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Venetia underground expansion on track for 2021 first production

PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT The current Venetia mine capital spend has been largely dedicated to site establishment and mining services infrastructure for the underground project

Photo by De Beers Consolidated Mines

LOOKING UP DBCM’s focus for 2016 and 2017 will be the three production ends, with the aim being to complete the decline tunnel and the sinking of the production and service shafts

Photo by De Beers Consolidated Mines

31st July 2015

By: Mia Breytenbach

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: Features

  

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Construction of the $2-billion underground extension of diamond miner De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) South Africa’s Venetia mine is 18% completed, with the company having spent more than $250-million on the project to date, DBCM CEO Phillip Barton tells Mining Weekly.

“We are making good progress overall . . . and remain on track for the first diamonds reporting in 2021,” he states.

The Limpopo-based Venetia mine – the largest producer of diamonds in South Africa – accounts for about 40% of the country’s total yearly diamond production.

The new underground mine, which is currently under construction represents, at $2-billion, the biggest capital investment in South Africa in the company’s history. The openpit mine was built at a cost of R1-billion and opened on August 14, 1992. The underground mine project will begin production in 2021 and it is expected that 133-million tonnes of ore will be treated containing an estimated 94-million carats over the life of the operation.

Barton tells Mining Weekly that a significant amount of the current Venetia mine capital spend has been dedicated to site establishment and mining services infrastructure at the Venetia Underground Project (VUP). This includes the construction of terraces, bulk services (water and power), the shaft collars, decline portal and headgears for the underground mine.

State-owned power utility Eskom will in the future be adding another high-voltage power line for the underground operations to bolster the existing facilities.

Construction of the 6 km decline, which will reach a final depth of 900 m, started in March 2014, and is forecast for completion in 2020. The decline has currently completed 780 m of linear development.

Further, the production and services shafts are planned to be sunk to a final depth of 1 040 m.

“We have completed the presink to 60 m in both the services and production shafts, lowered the sinking stages into the shafts and have commenced with headgear erection in preparation for main sinking activities to commence in 2015,” Barton explains.

Construction on the production and services shafts started in the second half of 2013, with completion of the shafts forecast for 2020.

A 750 t crane is being used to install the headgears for the two shafts into position; completion of the production shaft headgear is imminent and the headgear equipping has commenced. Additionally, the sinking winders have been installed and are currently being commissioned.

DBCM’s next focus is completion of the services shaft headgear, with the stage installed in the shaft and sub-bank completed, Barton notes. The hive of activity on surface will slowly diminish towards year-end “allowing us to focus on the safe and productive development of the shafts and the decline. The shafts ‘slow sink’ will give the crews time to acclimatise and safely control equipment from the stage with no work going on beneath the stage as used to be the norm in vertical shaft sinking. Taking time to be safe is no problem in our book”.

The Canadian shaft-sinking technology applied at VUP ensures improved safety. The method significantly decreases the number of personnel from the shaft bottom during cleaning operations. The method statement does not allow for concurrent activities (sinking and linking), thereby, eliminating personnel working above each other, significantly reducing exposure to falling objects, Barton emphasises.

De Beers has selected construction, engineering and mining major Murray & Roberts (M&R) subsidiary M&R Cementation as the preferred partner for the shaft development. They have secured a R2.6-billion contract to develop and build the shaft complex, Creamer Media’s Research Channel reported in October 2014. The contract work includes the sinking, equipping and commissioning of a decline tunnel and ramp and two vertical shafts; horizontal tunnel development to provide access to and establish loading levels; and associated ventilation, ground- and water-handling infrastructure.

Future Focus
DBCM’s focus for 2016 and 2017 will be the three production ends, with the aim being to complete the decline tunnel and the sinking of both shafts, Barton highlights. He explains that each 3.5-m-deep blast extends the decline, while the blast depths of the two vertical shafts vary as the contractors progress from the presink to the slow sink and standard sink routes.

The existing Venetia mine processing plant will treat the underground ore when the production shifts underground. While the plant was originally constructed to process 4.8-million tonnes of ore a year, DBCM has de-bottlenecked and improved the process to increase throughput to six- million tonnes per annum, Barton says, adding that if DBCM mines the K1 and K2 pipes concurrently, it can process the six- million tonnes a year.

The option to potentially mine eight-million tonnes a year remains open, but will require an additional stream to the existing plant.


Currently, studies are also being conducted to consider automating sections of the VUP, such as the implementation of driverless, automated truck loops managed from remote surface-based drivers – similar to those employed at the ex-De Beers managed Finsch diamond mine, in the Northern Cape.

While Barton stresses that DBCM will remain informed and open-minded to new mining and automation technologies, he reiterates the preference for deploying tried and tested technologies, proven as commercially viable.

Edited by Leandi Kolver
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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