Name and Location
Impala No 17 Shaft project, North West, South Africa.

Client
Impala Platinum (Implats).

Project Description
The No 17 Shaft project, in Rustenburg, is a tonnage-replacement project for the Impala Rustenburg operations and is located downdip of the No 10 shaft. The shaft complex is designed to produce 225 000 t/m, or 2.7-million tonnes a year, of reef from eight operational levels, equating to 180 000 oz of platinum at full capacity. The shaft will access the Merensky and upper group two reef horizons. The entire mine design is conventional, with horizontal crosscuts to reef on 32 half levels.

The shaft complex comprises three vertical concrete-lined shafts – a rock and men-and-materials shaft (10-m-lined diameter), a dedicated downcast chilled-air (fridge) shaft (6-m-lined diameter) and an upcast ventilation shaft (9-m-lined diameter).

A total of 1 300 kg/s of chilled air will be channelled down through the rock and men-and-materials shaft and the fridge shaft to cool and ventilate the underground workings.

A Koepe winder will hoist the rock to surface before ore is transported to the plant on rail, while a second Koepe winder will transport men and materials.

The shaft will produce 180 000 platinum ounces a year at steady state.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
R12.4-billion.

Duration
The project was expected to come into production in 2021, but has now been put on care and maintenance.

Latest Developments
As a result of persistently low metals prices, project development work has been halted and the mine has been placed on a low-cost care-and-maintenance programme pending higher platinum-group metals prices.

It is now expected that only R240-million will be spent at the shaft over the 2016 and 2017 financial years, compared with the R521-million previously planned.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
WorleyParsonsTWP (engineering, procurement and construction management); Scribante (earthworks); Murray & Roberts, or M&R (civils); Redpath Mining (main shaft); Louwill Engineering (building structures); NIC Electrical & Instrumentation Construction (construction and instrumentation); Grinaker-LTA (shaft headgear erection contract); DRA Technical Services; ABB; Siemag Tecberg; Coilmec; Actom; Siemens; and Winder Controls (supply of winders for the project); BBE Projects (turnkey design, construction and commissioning of the refrigeration plant and air cooler system); and Johnson Controls, subcontracted by BBE Projects (supply of chiller system).

On Budget and on Time?
First production from No 17 shaft was expected in the 2021 financial year, but the project was recently put on care and maintenance.

Contact Details for Project Information
Impala No 17 Shaft general manager Hansie Fourie, cell +27 82 802 0704.
BBE Projects, tel +27 11 706 9800, fax +27 11 706 6931 or email bbe@bbe.co.za.
Grinaker-LTA, corporate affairs, tel +27 11 578 6000, fax +27 11 578 6161 or email enquiry@grinaker-lta.co.za.
Johnson Controls Systems & Services public relations manager Nanda Aerts, tel +32 2 709 4481 or
email Nanda.Aerts@jci.com.
Louwill Engineering, tel +27 11 818 5186 or email ben@louwill.co.za.
M&R, tel +27 11 456 6200, fax +27 11 455 2222 or email info@murrob.com.
NIC Electrical & Instrumentation Construction, tel +27 11 386 5000, fax +27 11 786 6786 or email engineering@nicinst.co.za.
WorleyParsonsTWP, tel +27 11 218 3000, fax +27 11 218 3100 or email twpinfo@twp.co.za.