INCREASING YIELD Ncamiso Mining’s work includes the screening out of fine and materials from waste rock to increase gold yield
Mining and raw material processing firm Ncamiso Mining has collaborated with ASX-listed mining company Mintails Mining SA-Mogale Gold to carry out vital services to ensure maximum gold recovery and environmental remediation.
Ncamiso specialises in screening gold from material that would otherwise be sterilised and crushed for roads and buildings, and provides services in the removal of contaminated surface material to rehabilitate the ground, as well as services in opencast mining, screening and crushing.
Mintails has two gold plants at its Mogale mining complex, in Gauteng. The combined capacity of the two gold plants is about 500 000 t of material a month. The two gold plants are commonly known as Gold 1 and Gold 2.
“In each of the Mogale Gold projects that Ncamiso has taken on, we will [help] to increase their revenue through the recovery of gold from the areas we are working on as part of overall land rehabilitation efforts. “The projects fulfil our dedication to corporate social investment by also providing jobs as reef pickers to those in the immediate communities that we operate in,” says Ncamiso MD Fikile Mashinini.
Further, by cleaning up and rehabilitating the land, the company assists in the prevention of illegal mining in the areas, he adds.
The work being carried out by Ncamiso at the various Mogale Gold sites includes the cleaning out of the old reduction plant and removal of contaminated surface material so that Blue Print Developments is able to build low-cost houses at the DRD cluster, the removal of contaminated surface material at Goudrand to rehabilitate the ground for Blue Print Development, and shallow opencast mining to remove gold-bearing conglomerates close to the surface (that would other- wise be sterilised) so that the soft underlying layers of reef can be removed to prepare the land for use as a recreational park at Kimberly Reef.
The work also includes the screening out of fine materials and reef from concrete producer AfriSam's waste rock to increase gold yield at Sub-Nigel so that it can be sterilised and used to produce building material, as well as the rehabilitation of an old reduction plant on a farm belonging to Markon Realty for future use in hydrophonic fish farming and industrial development.
At all the sites, the fine materials are sent to Mogale Gold for gold processing.
On a day-to-day basis, Ncamiso is responsible for delivering material loaded and hauled from these sites and will handle on-site sampling of delivered material, screening at –20 mm and the loading of material onto the conveyor belts, which transfer it to the relevant processing plants.
To date, more than200 kg of gold has been recovered from 200 000 t of material delivered to Mogale Gold, and a total of more than 500 kg from more than one-million tons to various mines – a very high yield for surface mining. Additionally, illegal mining has been eradicated at all sites, the company notes.
The shared sales of all the gold recovered will add value to the gold accounting of Mintails Mining SA-Mogale Gold, Mashinini says, emphasising the importance of gold recovery and environmental remediation to mines, such as Mogale.
“The most prominent knock-on effect of this process is the increase in wealth from gold sales for South Africa as a whole – with the added benefit that these efforts also lead to job creation and to Mogale Gold being recognised for its efforts in helping macroscaled businesses.”
The environmental remediation carried out by Ncamiso and Mogale Gold also reduces the State’s liability for the amount of wasterock that needs to be rehabilitated and reprocessed.