https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

Worrying technical corner-cutting needs to be nipped in bud

David Young
Frank Gregory
Russell Heins
Stewart Nupen

The Mineral Corporation executives including MD Frank Gregory, David Young, Stewart Nupen and Russell Heins speak of worrying technical corner-cutting that is rearing its head in the mining industry, occupational disease and service awards from South African mines. Camerawork & Editing: Nicholas Boyd.

David Young

Photo by Duane Daws

Frank Gregory

Photo by Duane Daws

Russell Heins

Photo by Duane Daws

Stewart Nupen

Photo by Duane Daws

17th April 2014

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

Font size: - +

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Worrying technical corner-cutting was sneaking into the mining industry and needed to be nipped in the bud, The Mineral Corporation MD Frank Gregory said on Thursday.

Speaking to Mining Weekly Online in the attached video interview, the independent and privately owned firm, which offers ‘one-stop’ technical advisory services to mining project owners and investors across the globe, spoke of growing technical inaccuracy and even, on occasion, seeming cheating in orebody grade claims.

“At the end of the day, the investors need to know what their returns are going to be,” said the head of the 17-year-old company that carries out independent technical reviews and due diligence studies of exploration projects, new mining ventures and mature mining operations.

One of the industry’s most seriously compromised aspects, Gregory said, was the qualification and quantification of the orebody, the foundation of every mining operation.

A gilding of the orebody lily was occurring more than investors realised and the parameters going into advancing a mineral resource to a mineral reserve were sometimes “fairly suspicious”.

In one case an attempt was made to pass off a geology that generated a grade of 3 g/t as one with a grade of 6 g/t.

“Yellow trucks were virtually on the high seas to go and develop this project and they turned them all around and sent them home,” Gregory added.

The Mineral Corporation director Stewart Nupen said that because the mining industry was going through a tough period, the temptation to bring projects to market quicker and for less money was greater.

But he cautioned that the confidence of the investor community would not be regained if projects were badly built.

The Mineral Corporation director David Young said there had been some Bre-X-type issues around some projects lately, a reference to the Bre-X company of Canada, which was involved in a major scandal after its gold samples from a deposit in Indonesia were found to be fraudulent.

Some projects that were “extremely close to the line” had attracted South African public investment as listed entities, Young told Mining Weekly Online.

“Widows and orphans can lose money but unless it’s a big bank that’s losing the money, it doesn’t seem to get the attention of the media,” Young commented, adding that it was the competence of the relevant competent persons and the readers of their reports at the stock exchange that needed to up their game.

The Mineral Corporation’s own ethos is grounded on identifying risk, preserving value and creating project value, its traditional strengths lying in the areas of mineral title, exploration, geology and mineral resources, strategic mine planning and mineral reserves, process engineering and metallurgical studies, techno-economic modelling and the coordination of project development studies, from scoping to prefeasibility level.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

Showroom

SMS group
SMS group

At SMS group, we have made it our mission to create a carbon-neutral and sustainable metals industry.

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Rentech
Rentech

Rentech provides renewable energy products and services to the local and selected African markets. Supplying inverters, lithium and lead-acid...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.08 0.136s - 158pq - 4rq
Subscribe Now