Modern Mining February 2020

the future’ CEO Errol Smart terms a “giant of a VMS deposit”, the Prieska project has turned out to be the single largest sulphide orebody in the world. According to Smart, the biggest VMS deposit in the world comprises two ore bodies with 85 Mt each. Prieska, on the other hand, is a 95 Mt single orebody that still continues beyond the limits of current drill- ing and excluding the satellite ore bodies yet to be drilled. In its shopping list, Orion had always targeted a VMS deposit of scale, which the company could mine using modern mechanisation methods to cre- ate efficiencies and economy of scale. Orion is forging ahead with the implementation of a modern operating philosophy that can play a significant role in achieving dramatic changes in key output parameters that are traditionally slow to improve or have regressed in the local mining indus- try, including productivity, operating costs, energy efficiency and costs, as well as health and safety, among others. Benefitting from existing infrastructure Smart says Orion will leverage the availability of proven benchmarks globally in implementing this 4IR-enabled mine. The capex to execute the modern mine project is enabled by the fact that Orion will have minimal infrastructure work to do on the proj- ect. “Much of the mine’s infrastructure, including the main 1 024 m-deep, 8,8 m-diameter hoisting shaft and decline roadways, remains intact, with minimal repair work to be done,” says Smart. “That allows us to channel some of the capex we could have used on mining infrastructure towards the adoption of global- best practice in terms of new mining technologies.” Walter Shamu, COO at Orion Minerals, tells Modern Mining that from a mining infrastructure point of view, Orion has been very fortunate, with key access infrastructure already in place, although the mine is currently flooded to a depth of 330 m below surface. The shaft contains 8,7-million m³ of accumu- lated water. A dewatering project will see the water being pumped out over a 14-month period, with 40% of the water being purified, and 60% being evapo- rated through a mechanical evaporation process. Shamu says the company has quantified the costs it could have incurred if it had to put up mining infrastructure from scratch. To give an idea, he says, to sink a shaft is probably in the order of R1,2-million (about US$80 000) per metre. Realistically, sinking a 1 km-deep shaft would have cost around R1,2-billion (about US$87-million). “We are very fortunate that such high capex infra- structure is already there. Along with that we already have sealed access roads to the project site, four

high-voltage regional lines linked to the national electricity grid, bulk water pipeline supplies and good contractor accommodation facilities, among others,” says Shamu. He adds that all in all this could have been about R3-billion worth of spend. Leveraging global best practice Orion is looking at global best practice in terms of technologies that have already proven themselves elsewhere. Shamu says this is the direction mining is taking across the world, with a view to removing people out of harm’s way and letting machines be at the mining front. “We are moving towards automation, but adopt- ing it in a manner that we can manage with the capital at our disposal. We are also adopting it in a manner that allows us to maintain it. We have the opportunity to foresee what technology is coming,

Located in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province, the Prieska project – one of the world’s Top 30 VMS base metal deposits – is the centrepiece of Orion’s asset portfolio.

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