Plant Equipment and Hire February 2018 | Page 21

ON THE GROUND Faber, of course, is known as a formidable character, and it won’t be the first mine in a remote area that sees the light under his guidance. He has done it in Katanga and the Copperbelt before, and is about to do it in Kivu. But, as Faber admits, getting Bisie up and running is certainly not an easy task. The business of building a mine “At the moment, Bisie is an infrastructure project with a mine at the end of it,” says Faber. In the beginning, there was no road access to Bisie, and Alphamin had to build a road from scratch with very basic equipment, using local labour. Before the road was completed, equipment and workers were flown in with helicopters, which made it a costly exercise. Now, at least (although the road is a work in progress), it is possible to get most materials and equipment to site by truck, although the time it takes is weather dependent. If it rains (which it often does in this part of the world), it can take days for a truck load to arrive on site from Goma, about 230km away, or from Kisangani, about 450km north-east of Walikale. Construction of the underground mine is in full swing, with work on the ventilation shaft and main portal making timely progress. Because it was difficult to bring in support for the entrance to the ventilation shaft, Faber and his team mounted old drill rods that were used during the exploration phase instead of conventional support. “We installed these drill rods as roof covers and side covers. When we reach a stage where the rock is competent enough, the team will start installing traditional arches and roof bolts,” says Faber. The 133m from the entrance of the horizontal shaft to where the workers are now, was developed manually by a team consisting mostly of local labourers, some of them artisanal miners that decided to stick around when construction got underway. It took them almost two years to develop the drive. The ventilation shaft, which is located above the main adit, will be connected to the main drive by means of a vertical shaft. Currently, the team is advancing at a rate of 1.5m per day, and blasting takes place every second day. Work on a second ventilation shaft is underway. Mobilising the contractors Construction work on the plant and associated infrastructure will start in February 2018. At the time of writing (November 2017) only the structural, mechanical, piping and plating (SMPP) contractor had been officially appointed. A road cuts through the forest from Goma to Walikale, but when it rains, it can take more than a week to negotiate the 260km of sand, mud, small rivers, and dilapidated bridges. Boris Kamstra, CEO of Alphamin Resources, keeping the shareholders happy — even if the signal is not that good. Local labourers were recruited to build the road to the mine. Some of them used to be artisanal miners. FEBRUARY 2018 19