Modern Mining August 2015

IRON ORE

miners and explorers reeling

Left: The Kolomela mine near Postmasburg in Northern Cape Province is Kumba’s newest mining operation, having been completed at the end of 2011. Kolomela is expected to produce in excess of 11 Mt in 2015 with waste of 35 Mt (photo: Kumba Iron Ore). Below: The processing plant of the Tonkolili mine in Sierra Leone. The mine was developed by African Minerals but is now owned reports in May this year that Shandong had re-opened the mine but – as far as ‘Modern Mining’ is aware – production has not yet restarted. by Chinese steel-maker Shandong. There were

the US$63/tonne in 2014. These initiatives include reducing overhead costs, reinforcing capital discipline, reconfiguring the operations and maintaining the focus on product quality

says it “has undertaken a number of key inter- ventions, which are expected to result in a reduction in the group’s cash breakeven price to US$45/tonne (62 % Fe CFR China) from

August 2015  MODERN MINING  37