Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa has been awarded a contract to conduct a Definitive Feasibility Study for Sibanye Gold’s West Rand Tailings Retreatment Project. Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa is the black empowered operating arm of the global total technology solutions provider, Tenova Mining & Minerals.
The WRTRP involves construction of a large-scale Central Processing Plant for the recovery of gold uranium and sulphur from the Sibanye tailings deposits and current arisings. the Central Processing Plant, to be located within a 35 km radius of the West Rand tailings resources, will be developed in phases and could potentialy treat up to 4 million tons per month of tailings and current arisings. The recovery of uranium and sulphur will be added as the project progresses. The DFS follows a “Gap Phase”, which is currently underway, in which additional metallurgical test work is being undertaken to optimise the Pre-feasibility study flow sheet design, reduce capex and opex and further reduce gold and uranium residue grades. Both the Gap Phase and the DFS are being executed over a 12 to 15 month period, targeting capex and opex accuracy estimates of ±10 %.
The DFS will evaluate the feasibility of developing the CPP, with the plant designed to initially process 1 million tons per month. (The Gap Phase is the bridging period to complete all test work and trade-off studies). Initially, reclamation of tailings will utilise a new gold processing module and uranium float cells (part of the CPP) for the extraction of gold and with the uranium concentrate, transported to Sibanye’s Ezulwini uranium extraction facility for the extraction of uranium. The WRTRP is key to the Sibanye Surface Operation’s strategy. This involves leveraging existing surface operations and infrastructure and developing a strong, long life and high yield surface business, by exploiting the low risk and relatively high margin characteristics of the surface resources located on the West Rand.
The WRTRP is well positioned to become Sibanye’s fifth mine and also presents a valuable environmental solution for existing and future surface tailings, promoting socially and environmentally responsible deposition of tailing in a centrally managed area. In awarding the DFS, Grant Stuart, WRTRP Project Manager, commented: “Following an extensive review of the proposals received from various engineering consultants, we are pleased to award the DFS scope to Tenova Mining & Minerals. “The project team has been particularly impressed by the application of innovative thinking and design. The alternative approach presented by Tenova creates the opportunity for the metal recovery process to differentiate itself from other surface treatment operators. Furthermore, it also dramatically improves economics of the project through potential reductions in capital and operating costs, and the potential improvement in gold and uranium recoveries.”
Tenova Mining & Minerals South Africa is the broad-based black empowered operating arm of the global Tenova Mining & Minerals Group. The Company focuses on the provision of total innovative solutions across the full mining & minerals industry value chain in South Africa. Tenova Mining & Minerals is a total integrated solutions provider to the global mining, bulk materials handling and minerals beneficiation and processing sectors, offering innovative technological solutions and full process and commodity knowledge across the mining industry value chain. Tenova is a worldwide supplier of advanced technologies, products, and engineering services for the metals and mining & minerals industries. More information is available at www.tenova.com