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Anglo top brass give De Beers Venetia diamond mine a new mid-century horizon

1st November 2013

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

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Anglo American plc chairperson Sir John Parker was shoulder to shoulder with South African President Jacob Zuma last week, digging the first spadeloads of a R20-billion ($2-billion) diamond investment at the Venetia diamond mine, in Limpopo province.

Seated across the way in bright De Beers apparel and under cover from the heat were hundreds of mineworkers quaffing drinks and cheering them on.

It was a change of South African mining scenario, a time to celebrate and a departure from mineworkers and management being at each other’s throats.

It was a bit of a reversal of roles for a short while to make sure South Africa moved forward with badly needed capital formation, which in this case will see hundreds of millions of rands invested in two big vertical shafts and a decline shaft into arguably the most valuable piece of real estate in South Africa.

Also present there was Nicky Oppenheimer, giving his moral support despite no longer playing any role in De Beers, having sold out to Anglo American, which now owns 85% of De Beers, and the Republic of Botswana, with 15%.

Twenty-one years ago, it was his father, Harry Oppenheimer, who launched the openpit Venetia mine in 1992, which quickly became South Africa’s largest and richest diamond mine.

Now the Anglo American top brass are taking the mine to a new mid-century timeline as an underground wealth creator that will preserve jobs for the next three decades.

With other commodities attracting mainly cost cutting, diamonds are, once again, South African mining’s best friend.

Zuma told the large launch gathering and international media contingent that the project was significant because it demonstrated confidence in South Africa as an invest- ment destination of choice by both foreign and South African companies.

Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani urged South Africans to work together in partnership to boost the economy collectively.

“Let the world see the real South Africa and let us focus on the great future we are building together,” Cutifani added.

The two vertical shafts and a decline shaft will be sunk to a depth of a kilometre to extend the life of South Africa’s biggest and most lucrative diamond mine to the year 2042.

The proposed new underground oper-ations will replace the current opencast mine in 2021 and yield 96-million carats during the life-of-mine.

“We’ll deliver this project within eight years,” Venetia’s project director, Kevin Botha, told the large group of mineworkers and VIPs who attended the launch.

Kilometre upon kilometre of tunnelling will have to be constructed before the underground operation will be ready to produce.

Massive mining techniques will be used to produce 5.9-million tons of ore a year and give employment to 1 800 people to well into the 2040s by the time, many believe, exploration will have proven up still more kimberlite pipe to mine.

“It’s a massive engineering exercise that is not fully appreciated,” Cutifani commented.

With underground production expected to start in 2021, over its life, the Venetia underground operation will treat 130-million tons of ore.

The project will also support 8 000 jobs directly, and a further 5 000 through the supply chain, benefiting the South African economy and the region immensely.

Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu told the many people who attended the launch function that South Africa would continue to ensure that the investment sustainably benefited mining communities and labour-sending areas.

De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) CEO Phillip Barton took the opportunity to announce the introduction of the Jacob Zuma Bursary Scheme to mark the occasion.

“Anglo American’s roots remain firmly in South Africa and we have been a proud investor here for almost 100 years,” Cutifani said.

In the last 14 years alone, Anglo American had invested R200-billion in South Africa, and is currently considering building another coal mine to serve State energy utility Eskom.

“There can be no greater vote of con- fidence by our shareholders in South Africa and De Beers than the decision to build an underground mine of the future here at Venetia, one of a handful of world-class diamond mines around the world,” De Beers Group CEO Philippe Mellier commented.

“The positive social impact of skills development, the acquisition of economically valuable experience and the potential to uplift rural and sometimes poorer com- munities is what exists here at the heart of Venetia,” Cutifani added.

DBCM chairperson Barend Petersen emphasised the need for safety and environ- mental protection at the mine, which is in the vicinity of the Mapungubwe World Heritage Site.

Both the Mapungubwe site and the buffer zone shielding it are legally protected through the National Heritage Resources Act, the National Environmental Management Act and the World Heritage Convention Act, President Zuma reminded.

There could not be more ingredients for a successful underground project.

The Openpit

The Cut Four North of the openpit mine, under which the underground mine will be built, was being mined during the Mining Weekly visit.

Cuts are mined until the base becomes so narrow that additional depth becomes impossible, forcing a new cut.

In the downward mining movement, the strip ratio is high because considerable volumes of nondiamond-bearing over- burden has to be removed before reaching the diamond-bearing kimberlite.

As mining proceeds to greater depth, the strip ratio improves until a point of one-part waste to one-part kimberlite is reached.

Once Cut Four North is depleted in 18 months, mining will move to the south of the pit.

Seven large 60 t shovels were operating as Mining Weekly watched from the viewing platform.

I watched as the shovel loaded 250 t of material into a huge truck in four scoops.

Water Needs

The openpit mine requires a large volume of 4.2 m3 of water a year and, since the inception of the operation 21 years ago, attempts have been made to abstract ground water from wells without damaging the ecological system along the nearby river.

Mining Weekly was taken to the only pool of water that remains for the entire dry season.

Because of the heavy rains this year, which have included one-in-200-year floods, there was more water in the pool than usual.

In abstracting water from two well fields, the mine has to ensure that the pool does not dry up.

The way it does that is through an early monitoring system, which measures plant moisture stress.

To do this, a leaf of a large berry fever tree, shown to Mining Weekly, is compressed under nitrogen gas between 23:00 and 03:00.

If a water droplet forms under a pressure of 10 bar, the vegetation is deemed to be unstressed.

If that droplet only forms under a pressure of between 10 bar and 20 bar, it indicates that water stress is setting in and the mine reduces the volume of water taken from the well fields on a monthly basis.

Under 10 bar, the mine is permitted to abstract 300 00 m3 a month but when pressures of between 10 bar and 20 bar are required to obtain a water droplet, the abstraction has to be reduced to 200 000 m3 a month.

Anything over 20 bar results in abstraction being reduced to 100 000 m3 a month.

A dam the mine has created holds 4.5- million cubic metres of water and mine reservoirs are filled during the wet season and for use by the mining operation as dryness sets in.

A De Beers farm, which is on a 99-year lease to SanParks, forms part of the Mapungubwe reserve.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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