Name of the Project
Venetia Underground Project (VUP).

Location
Venetia mine, in Limpopo, South Africa.

Project Owner/s
Anglo American subsidiary De Beers Consolidated Mines.

Project Description
The Venetia mine, which officially opened on August 14, 1992, is currently the biggest producer of diamonds in South Africa.

The mine is an openpit operation; however, following shareholder approval, development work began in late 2013 to build the new underground mining operation beneath the current operating openpit. It is currently the biggest diamond mine development under way anywhere in the world.

The VUP will extend the mine life to 2047 and yield 88-million carats from about 134-million tonnes of material.

The Venetia project comprises the K01 and K02 orebodies. Both kimberlites extend below surface, enabling De Beers to mine to depths of up to 1 000 m. There are indications that K01 extends below 1 000 m, and De Beers may explore options that extend the underground operation’s life beyond 2045.

K01 – a sizeable orebody measuring 550 m x 120 m – will be responsible for the majority of production, generating an average of 3.5-million carats from about 4.5-million tonnes a year of material.

The K02 orebody – measuring 200 m x 300 m – will provide the balance, producing about one-million carats from 1.5-million tonnes to 2.5-million tonnes a year of material.

The current mining solution for the underground project will use sublevel caving to extract material from both orebodies. Further optimisation studies are being completed to determine whether the K02 orebody should be mined using a block cave mining methodology.

Underground infrastructure comprises two vertical shaft systems for personnel transport, ore transport and the routing of services, as well as lateral access to levels on the 54L, 91L and 94L stations for the services shaft, and on the 100L station for the production shaft.

The service shaft has a finished internal diameter of 7 m and will eventually provide all the services and people transport for the underground workings, while the production shaft, also with a finished internal diameter of 7 m, will be fitted with two rock winders, each having two 24 t payload skips.

The service and production shafts will serve as downcast air intakes to the underground workings, while a decline and pit ramp will assist with early underground access for the construction of the production infrastructure for K01 and K02, which will be developed concurrently to the vertical shafts.

They will also serve as additional air intakes and logistical access points, which VUP says will mitigate the immediate requirement for the use of the shafts for ground handling.

Overall, VUP will undertake 61.5 km of initial excavations as part of the expansion project, as well as a further 177 km of excavations over the remainder of the underground life-of-mine.

Surface infrastructure, which includes change houses, a heat-tolerance testing centre, a lamp room, a proto room, a control room, winder houses, workshops, warehouses, ventilation systems and a state-of-the-art training facility, were completed in early 2021.

De Beers also plans to have Venetia operating as carbon neutral by 2030; using battery electric vehicles and installing a 60 MW solar photovoltaic plant are expected to help achieve that goal.

The ultimate sizing of the energy plant is yet to be finalised.

Potential Job Creation
During construction, employment will peak at about 2 200 personnel. The workforce currently comprises 1 800 people.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
De Beers plans to invest about $2.1-billion in the VUP.

Planned Start/End Date
The VUP is targeting first production by late 2023 and a ramp-up to full production from 2024 onwards.

Latest Developments
The mining of the Venetia openpit was completed in December 2022, and the mine will transition to underground mining operations in 2023.

Meanwhile, mining engineering multinational Sandvik and US-based wireless mesh networks company Rajant Corporation have collaborated on digital mining tests to ensure wireless communications can be used with teleremote and autonomous vehicles at the Venetia mine.

The VUP will rely on autonomous and remotely operated vehicles to mine the diamond-bearing rock efficiently and safely, adopting new techniques for precise sublevel caving extraction.

The Sandvik intelligent loaders and trucks feature smart solutions that rely on ubiquitous network connectivity within the challenging underground environment. Rajant’s network nodes, called BreadCrumbs, are mounted at fixed points within the mine and on every vehicle to directly connect to the vehicle’s cameras and control safety systems. This ensures that the controlling systems have 100% connection to the onboard systems.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Murray & Roberts Cementation (development of underground mine); Redpath Australia (development of the underground mine with the De Beers team, working as the integrated owners team); Sandvik (intelligent loaders and trucks); and Rajant’s (network nodes, or BreadCrumbs).

Other contractors involved include Worley, BMH, BBE, ABB, Grinaker and Louwill.

Contact Details for Project Information
De Beers Group Managed Operations senior communications manager Jackie Mapiloko, tel +27 11 374 7173 or email jackie.mapiloko@debeersgroup.com.