News & Media
May 2008
CONCOR MINING CONTINUES SUCCESS AT IMPALA OPENCAST MINING PROJECT
High levels of cooperation between Concor Mining and Impala Platinum, as well as honest open communication from both sides, have made the Impala Opencast project a highly feasible one.
This is according to Hans Baasden, general manager, Impala Platinum who says that Concor Mining was originally selected through an open tender process in 2002. “Impala Platinum is an underground mining company and does not have the necessary expertise or the resources to undertake an opencast mining project, hence the decision to go the outsourcing route.”
Concor Mining began work on the Impala opencast mining project in 2002 in the vicinity of Impala # 6 shaft. “We mined the Merenksy ore body first and in 2005 we started mining the UG 2 ore body. The Merensky is on a small scale (two Merensky faces) while the UG 2 is on a much larger scale with seven UG 2 faces currently being mined,” Rodger Herne, Concor Mining contracts director responsible for this project says. “In a two shift operation, we mine down to the 30 metre level in the pit, while the Impala underground operation mines lower down from their shaft systems.”
The Impala opencast mining operation.
Good safety record
“Safety is our top priority and all statistics are measured against safety performances. If safety is not in place then it’s pointless talking about any other performance factors,” Baasden says.
“Since we started the contract we have had no fatalities and our LTIFR (lost time injury frequency rate per million manhour worked) is only 0.24,” Herne says. “Everybody is committed to safety and we align our safety targets and strategies with those of the mine. We stand together in our belief that we can and will mine with zero harm.”
Herne explains that before work starts each morning the site manager holds a meeting with his foremen to discuss safety as the first item on the agenda and only once that is dealt with do they then go on to talk about the production and the planning of the day’s work.
Concor Mining consistently achieves production targets.
“We have our own safety management system which complies with our stringent safety standards. In turn, we are audited by Impala Platinum every 45 days. We have targeted to achieve a zero LTIF rate by November 2008. Impala Platinum has set milestones until 2013 and their own target is to achieve zero harm by that time as well,” Herne says. The zero harm strategy encompasses safety, health and the environment.
Herne explains that from the start of the contract until the end of November 2007 the company had achieved 2 million fatality free shifts. “This may seem like a long time to achieve this, but there are far fewer employees on an opencast mining site when compared to underground shaft operations.”
Investing in people
“Our most valuable asset is our people,” Herne says. “All in all, we have 240 people on the site which spans an area of 15 km. These include a site manager; three junior site managers; six foremen each with two junior foremen; four reefing foremen who are responsible for the extraction of the ore which is essential to ensure the reef is extracted at the correct width and quality.”
Hand-in-glove with skilled and qualified personnel are the production focused items of plant. “We have five bulk excavators for overburden removal; six smaller excavators for cleaning the ore body and extraction of the ore body; five dozers for moving overburden and top soil; 25 trucks on site; three water carts and various ancillary support plant. A static jaw crusher services the southern pits on the contract while a mobile jaw crusher services the northern pits,” Herne says.
Strong leadership and innovation in methodology
Herne explains that at the moment the company is working out of two Merensky pits and seven UG 2 pits.
“We use the strip mining method for mining our pits and our advances are normally 30 metres wide. We are also responsible for the complete drilling and blasting operation in all our pits. The ore body is exposed, extracted and transported to the rail siding 5 km away where it is crushed and transported by rail to the plant for further processing. Haul road maintenance is critical in order to minimise wear and tear on vehicles and ensure safety,” Herne says.
“The rehabilitation process is ongoing and this is monitored very closely by the mine,” he says.
“We have to be aware at all times not to hole through to the underground workings. For this we depend on surveys conducted 30 years ago and we work closely together with the mine’s surveyor to ensure that highwall positions are correct.”
“We have had to show high levels of integrity at all times in order to assure the customer of our best intentions,” Herne explains.
Keeping close ties with the community
Blasting on the surface is more involved than the blasting practiced underground. In some instances blasting occurs some 200 metres away from the process plant and this means it is essential to have the necessary expertise and experience to be able to control the blasting process and keep vibrations down to a minimum.
A few of the children on the Concor Orphan Project.
“Due to the infrastructure that is so close to opencast pits, a lot of emphasis is put on the blasting to ensure that we stay within the set blasting limits for vibration and air blast. Blasting occurs only twice a week because of our commitment to consider the local communities,” Herne says.
“We are very active in the local communities and one initiative we have launched is the Concor Orphan Project. We started it in early 2008 and it revolves primarily around the delivery of food parcels to the three primary schools closest to the opencast contract,” Herne says.
There are currently 60 children on the programme and the aim is to act as a guardian to them by providing packages comprising basic staple foods. “There was a definite need to address this issue and we wanted to give something back to the community.”
Herne says that the company also employs a black sub contractor who they have mentored to do the top soil rehabilitation. “He hires his machinery and works on a cubic metre basis.
“Upliftment of the local community is seen as a primary driver for the contract and this pilot project is paying dividends. To date it is working really well. We have trained him in production methodology and how to achieve targets; on costing and, obviously, on safety issues. Topsoil rehabilitation does not impact on our production targets so we can afford to spend the time to mentor the process carefully and thoroughly,” Herne says.
The lifespan of the opencast mine will extend to 2011 by which time both reef horizons will have been extracted.
“Since 2002 our contract has been renewed annually,” Herne says. “I believe that this is indicative of the success being achieved by Concor Mining in this arena.”
“Concor Mining has performed well and so we have never seen the need to call for a retender on the contract,” Baasden adds.