COUNTRY IN FOCUS •
A DIFFERENT FUTURE
By consultant Nicolaas C. Steenkamp
The Covid-19 pandemic lockdown measures globally have impacted mining
negatively and will influence the way the mining sector operates drastically
– the aftereffects of which will be felt for months to come.
The mining industry already had high requirements
for health and safety prior to the start of the Covid-19
pandemic. All mines around the world and specifically
South Africa have been subject to stringent legislation
regarding occupational hygiene.
Mines have annual medical examinations, on-site clinics and
continuous education and awareness programmes around
personal hygiene and health. This allowed mines to respond
quickly and effectively. Similar programmes are either not as
developed in other sectors or completely absent.
Mining has been identified as the sector that could be a
stabiliser in the post-lockdown period. The success will be
largely dependent on the support and relief measures the
governments put in place to aid in the recovery process.
a devastating effect on small- and medium-size vendors,
contractors and consultants to the mining sector. Only time
will tell how many of these SMEs will survive the year or will
bought out or forced to close operations. Artisanal miners that
supply to major companies are also set to lose out on income.
In the couple of days leading up to the lockdown, mining
operations scaled down to only keep the essential services
operational and perform maintenance. The care-andmaintenance
measures were done in such a manner that
the shortest possible ramp-up time would be required once
production resumes. Breton Scott, MD of Bowline Professional
Services says that most operations will need to urgently
review their business and operational plans and remedial
measures developed. Bowline is also developing formats to
help clients ensure that their business continuation plans are
There will most likely be several impacts on the mining
industry that will affect the way in which mines will operate.
The lockdown period was a quick and hard school of remote
working, with operations having to find ways to allow
remote work, identifying and overcoming challenges and
implementing measures to determine productivity. Some
of the main challenges revolved around the use of licenced
software and limitations of the number of concurrent VPN
users that access company systems.
The push towards automation is expected to increase in the
coming year. This would range from increased use of IoT
platforms and the introduction of blockchain-based stock and
inventory monitoring and ordering.
Restrictions on travel
Travel bans and restrictions and limited travel to and from
sites have resulted in companies having to review their expat
extraction and repatriation policies. In addition, it sparked an
increase in interest of remote sensing and earth observation
products. Satellite imagery, that captured images prior to the
start of care-and-maintenance versus ramp-up, is compared
with change monitoring products, such as Pinkmatter
Solutions’ FarEarth, to evaluate surface changes that occurred
during this period.
Several operations have opted to only continue with the
processing of stockpiles or reprocessing storage facility
material. The volume changes can be quickly and fairly
accurately determined through photogrammetry in the
absence of on-site survey capabilities or functions.
A number of major companies also declared force majeure
as soon as lockdown measures were announced. This had
Leon Louw
Leon Louw
Mining companies will have to rethink old methods of mining in which
manual labour played an important role.
New technology, remote mining and innovation will play an increasingly
important role in the operations.
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African Mining
African Mining • May 2020 • 19