MINE EXCURSION
NOKENG:
MINING FLUORSPAR HILLS
SepFluor’s R1.7-billion Nokeng Fluorspar Mine and plant at Rust de Winter,
north east of Pretoria, was offi cially opened in August. Leon Louw visited
the mining area and processing plant.
C
onstruction of the Nokeng Fluorspar Mine began
on 9 June 2017. The operation comes online as
international markets for its two products – acid grade
fl uorspar and metallurgical grade fl uorspar – have come off
recent highs but remain buoyant in a continuing squeeze
between supply and demand.
China, the world’s largest fl uorspar producer, has cut
production in response to tighter environmental regulation and
as a result has moved from being a net exporter of fl uorspar to
a net importer.
The mine has a 12 million tonne (Mt) SAMREC-compliant
reserve and an initial estimated life of mine of 19 years. It will
initially exploit two haematite-fl uorspar orebodies – Outwash
Fan and Plattekop – with an option to later include Wiltin, a third
and as-yet partially explored orebody.
Concentrator plant
Nokeng’s concentrator will produce about 180 000t of
acid grade fl uorspar (97% pure fl uorspar) and 30 000t of
metallurgical grade fl uorspar annually from run-of-mine
SepFluor enters the fl uorspar production arena as one of only
three signifi cant production newcomers over the past 10 years,
the low pricing experienced between 2011 and 2016 having
closed several high-cost operations internationally.
20
African Mining November 2019
www. africanmining.co.za