Large diesel generator sets are being brought to BHP Billiton’s Hotazel manganese mines in South Africa from Australia.

The gensets, which are not being used within the global group, have the capacity to supply sufficient electricity to keep critical parts of the mine operative should power outages occur.

BHP Billiton also plans to expand its cogeneration facility in Meyerton, where Metalloys beneficiates manganese ore into manganese alloy.

More challenging, however, is management of reduced energy to the company’s electrolytic manganese processing plant at MMC in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, where the 10% power cut not only translates into a 10% production loss, but also throws up product quality issues.

“Being in or out of the sulphur specification is a issue for us,” BHP Billiton manganese president Peter Beaven explains.

The company markets itself as a quality producer, and earns a price premium as a result, but when product fails to meet the specification, it has either to be reprocessed or sold to a different set of customers.

Power issues have forced the company to call force majeure and travel to customers in many parts of the world to explain the problem.

“Many will say that they are going to muddle their way through, but there is no way that this is upside. “We are just managing to find ways of mitigating the issues, but there are going to be higher costs and fewer tons,” Beaven warns.

MANGANESE ORE PRODUCTION

Some three-million tons of manganese ore is being produced a year at the company’s Hotazel mines, two-million tons of which is railed to Port Elizabeth and Durban for export, and the balance transported to Metalloys and MMC.

Metalloys is producing 780 000 t of manganese alloy and MMC 25 000 t of product a year.

“We are going flat out everywhere, subject to power,” Beaven tells Mining Weekly.

Hotazel output has risen from 2,6-million tons in 2006 and, with Transnet allocating greater capacity and the Durban port assist- ing the company, an exportation level beyond 2007’s three-million tons appears possible this year.

Port Elizabeth has yet to expand ore handling capacity, although there are plans to do so, and rail cost has long been an issue, though rail reliability is improving and cancellations declining.

“We have definitely passed over some sort of hump and I am a lot happier about Transnet this year than I was last year, and there is pro- bably more improvement to come,” Beaven says.

Transnet has offered to engage with BHP Billiton on medium-term and long-term plans, for which the company has brought out a technical team from Australia.

“Hopefully, we will come up with an ideal situation for South Africa, in the medium term expanding Port Elizabeth to its maximum capacity, and in the longer term arriving at whatever has to be done, should Port Elizabeth no longer be used,” says Beaven.

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