The local operation of international steel products manufacturing group Scaw Metals, Scaw South Africa, is engaged in manufacturing additional ultra- deep hoisting (UDH) ropes for Gold Fields’ 3 000-m South Deep shaft in Westonaria, South Africa, to which it is already the exclusive supplier.

At any given time, there are twelve 3 400-m-long, 48-mm-diameter, triangular-strand UDH ropes in the South Deep system – all Scaw ropes.

Four ropes operate on the winders, four are kept in storage, and four more are being manufactured at Scaw’s Steel Wire Rope operation – an integrated wire mill and ropery plant, in Johannesburg.

Each of Scaw’s winding ropes has a suspended load of 20 t, a breaking load of 182 t and a tensile strength of 1 900 MPa. A set of four ropes at a time is used on a 7,2-m-diameter Blair double-drum rock winder, two for each of the shaft’s two skips.

The group designed UDH ropes to reach extreme depths. The ropes at South Deep were tailor-designed specifically for the mine and are made to order. The mine has used Scaw ropes since its inception 12 years ago.

“Lives depend on dependable ropes, good ropes that are consistently 100% safe, which is why we buy only Scaw steel wire ropes for this mine,” says Gold Fields shaft engineer at South Deep Lenerd Louw.

Scaw’s ropes are some of the longest winding ropes in the world. They work continuously every day of the week to carry 2 000 miners down the deepest single-lift mine shaft in the world to extract gold from the rock face 3 km below the surface.

“Scaw gives us complete peace of mind because it has quality checks in place at each step in the production process, of which we are guaranteed by the supply of quality assurance certification with each set of ropes,” Louw adds.

In 1990, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research conducted tests using 700 Scaw ropes. The findings were used to draw up a life prediction model for drum winder ropes.

Analysing the mine conditions in which the ropes would work, the model was used to predict the expected life of winding ropes. It was then used in preliminary feasibility tests for South Deep ropes, after which a group at Reading University, UK, conducted extensive research leading to the development of a rope design for the mine.

Other Scaw products used at the mine are scraper ropes, fibre ropes, chains, slings, and shackles.

Scaw also reports that its steel wire rope operation was awarded the single biggest order, by value, in its 86-year history, in June 2007.

An unnamed South African shaft-sinking company placed the order for ropes that will be used to sink Impala Platinum’s Impala 17 shaft complex. The complex will comprise three shafts, namely a main shaft, a ventilation shaft, and a refrigeration shaft.

The stage ropes for the main and vent shafts are 42 mm in diameter and will be manufactured in 13 000-m and 11 000-m lengths. The kibble ropes range from 36 mm to 51 mm in diameter and from 1 700 m to 2 400 m in length. The mass of the 13 000-m ropes exceeds 100 t and the combined mass of all the ropes on order is 733 t.

The first ropes of the consignment will be delivered to site during April 2008.

Scaw maintains that ropes up to 15 000 m in length, 154 mm in diameter, and exceeding 140 t in mass, are well within its manufacturing capabilities. The company manufactures the Haggie brand of steel wire rope, used extensively in South Africa’s underground and surface mines.

Other markets for its steel wire products include deep- sea anchor lines, offshore oil and gas applications, and the trawling and purse seine fishing industries.

Scaw has factories in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Australia that produce high-carbon wire and strand, steel wire ropes, and fibre ropes and twines.

‘A’ for BEE

Rating and research agency Empowerdex has given Scaw South Africa a provisional ‘A’ rating for black economic-empowerment (BEE) compliance. This follows the successful conclusion of a BEE transaction, effective retrospectively from January 1, 2007, in which a 26% stake in the business was sold.

The transaction gives a 21% equity stake in the former Anglo American subsidiary to a BEE consortium. The consortium partners are mining, infrastructure, and financial sector investor Izingwe Holdings, headed by chairperson Sipho Pityana, investment holding group Southern Palace Holdings, led by chairperson Sello Mahlangu, and black-owned and -managed investment com- pany Shanduka Group with Cyril Ramaphosa at the helm.

The deal will also include a broad-based women’s group, whose selection is in the final procedural stages. The respective stakes held by the four partners are 7%, 6%, 5%, and 3%.

Scaw will also contribute R5-mil- lion (which will be used to subscribe for a 5% stake in the company) to an employee share ownership plan (Esop), structured as a trust.

Designed as a ten-year scheme yielding capital appreciation and dividends over its lifetime, Esop benefits all Scaw’s South African employees and includes an interim cash payout in year five.

As a consequence, Anglo American now holds 74% in the newly independent Scaw South Africa, valued at R5,3-billion. The transaction will give Scaw preferred procurement partner status under the broad-based BEE codes.

“Each partner is able to add value to Scaw South Africa while being complementary to each other in terms of their skills sets and business record. This transaction will be beneficial to Scaw South Africa and our employees, who will share in the future of the company, as well as the majority of our customers, who will benefit from our status,” says Scaw executive chairperson Tony Harris.

Empowerdex has been contracted to perform a full BEE rating of Scaw South Africa as soon as the selection of a women’s group has been finalised.