuine ‘one
stop’ solution. “This is a key differentiator for
us and our intention is to exploit the syner-
gies between the two ‘halves’ of the business
to a greater degree than we have in the past and
allow them to leverage off each other,” he says.
“We’re also very open to further geo-
graphical diversification beyond the African
continent. The Chuquicamata contract has
shown that this is a viable option and has cer-
tainly raised our profile in South America. We
see opportunities in several other parts of the
world, including the Middle East and the CIS
region. We will almost certainly continue to
be an Africa-focused business but I’m hope-
ful that we can in the future look forward to at
least a portion of our revenues coming from the
international market.”
Headgear of the 11 m
internal diameter vent shaft
at Codelco’s Chuquicamata
copper mine in Chile. The
successful sinking of this
shaft has established Aveng
Mining’s reputation in the
South American mining
market.