Modern Mining January 2016

TOP PROJECTS

SOUTHERN AFRICA’S TOP MINING

age of stones to a minimum, the plant will use autogenous milling and HPGR technology. It will also use XRF (X-ray fluorescence) to re- place Dense Media Separation with only the -25 mm material reporting to the DMS circuit. Petra estimates that operating costs will be lowered by as much as R20 to R25 per tonne as compared to the existing plant. Our second diamond project is De Beers’ Venetia Underground Project (VUP) , which will see the Venetia mine in Limpopo tran- sitioning into an underground operation by the early 2020s – with the life of mine being extended to the 2040s. The US$2 billion proj- ect, said to be the biggest diamond mining project currently underway anywhere in the world, will involve development of around 80 km of shafts, tunnels, chambers, workshops and water and ventilation systems – with this figure rising to 220 km over the life of mine. An innovative approach has been adopted for

In our regular Top Mining Projects feature we look at projects distinguished by their size, innovation or pioneering spirit. This year we have identified five that meet these criteria. Two are diamond projects, two are copper while the fifth is a new underground coal mine. In contrast to previous years where many were located across border, this year all but one are located in South Africa.

T he first of our diamond projects is the new processing plant at Petra Diamonds’ iconic Cullinan mine near Pretoria. The state-of-the-art facility is already in the construc- tion phase and will be commissioned by mid- 2017. It will replace the current plant which has been in operation for around 70 years, in the process reducing the ‘footprint’ of the mine’s treatment facilities from around 26 ha to a much more compact 5 ha. To reduce break-

Top projects

32  MODERN MINING  January 2016