Mine excursion
Work is in full swing at BRM’s Chilwavhusiku Colliery in Gauteng.
Ndavhe Mareda, entrepreneur and chairperson of BRM and the Makole Group.
farms, and with the introduction
of mining activity to the area, the
neighbours raised environmental
management concerns. The issues have
since been amicably resolved and the
relationships with its neighbouring
stakeholders are being managed and
have improved considerably. Meyer
says they have implemented stringent
dust control and groundwater
monitoring measures to mitigate the
environmental risks. Chilwavhusiku
uses two water bowsers (one of
these belongs to the community and
was donated by Stefanutti) and has
installed an irrigation pipe water
system along the access roads and
planted grass on the topsoil stockpiles
to suppress the dust. The other major
change was to use innovative blasting
techniques that minimise the impact
on the adjacent properties, such as
electronic detonation to minimise
air shock and through-seam blasting
techniques, where possible, to
minimise the number of blasts.
Chilwavhusiku seams
Although the Bronkhorstspruit coal
lobe is removed from the Witbank
Coalfield, its characteristics are very
similar, and Meyer suggests that the
two deposits might have been joined
a long time ago. Therefore, the same
nomenclature is used to name the
different seams, namely Seam One,
which is the oldest and deepest layer,
then (in order from bottom to top)
Seam Two, Seam Three, Seam Four,
and Seam Five. The main seam to
be mined at Chilwavhusiku is Seam
Two, which varies in thickness from
The BRM team
invested plenty of
time and capital
into additional
drilling activities
from the very start
of the project
and that ensured
the mine was not
caught off guard.
APRIL 2018 MINING MIRROR
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