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Mining division expanding again

12th December 2014

By: Mariaan Webb

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

  

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DRA Mining – a division offering specialised mining services and total mining service solutions – is bouncing back after the South African mining industry took a knock in the post-Marikana environment.

DRA mining division director Neale Goddard says demand for the division’s services is on a slow, but steady, upturn.

The downturn in the local mining industry and, in particular, the woes of the platinum industry, which started with the 2012 wildcat Marikana strike and morphed into an industrywide strike in early 2014, have led to DRA Mining shedding about one-fifth of its staff.

DRA Mining quickly grew from 23 people when the division was established in 2010 to 260 people in 2012, before it shrunk to 200 in 2013. However, work is picking up and the division is back to 206 staff members.

Goddard says the division is also increasing the number of mining engineers, who are the foundation of DRA Mining as they define the mining methods and processes that the division promotes. The division currently employs 15 “top-notch” mining engineers and consultants.

Despite the bad patch, DRA Mining still managed to break even in 2013, after having made a profit in 2012. This year, he says, the division is forecasting a profit “significantly bigger” than that of 2012.

DRA Mining currently has eight execution projects of various sizes and 12 ongoing studies, and is working on joint projects with other divisions. Most of the work is in sub-Saharan Africa in commodities such as coal, gold, copper and platinum.

In June 2014, DRA was awarded the prefeasibility study contract for Canadian miner Platinum Group Metals’ (PTM’s) Waterberg project, which has emerged as one of the world’s largest undeveloped palladium discoveries. The mining division will play a significant role in the study. DRA is also the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contractor for PTM’s ongoing Western Bushveld Joint Venture Project.

Some of its other platinum projects include the Booysendal UG2 North mine, the Leeuwkop shaft project, the Kroondal K6 shaft project, and the Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine (BRPM) Phase III Merensky replacement project.

DRA Mining is the project manager for Royal Bafokeng Platinum’s BRPM Phase III project, which involves the extension of the North shaft Merensky decline system and associated infrastructure. The overall project, which involves a number of companies, is said to be ahead of schedule.

At Northam Platinum’s Booysendal mine, DRA successfully executed an EPCM contract for the greenfield mine on the eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex. Mining operations, bulk services, surface infrastructure and a concentrator plant were completed in 2013. In 2014, work focused on the mine’s underground development and construction.

At the Leeuwkop project, where DRA Mining completed a feasibility study for Impala Platinum subsidiary Afplats in 2011, shaft sinking started in February 2012 and is proceeding on schedule.

At the Aquarius Platinum Kroondal K6 shaft project, DRA Mining has the EPCM contract for the mine, surface infrastructure, underground infrastructure and development. The project, Goddard says, was successfully completed within an “aggressive budget and timelines”.

One of DRA Mining’s most challenging projects, from a logistics point of view, is the Kinsenda copper project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Katanga province, near the Zambian border. South Africa-based Metorex, which Chinese group Jinchuan owns, contracted DRA Mining for the mining, infrastructure and the process plant.

“The remoteness of the project poses logistics challenges, such as getting people and material to site,” Goddard says, adding that power supply and a shortage of skilled workers are also issues DRA Mining has had to – successfully – contend with.

Growing Internationally
Goddard describes the downturn in the South African mining industry as a “blessing in disguise” for DRA Mining, as it forced the division to look across the border for work.

DRA is concentrating on creating a global service for its clients, especially outside sub-Saharan Africa, where the group is well known.

To grow the mining division’s international footprint, DRA Mining has partnered mining consultancy Orelogy, in Perth, focusing on Australian clients with African projects. “We want to give clients continuity through the project phases – from the face-to-face interaction required when conducting studies in Perth to the build capability in Africa when the project moves into construction phase,” Goddard says.

DRA Mining is also considering establishing a presence in the US and Canada on the back of the recent Taggart Global acquisition. Further, the division is leading its Muscat office establishment, in Oman.

Mineral Processing
DRA also has specialist capabilities in the design of mineral processing plants for a range of commodities. The company’s process engineering team offers diverse skills in mineral recovery processes, such as coal and diamond dense-media separation (DMS), comminution, flotation, gold recovery and gravity separation processes. DRA’s processing experience includes crushing circuits, ore stockpiling and reclaim systems, preconcentration, milling circuits, flotation plants, solids dewatering, dryers, roasting and smelting, leaching, bioleaching, absorption and elution circuits, gold refining, DMS plants, gravity concentration, diamond concentrate handling and final recovery, high-intensity magnetic and electrostatic separation techniques, slurry pumping and tailings disposal systems and laboratory design and equipping.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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