Fall-of-ground accident study, commodity improvement, local continuous miner debuts
A series of implementation projects have been carried out to impart a risk-based support design methodology to rock engineering practitioners in the platinum sector. The risk-based support design method is intended to address fall-of-ground-linked risks in narrow tabular underground mines. Read on page 15 of this edition of Mining Weekly of risk-based support design remaining a relatively new approach to presenting solutions to rockfall risk management in mining. However, the introduction of technological methods and the development of associated skills to provide sound, meaningful solutions remain a priority. The recommendation is that initiatives continue to be promoted with an additional element of collaborative engagement by stakeholders to promote mature adoption and development of technological solutions to rockfalls.
Despite the pervasive commodity price slump negatively affecting the global mining industry, there are those who discern signs that the industry is moving towards improvement. Read on page 16 of this edition of Mining Weekly of suggestions that commodity prices may finally be heading up. Contended is that the improved gold price has resulted in significantly more gold exploration projects being undertaken globally by junior mining companies. While a lack of project investment during commodity downcycles is common, these are seen as the very periods when investment should ensue in preparation for the upturn. It is also noted that productivity levels globally have decreased significantly in the past decade and that particularly gold and platinum mines need to move away from a dated management model to bring about better productivity. The prediction is that much of the value creation in mining will shift from how well the operation moves material to how well it collects, analyses and acts on information to become more productive.
Cost pressures continue to hurt. For example, in the last five years, electricity prices in South Africa have gone up by an average of just under 20% a year, diesel prices by 13%, reinforcing steel by 11%, wages by just under 11%, structural steel by 8.4% and the overall Producer Price Index inflation rate by 6%-plus. Mining’s inflation basket has been going up at a considerably quicker pace than in most other mining jurisdictions. In gold mining, there has been a 170% increase in real cost of labour per unit of output and the country is back where it was in 1994 from an output per worker point of view. The metrics in platinum mining are similar. A commodity that has escaped that level of cost pressure is coal, where the real labour costs are still at the same level as they were in 1994 because of the introduction of mechanisation in the 1990s. But most of that mechanisation has been done by large global manufacturing concerns. Now a new local debut is under way. Read on page 17 of this edition of Mining Weekly of the launch of a continuous miner by East Rand engineering company JA Engineering Works. This in-house-designed, 90%-local continuous miner has been developed in response to local collieries’ demand for a high-productivity cutting solution.
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