MINE EXCURSION
PRIESKA:
ORION REMOULDS
AN OLD FOOTPRINT
With most of the infrastructure
intact, Orion Minerals’ Prieska
copper and zinc project is one of
the most exciting developments
in South Africa, writes Leon Louw,
who visited the mine in February.
V
enturing down ASX-listed Orion Minerals’ Prieska
copper and zinc mine in the Northern Cape Province
of South Africa, is like travelling back in time. Its
feels as if everybody suddenly left, but not before they
made sure no rock was out of place. The only indication that
there were once people in these tunnels, which were mined
by Anglovaal between 1971 to 1991, are white-painted
markings on the rocks, exit and no entry signs, and a myriad
of stopes and crosscuts – all perfectly intact, just as it used
to be, frozen in time.
Anglovaal initially drilled 27 holes from 1968 to 71 and proved
up a resource that they guessed would deliver in the region of
47 million tonnes of ore. Interestingly, according to Louw van
Schalkwyk, executive: exploration at Orion Minerals, to prove
up a resource of this size today, a company would have to drill
more than 80 holes to be JORC-complaint. Nonetheless, when
Anglovaal capped all the mine’s shafts in 1991, they had moved
almost 45.68 million tonnes of ore to surface, using a vertical
shaft 1 024m deep, and a single, reasonably steep portal decline
access to level 120 (100m underground). From 120 level (which
runs the entire length of the ore body), there are a series of four
declines (one every 400m) that provides access to the bottom
level of the mine.
10
African Mining April 2020
The Anglovaal Group was formed in 1933 as the Anglo-
Transvaal Consolidated Investment Company and in 1981
became Anglovaal. It was majority owned throughout
its existence by the Hersov and Menell families. In 2003,
Anglovaal became part of African Rainbow Minerals, a listed
black empowerment company headed up by South African
billionaire, Patrice Motsepe.
Prieska has extensive infrastructure already in place including the
vertical shaft and headgear. Above is a group of investors before
entering the underground mine.
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