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Billions invested to develop large mine assets

ALLEN BUTCHER
Tweefontein Optimisation Project recorded 5-million injury-free work hours between the period of November 2012 and February this year

ALLEN BUTCHER Tweefontein Optimisation Project recorded 5-million injury-free work hours between the period of November 2012 and February this year

Photo by Duane Daws

12th December 2014

By: Ilan Solomons

Creamer Media Staff Writer

  

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Once completed, diversified miner Glencore’s Tweefontein Optimisation Project (TOP), in Mpumalanga, would have mine assets worth several billion rands, which would be critical to ensure the success of the mine, said TOP GM Allen Butcher during Mining Weekly’s visit to the site last month.

He highlighted that the TOP’s construction site workforce would peak at about 3 000, while its steady-state employees amounted to about 1 000, the majority of whom were from local communities situated near the mine site.

Butcher revealed that the TOP assets would comprise mine equipment worth about R1.5-billion, including a second-hand refurbished Bucyrus 1570W dragline excavator; a R3.5-billion coal processing plant; and supporting infrastructure, worth about R2-billion, that would support the project, including a school and a housing development for the local Phola community.

Tweefontein owns a large fleet of 57 pieces of mine equipment, including 25 CAT 785 dump trucks with a carrying capacity of 150 t each, six CAT D11T, eight CAT D10T track dozers, eight CAT 740B articulated dump trucks, two CAT 777G water bowsers, three CAT 834 wheel dozers, three CAT 16M motor graders, two CAT 428 tractor loader backhoes and one CAT CS 76 soil compactor.

The loading equipment at Tweefontein comprises two Hitachi EX2600 mining excavators, three EX3500 face shovels and one CAT994 front-end loader.

Coal Processing Plant Progress
Construction of the TOP’s new coal processing plant, which Glencore and mining project house DRA jointly designed, started in October 2012. DRA is building the plant, which is on track to be completed by year-end and will include a run-of-mine (RoM) processing facility.

Butcher mentioned that the TOP mine management team was commissioning and ramping up the plant, which was mostly complete, with full capacity expected to be achieved by the second quarter of 2015.

Engineering group FLSmidth supplied the processing plant’s Abon crushers, while minerals solutions provider Multotec supplied the dense-media separation (DMS) cyclones and spiral banks.

“The coal processing plant comprises a three-stage crushing process, which reduces the coal from about 1.5 m to less than 50 mm, which is then fed into the plant,” said Butcher.

He added that very fine material of less than 0.12 mm, or slimes, was washed off the coal to avoid complicating the coal washing process.

Plant feed is split into two fractions for washing. The coarse coal is beneficiated by means of the DMS in large-diameter cyclones, while the fines are beneficiated by means of spiral banks.

Butcher explained that the DMS process is essentially adding the coal to a mixture of water and magnetite which pushes up the specific gravity of the media, making the coal float and the rock sink.

“Depending on the density of the media, the plant operator can control what sinks and what floats and, therefore, the quality of the coal produced from the plant,” noted Butcher.

The rock that sinks to the bottom of the plant is called discard, which is sent back to a bin at the RoM tip area by conveyor.

These discarded materials are disposed of in a pit, along with the other backfill materials.

The RoM tip is fed through a sequence of machinery and two crushing processes to a stockpile, which is then conveyed into the coal processing plant.

Equipment Emphasis
The TOP acquired its equipment from two main suppliers. While most of the mine’s rubber-tyre mobile equipment and bulldozers were manufactured by Caterpillar its digging equipment, including hydraulic excavators and backhoes, were supplied by Japanese engineering group Hitachi.

As the local agent for Caterpillar, earthmoving-equipment dealer Barloworld is responsible for the maintenance of the rear dump trucks, with Hitachi undertaking maintenance on its bespoke loading equipment.

“The last bulldozer will be delivered to site next month, and, by July 2016, we will likely exit these equipment maintenance contracts as, by then, the TOP will be in steady-state operation and we will have completed the construction of the workshop facilities,” concluded Butcher.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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