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
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