ON SITE
One of Demaneng’s optimisation projects is to increase its own mining fleet over
the rental equipment that we currently employ to supplement the mining.
plants were clogged up solid and shut
down, so the team had to rewire, strip and
re-assemble them – a process that took us
the better part of six months,” he says. The
larger plant can produce about 160t of final
product per hour, while the smaller plant
has a capacity of 110t per hour. According
to Odendaal the existing crusher unit
on the larger plant caused massive
bottlenecks. “Their DMS design, though,
is really good. The problem was providing
consistent and reliable Run of Mine (RoM)
feed, so one of our first actions was to
invest about R35-million in rebuilding a
new upgraded crusher,” says Odendaal.
At the other DMS plant, Afrimat
deployed their mobile crusher division
to supply the ROM feed. However, they
are in the process of replacing all mobile
crushers with a fixed plant to save further
processing costs. Mobile crushing is more
expensive than fixed plant crushing in
terms of the energy input, staffing, and
maintenance. The two beneficiation plants
are about three kilometres apart.
The AFT Contracting division will
however continue to conduct the bulk
drilling and blasting works for the mine.
Two new Epiroc D65 Flexiroc machines
(previously branded as Atlas Copco) are
drilling in shifts for the operation.
16
MARCH 2020
In August 2017, Demaneng was processing ore at about 50% of mine capacity.
An unconventional mine
Demaneng does not host a single, uniform
ore body. It is not a conventional mine and
there are a number of mini pits on the
property between 60m to 120m deep.
Afrimat utilises three of these pits at any
one time and blends the mined products.
This mining method calls for smaller
equipment to be used at several locations
at different times, somewhat different from
conventional mega operations like a Sishen
mine that employs much larger equipment.
It is not a
conventional mine
and there are a
number of mini pits
on the property
between 60m to
120m deep.”
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