First Mining Drc-Zambia Sep/Oct 2017 FMDRC-Zambia Sep Oct | Page 23
electric scale. At this stage, the gold has
reached between 92 and 98 percent
purity, depending on its origin.
Red-hot riches
Once melted, the gold is cast in an ingot
mould. Aer removing the red-hot
crucible from the furnace, a worker at
the gold smelter pours the molten gold
into a graphite ingot mould for casting.
Inside the furnace, the gold reaches
temperatures of 1,500 degrees Celsius.
It takes around 20 minutes to melt
several kilograms of gold. Shaken Awake
only 40km per hour, it will take two car do to prevent fatigue related crashes? “IUM
lengths longer to stop. has introduced Seeing Machine technology to
Cooling period
A freshly cast gold ingot is deposited by
a worker on the work surface; the ingot
mould remains smoking hot. Statistics say drivers who have not slept for seat on which a driver is sitting if they fall
17 hours are comparable to drivers with a asleep.
Driver fatigue is a factor in 10 to 20% of
related. Of the problems faced by truck
crashes worldwide. It affects driving in drivers, 39% were related to fatigue.”
various ways including slowed reaction time If you encourage your drivers to take regular
and lack of concentration. If your reaction breaks and do not place undue pressure on
time is just half a second slower while driving drivers to make deliveries, what else can you
South Africa which uses a motor to shake the
Ready to go
With a gold content of 4.163 kilograms,
this ingot has a market price on the
London Fixing of about $167,056
(about 145,000 euros) on the day it was
produced. Annual gold production in
the eastern DRC has been estimated at
more than 11 tons, but most continues
to be smuggled out of the country. In
2015, official artisanal gold exports for
the DRC were recorded at just 254
kilograms.
0.05 blood alcohol level. Someone who has
not slept for 24 hours has the same driving
“It uses algorithms, sensors and cameras to
impairment as someone with 0.10 blood track eye and face movement and
alcohol levels. is is concerning consequently notify an alarm system if the
considering that fatigued driving does not driver appears to be falling asleep or if they are
receive the same attention or even legal driving distracted. e sensors are not only
consequences as drunken driving. linked to alarms within the cab but to a
e MD of MasterDrive, Eugene Herbert, control centre who can alert the eet manager
says fatigue amongst truck drivers in South to take necessary steps to assess the driver's
Africa is a serious concern as they oen drive alertness,” says Herbert.
long and monotonous routes. “Research Driver fatigue is an issue which every driver
conducted by the Interdisciplinary Accident and eet manager needs to take seriously. is
Research Centre in South Africa, says driver will not only save companies money but
fatigue is one of the main causes of truck potentially prevent the oen fatal fatigue
crashes with 41% of accidents being fatigue related crashes.
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