Modern Mining January 2017

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timber bridges. The route can now accommo- date 20-tonne loads but still needs further work to make it fit for the demands of building a new mine, which will involve heavy loads of equip- ment being transported to site. Kamstra notes, incidentally, that the new road has been built by locally recruited workers (around 450 of them), who have been largely responsible for designing and constructing the bridges, which he describes as “works of art”. While the logistics challenges of Bisie are not insignificant, they are nevertheless being

Above: Trevor Farber, COO of Alphamin Bisie Mining (ABM), Alphamin’s DRC sub- sidiary, briefs miners at the return airway drive face. Left: The Bisie camp. All the structures have been built by local labour using materials sourced locally. Below: Bridge constructed by Alphamin over the Biruwe River.

access the site but we will be putting in an airstrip early in 2017.” Over the past few months Alphamin has cut a road alignment through to its camp at Bisie, a task which has involved it in building several

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January 2017  MODERN MINING  33