Modern Mining January 2016

COAL

Wealth of experience drives

replacement projects will together aid the total production of 40 million tons and take the life- of-mine horizons to about 2050. At Shondoni, work is over 85 % complete – including an 11-m diameter man-and-materials shaft reach- ing a depth of 155 m, set for full operational duty early in 2016. Among its notable achievements to date, the project has dealt with various ground and water challenges in its development stages, rolled back delays with an innovative option to com- plete and place the winder house, and will soon boast the world’s longest single-flight overland conveyor with no mid-way drive assistance. Headed by EPCM contractor Worley Parsons, work has been ongoing since 2012, with Aveng Mining overseeing shaft-sinking and under- ground development, Aveng Inland tackling the surface infrastructure and buildings, and Sandvik Mining providing the materials han- dling systems for both underground and surface. Early development work on the 6-m wide, 3-m high incline shaft was bedevilled by weathered dolerite near surface and a high water table, requiring extensive cementation of the porous areas. “We addressed this using ‘tube a manchette’

As Sasol’s Middelbult mine near Secunda in Mpumalanga reaches the end of its 35-year life, the energy and chemical giant is nearing completion of the R5,5 billion Shondoni (‘Place of Wealth’) replacement project. As Paul Crankshaw explains in this article, Shondoni – being developed by Sasol Mining – is due to deliver over 9 million tons of coal per annum toSasol’s synthetic fuels plant.

U nlike the nearby greenfields Thubelisha and Impumelelo projects – taking the batons from Sasol’s Twistdraai and Brand- spruit operations respectively – Shondoni is a brownfields expansion that essentially continues and extends Middelbult into new reserves around the recently com- pleted Shondoni shaft complex. Kobus Louw, Vice President Projects & Sigma Colliery, who oversees a 32-strong own- er’s projects team for these expansions, said the rising cost of maintaining ageing infrastructure at Middelbult was a key reason for the transi- tion to Shondoni, as well as the need to move closer to the new reserves. Budgeted at over R15 billion, the three

The new surface infrastruc- ture at the Shondoni shaft complex – seen here nearing completion – includes production offices (on the right hand side of the photo), change houses (left), management offices (far left) and ventilation fans (in the background).

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68  MODERN MINING  January 2016