PROJECTS AND EXPLORATION
NEW SECTIONS FOR
ALEXANDER
• Location: South Africa
• Phase: Feasibility
• Mineral: Coal
Johannesburg-based Gibb Mining has been awarded the tender
to complete a feasibility study for Sasol Mining’s Alexander
project, which seeks to deploy production sections within the
Alexander coal blocks in Mpumalanga by 2025. This forms part
of Sasol Mining’s plan to fulfil their 2050 mandate to supply coal
to the Secunda Synfuels Operations.
The project is an underground operation, expected to
yield between six and eight million tonnes of coal per year,
depending on the mining method selected.
Consulting engineering firm Jones and Wagener will conduct
the environmental portion of the feasibility study for the
Alexander project, while Gibb will be responsible for all
geotechnical and geohydrological aspects, with Jones and
Wagener acting as sub-consultants. VMR’’s Tau Lekoa mine in the Northwest province of South Africa.
Gibb will also look at the mine design and associated planning,
specifically access to the coal reserve via a box cut and its tie-in
to Sasol Mining’s overall long-term Complex plan. There are
three coal blocks to be mined: Blocks 2, 3 and 4. brought about primarily by circumstances leading to the
postponement in December 2019 of the Hong Kong Stock
Exchange (HKEx) listing of its parent company in Hong Kong,
Heaven Sent Gold.
A lot of geotechnical-analysis work is required to ensure that
when mining takes place, the selected mining methods do not
impact wetlands and watercourses negatively. According to Dong the postponement is largely attributable
to the mined volume and recovered grade being below
expectation at both VMR’s Tau Lekoa and Kopanang
underground gold mines, resulting in lower than expected
gold production. “In addition, the negative impact on
production, revenue and operating profit of unprecedented
and unexpected stage six load-shedding by power utility
Eskom early in December and four seismicity-related fatalities
at Tau Lekoa, also in December 2019, adversely affected the
company’s performance.
In addition to the mine design, Gibb will also be responsible
for the materials handling system design and all supporting
infrastructure, which includes offices, buildings, workshops, a
20km mine access road, as well as the supply of bulk water and
bulk power to the mine.
Gibb is currently working on the feasibility engineering designs.
Once these are finalised and accepted by Sasol, the company
will compile a capital cost estimate based on the design – all
of which will be incorporated into a feasibility study report
for issue to Sasol by the end of July 2020. The mine must be
commissioned by 2025.
The designs will need to consider all environmental constraints,
as well as to incorporate new technological developments that
will bring efficiencies to the project and the mine operation, in
terms of cost, safety and water and energy efficiency.
All stakeholders, including the Department of Mineral
Resources, representatives of organised labour and
employees, Dong says, have been briefed on the current
challenges and have been engaged on the company’s
measures addressing these.
VMR HEADWINDS
• Location: South Africa
• Phase: Production
• Mineral: Gold
The new CEO of VMR Group, Jeff Dong, confirms that the
company, which operates underground gold mining and
surface retreatment operations in South Africa’s North West
province, experienced operating and financial constraints
www. africanmining.co.za
Dong confirmed that to date an investment of R2.2-billion has
been made in the group by the Heaven Sent Capital Group
from China. “Despite the postponed listing and challenging
operating environment, we made the decision to continue to
invest and support the VMR Group. Accordingly, we committed
to a much more active operational involvement in the business,
with new senior appointments, both in our underground and
surface businesses during January 2020, and I am pleased to
confirm that we have already seen improved performance in our
operations,” says Dong.
African Mining Publication
“Provided that these positive results continue, and with the
co-operation of all stakeholders in delivering the envisaged
improvements in safety, production and costs – and thus in
revenue and a return to profit – restructuring of the company’s
operations, and possible job reductions, may be avoided.
We plan to build from the successful turnaround of the VMR
Group and expand our business, and to revisit a future listing,”
Dong concludes.
African Mining
African Mining March 2020
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