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On-The-Air (12/08/2016)

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12th August 2016

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

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Every Friday morning, SAfm’s AMLive’s radio anchor Sakina Kamwendo speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.  Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Kamwendo: Plans are under way to recover huge quantities of gold lying on the waste dumps of the Far West Rand.

Creamer: That is near Carletonville and Westonaria. We have spoken about Ergo on the East Rand and how well that does for the local economy catalysing the economic activity of about R14-billion a year. Now, we look on the West Rand and they want to do the same thing.

There is potential to do it in an even bigger way. We see that there are 11-million ounces of gold waiting to be recovered there on those mine dumps. Not only that, there is also 170-million pounds of uranium and tons of sulphuric acid. What is happening is that they want to try and do this in one go.

The mover is Sibanye Gold and it has the benefit of many mining companies having done a lot of studies on this. It also has the benefit of rich dumps that it has got in uranium, now possible to bring into this big situation. Sulphuric acid is used in uranium processing, so Sibanye wants to recover some of that sulphuric acid for own use, but then bring in a partner to actually do the building of the plant and distribution and logistics involved.

It just shows you that in the final stages of mining that we are in now there is so much wealth lying on the ground. Not only that, but the economics of actually protecting the environment also coming in to play. Because they are able to generate revenue at the time of removing these dumps they also release land and create a better environment. We can see that on the West Rand in the Carletonville area, there has always been an issue of dolomite.

The mines created that dolomitic problem where they draw out the water and it becomes dry. We know that there have been sinkholes in the past. We can see that when they recover the gold from this there will be a residue and they have got a nice site away from the dolomite. Again an environmental plus.

Kamwendo: Hard-pressed mining companies are rolling out an array of low-capital, quick-return projects to ensure that they keep growing.

Creamer: When the going gets tough, the tough have got to get going. When you know you have got a product that is in over supply and the market is maybe oversupplied, then you have got to look around to projects where there is demand for that. You might be in platinum, but you can see that there is an opportunity in chrome, as Anglo American Platinum have now seen. When they mine the Upper Group Two reef, there is also a chrome content there.

They have been dumping it, but now with the chrome price firming they have quickly done a commissioning of a project that has cost them R400-million. By the time they ramp up and get this going they will have recovered their money so fast. It shows you that there is this opportunity. Then, out in the Northern Cape, with Kumba Iron Ore, the problem is oversupply at the moment, but if you can do that production in the cheap way they are planning to do, you can get a quick return and you don’t have to put too much capital in.

They are looking at ultra-high dense medium separation projects. They have got a very successful one, it has been so successful that they will put two others in. Again, it is quick payback that we see.

Kamwendo: Mining may be on the brink of an exciting new era with the launch this week of innovative new equipment.

Creamer: From none other than Caterpillar and Caterpillar is a world name and it is big. Caterpillar has come through and cracked the code with regard to the way we can mine our low-height hard-rock gold reef profitably. We have been scratching our head about this and it is so difficult, because it is the height.

You can imagine mining under this table we are sitting at here, there is not much space. Caterpillar has now created equipment that can mine that hard rock on a continuous basis. The word continuous is very important because it means that it can improve the economics of hard-rock mining.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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