The Civil Engineering Contractor April 2019 | Page 17

ON SITE
shareholder is a private equity fund
out of Luxembourg.
Upgrading fluorspar
According to Wagner, the Nokeng
project revolves around mining
and the upgrading of fluorspar.
Fluorspar is the commercial
name for calcium fluoride, which
is an industrial mineral that has
multiple uses in our everyday lives.
Nokeng Fluorspar Mine has two
primary ore bodies: Plattekop and
Outwash Fan, which will be mined
as two different open pits. The
ore is drilled, blasted, loaded, and
hauled from the pits to the mineral
processing facility. Construction
of the plant started on 9 June
2017 and is well advanced. Wagner
says that the initial steps in the
commissioning of the plant started
in early September 2018, with
installation and commissioning
planned to be completed by the
end of February 2019.
Nokeng Fluorspar Mine is a R1.9-billion
project expected to start production in
the first quarter of 2019.
www.civilsonline.co.za
Conveyor takes crushed material to the covered stockpile.
“We have appointed a joint venture
between Group Five and DRA for
the construction of the plant, which
they are doing on an engineering,
procurement and construction
(EPC) basis. They are responsible
for the design, supply, construction,
and commissioning of the plant,”
Wagner explained. He noted that in a
market where many civil engineering
contractors are struggling to find
work, “these sorts of partnerships
work well for both parties [Group
Five and DRA].”
The processing cycle at Nokeng
Fluorspar Mine starts with primary
crushing (jaw-crusher), followed by
secondary crushing (cone-crusher).
High-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR)
are used as the tertiary step, which
reduces the ore to minus 6mm.
Material is subsequently fed into a
primary mill, where the material is
further reduced in size to a P80 of
150 microns. Nokeng Mine has also
installed four boilers, each with a
rated capacity of 10 tonnes per hour.
The plan is to have three boilers fully
operational at any given time, with
the fourth boiler on standby.
Scope of work
The scope of work for the Nokeng
Mine included the building of an
opencast mine (with two open pits),
a tailings dam facility, and upgrading
the surrounding infrastructure.
This included installation of a 14km
132kV power line to the site, done
as a self-build contract for Eskom
(according to Eskom’s designs and
specifications). This power line was
commissioned and accepted by
Eskom and is already connected to
the Eskom grid — only the third of
its kind in South Africa. The R80-
million cost of this infrastructure,
now owned by Eskom, was paid for
by SepFluor.
“The total direct capital cost
amounts to R1.2-billion,” said
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