Name and Location
Impala No 16 Shaft project, North West, South Africa.

Client
Impala Platinum (Implats).

Project Description
The shaft development is situated on the south-east corner of the Impala mining lease down dip of No 1 Shaft, on the western limb of the Bushveld Complex. The No 16 Shaft is expected to produce 226 500 t/m of reef from seven operational levels. The shaft will access the Merensky and upper group two (UG2) reef horizons.

The No 16 Shaft ore reserves will be accessed by a downcast rock and men-and-materials shaft.

The rock and men-and-materials shaft is lined to an inside diameter of 10 m and sunk to 1 648 m, while the ventilation shaft is a 6.8-m-diameter inside-concrete lining shaft, sunk to 1 390 m below the surface.

As the shaft will access reef from a depth of 1 220 m to 1 540 m, full-time refrigeration, introduced through the rock and men-and-materials shaft, will be required for the underground workings. The refrigeration is designed to ventilate a maximum of 900 kg/s of cooled air from the surface.

The No 16 Shaft headgear, with a structural height of 108 m, houses two Koepe winders. One will hoist personnel and material, while the other will hoist only rock. The rock hoist tipping arrangement will be located inside the concrete headgear to reduce noise pollution. A conveyor will transfer reef and waste from the headgear bins to a transfer tower, from where reef will be transferred to two concrete silos – one for Merensky and one for UG2.

The power requirements for the new shaft will be met from a new Eskom 88/33 kV yard at the No 15 Shaft.

Value
R6.9-billion.

Duration
Production is expected to start in 2014.

Latest Developments
Implats has completed the commissioning of the new No 16 shaft complex.

The R6.9-billion shaft complex, on which construction started in October 2004, will enable Implats’ Rustenburg operation to access new ore reserves and maintain a stable production profile, reaching 185 000 oz/y of platinum at full production in 2018.

The new large-scale infrastructure and superior grade will also allow the platinum miner to mine at an improved overall cost to the current cost average for the Rustenburg operations.

Implats CEO Terence Goodlace has said that preparations for mining operations will start immediately, with first stoping expected to start in the September quarter.

He adds that the new complex, which offers a 25-year mine-life, will also secure jobs for 6 500 workers currently employed at the older-generation Rustenburg shafts.

The No 16 shaft infrastructure, designed to support mining operations from seven mining levels at a rate of 226 500 t/m of reef, boasts the tallest concrete headgear in the world, at 108 m.

The new shaft is the second of several fourth-generation Impala shafts that have been allocated the majority of Implats’ capital expenditure programme over the past few years.

The combined impact of these new shafts is expected to increase the ratio of Merensky reef milled from the current 43% of total throughput to 50% over the next five years, owing to the exploitation of reserves at the new No 20 and No 16 shaft complexes.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Shaft Sinkers (shaft sinking); Read Swatman & Voigt (engineering, procurement and construction management); JJG Construction (civil works – Phase 2); Louwill Engineering (structural steel – Phase 2); NIC Instruments & Engineering (electrical – Phase 2); FLSmidth Minerals (Koepe winder – mechanical); ABB South Africa (Koepe winder – electrical); and Wade Walker (surface electrical works).

On Budget and on Time?
The project is on target for the start of production during the third quarter of 2013.

Contact Details for Project Information
Impala No 16 Shaft general manager Frikkie Höll, tel +27 82 802 5051; or project manager Jako Pienaar, tel +27 72 699 9373 or email jako.pienaar@implats.co.za.
Shaft Sinkers, +27 11 445 4300.
JJG Construction, tel +27 18 484 1427, fax +27 18 484 5017 or email info@jjg.co.za.
Louwill Engineering, tel +27 11 818 5844.
NIC Instruments & Engineering, tel +27 11 237 0300 or email enquiry@nicinst.co.za.
Read Swatman & Voigt, tel + 27 11 373 8200, fax + 27 11 832 1016 or email rsv@rsv.co.za.
FLSmidth, tel +27 10 210 4000, fax +27 10 210 4050  or email info@flsmidth.com.
ABB South Africa senior communications manager Natasha Mathebula, tel +27 10 202 6156 or email natasha.mathebula@za.abb.com .
Wade Walker, tel +27 11 466 0377, fax +27 11 466 0378 or email info@wadewalker.co.za.