PROJECTS AND EXPLORATION
ROAD CONNECTS KAKULA
• Location: DRC
• Phase: Development
• Resource: Copper
N
Construction of the new highway that directly links Kamoa-Kakula to the
Kolwezi airport, is making rapid progress. According to Yufeng ‘Miles’ Sun,
co-chairman of Ivanhoe, the onset of the dry season has made construction
work a lot easier.
The 34km long east-west road is now almost 25% complete and is expected
to be fully operational by the end of 2019. When complete, Sun says, the
road will significantly improve Kamoa-Kakula’s transportation corridor that
is being used to bring in mining equipment and construction materials. The
road will also be used to transport copper concentrates. Sun adds that the
new road also will improve the safety and commuting time for employees
between Kamoa-Kakula and Kolwezi and Lubumbashi, as well as for mine
visitors arriving at the Kolwezi airport.
The new road will provide Kamoa-Kakula with a direct, high-quality
connection to the national road between Kolwezi and Lubumbashi, and to a
proposed, new south-bound provincial road that will connect to Lumwana,
Zambia and the Zambian rail system, via a planned new border crossing. This
proposed heavy-haul route to Zambia would significantly streamline truck
freight to and from Kamoa-Kakula.
ew road infrastructure will provide Ivanhoe’s Kamoa-Kakula
copper project in the DRC with important transportation
connections for shipping construction materials and copper
concentrates.
A drill rig operating at the Kamoa North Bonanza Zone, a shallow zone of
high-grade copper at Kamoa-Kakula.
road, while the Lualaba provincial government is constructing the remaining
15km under a toll concession agreement with a DRC-based contracting
company. The toll road will also include a new north-bound, nine-kilometre
section of road connecting all the mines on the western side of Kolwezi to
the new provincial road.
The Kamoa-Kakula joint venture is constructing 19km of the new provincial A separate eight-kilometre, private mine access road also is being
constructed by the Kamoa-Kakula joint venture at Kamoa-Kakula to safely
by-pass the villages of Israel and Kaponda. This road is expected to be fully
operational by the end of 2019 and will connect the Kakula mine directly to
the new 34-kilometre provincial road. The private mine road will be available
for transporting ore mined elsewhere on the Kamoa-Kakula project to the
Kakula concentrator for processing.
MORE POWER FOR NEWMONT a crushing plant, a grinding circuit, carbon in leach tanks, an elution circuit,
counter current decantation circuit and a tailings disposal facility.
• Location: Ghana
• Phase: Expansion
• Resource: Gold
N
ewmont’s expansion activities at the Ahafo Mill and Subika
underground mines in Ghana are almost complete. The
expansion projects are expected to extend profitable
production until at least 2029.
Newmont’s mines in Ghana are found at Ahafo and Akyem. These mines
operate using electrical power generated by the Volta River Authority, along
with power generation capacity built by Newmont.
Ahafo started production in 2006. The mine is located about 290km northwest
of Accra and is accessible by tarred roads. It currently operates a mill and
three pits called Subika, Awonsu and Amoma. Its operations cover an area of
approximately 18 700 acres. Work is focused on three orogenic gold deposits.
The daily production rate is in the region of 95 000 tonnes of ore, and the
processing plant commissioned in 2006 processes more than 7 500-million
tonnes of primary and oxide ore per year. The processing plant consists of
Newmont implemented an expansion strategy at Ahafo and Subika, after its
Amona site ceased operations in 2017. Once completed in the second half
of 2019, the Ahafo mill expansion will grow the existing plant capacity by
more than 3.5-million tonnes per year with the installation of a new crusher,
a single stage semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill and two leach tanks.
The expansion required more energy capacity to be added to the site’s grid,
and Newmont approached engineering company DRA about two years ago
to design a substation that could be built off site, and then transported to
Ahafo ahead of the project’s 2019 commissioning date.
DRA designed a modular containerised substation, also known as an
E-house, and appointed Eaton Africa to execute the project.
The E-house was designed to channel 11000V of electrical power, with its
final dimensions being 18m long and 6m wide, and an anticipated final mass
of over 47t.
With insufficient infrastructure in Ghana to complete the construction of the
modular substation, Eaton and DRA had to design a process to build it at Eaton
Africa’s Wadeville, Johannesburg site. The completed substation was transported
to Ahafo in Ghana, first by road to Durban, and then by ship to Ahafo.
The process included the design and construction of a special lifting beam,
and the procurement of a crane strong enough to lift the E-house onto a
custom-built 120-wheel flatbed truck for transport to the port. The journey
by road from Wadeville to Durban was anticipated to take two weeks, while
the voyage from Durban to Ghana was anticipated to take four months.
Mining at Ahafo, northwest of Accra.
4
African Mining September 2019
The contract for the construction of the modular containerised substation was
signed in September 2017, with the full design, procurement and construction
process, including the specially designed lifting beam, complete by July 2018.
The unit was delivered to the site in Ghana in line with the agreed production
schedule and commissioned shortly afterwards. It is the largest modular
containerised substation that Eaton Africa has ever built.
www. africanmining.co.za