Industry intelligence
NORTHAM INTEGRATES FINANCIAL SYSTEMS Northam Platinum has introduced new disparate systems— and do it quickly,” technology to manage its financial says Khumalo. resources. According to Ayanda Khumalo, Northam Platinum is an independent, CFO at Northam, the ability to make quick, fully empowered integrated platinum accurate financial decisions based on a group metal( PGM) producer that mines, single version of truth was paramount. processes, and markets PGMs and
“ Our legacy systems were hampering associated products worldwide. The our growth efforts and frustrating our company has two primary PGM mines, decision-making capabilities. We had as Booysendal and Zondereinde, the latter many as 120 legacy systems that were of which is also the location of Northam not integrated, which made it difficult Platinum ' s metallurgical operations, to make real-time decisions based on a including a smelter and base metals single version of truth. And as a growing recovery plant. It has just acquired a third business, our existing systems were simply mine called Eland Platinum, which was inadequate to handle the growing demands not operational and will thus improve and the impending growth of our business. employment in the area as it becomes Our objective was to integrate all our operational. Northam Platinum employs
12 000 people across its various operations and plans to grow this number
Northam Platinum chose SAP S / 4 HANA as the technology that would meet their stringent requirements, with implementation partner Deloitte using their Deloitte Mining-in-a-Box preconfigured solution that incorporates lessons learnt and best practices adapted from SAP implementations at more than 20 organisations over the past 23 years. Deloitte also developed a business requirements model by defining and listing the business process prints and developing a business blueprint, which included the key requirements of Northam Platinum.
For the sake of sustainability
Government-funded research company Mintek has partnered with a black-owned mining company as part of its sustainable beneficiation strategy. Junior mining company Difeme Holdings plans to mine and beneficiate quartz( SiO₂) to a purity standard of higher than 99.99 %, which is very rare in the world.
According to Dr Makhapa Makhafola, general manager of research and development at Mintek, these types of projects need to be undertaken to make an impact and to create muchneeded employment in rural communities.
After the partnership between Mintek and Difeme came into being in 2016, Mintek was tasked to investigate the quality of the Riemvasmaak quartz deposits in the Northern Cape through field evaluation, chemical and mineralogical test work, and finally comminution test analysis. The test work revealed that the silica content is as high as 99.978 % on some occurrences. The Lancaster Foundation, through its Enterprise Development initiative, agreed to fund the feasibility study that, if successful, will help stimulate economic development in the country.
Quartz is one of the earth’ s most abundant minerals, but very few deposits can be classified as high-purity quartz( HPQ), which can be defined as having 99.995 % silicon dioxide content( SiO₂). The HPQ end markets includes fused quartz crucibles, solar, semiconductors, high-temperature lamp tubing, and telecommunications.
Fused quartz is a material of primary importance because it improves the efficiency of solar-powered devices. It is also helping researchers drive down the cost of solar devices. Quartz glass is used in many facets of photovoltaic( PV) cell manufacturing, light sources, reaction chambers, and tools used in the production of solar cells, thin films, and silicon wafers. Riemvasmaak village has unexploited deposits of rose quartz from several pegmatite occurrences.
Mintek, however, needs to conduct further test work to determine the feasibility of removing or reducing the impurities to meet the required SiO₂ specification for advanced hightechnology applications of 99.995 %. Depending on the outcome, a world of opportunity can open up for small communities across the country. Work on the feasibility study is expected to commence during the second half of the year.
[ 8 ] MINING MIRROR SEPTEMBER 2018