Modern Mining January 2017

GRAPHITE

said Balama would employ traditional open- pit bench mining methods, with the mining operation projected to be 100 % free dig for the first five years. “The load and haul fleet, which has now been mobilised to site, includes a 90-t Liebherr excavator, Bell B40 articulated dump trucks, several Caterpillar dozers and graders and a couple of fuel tank- ers,” he said. “We will eventually mine in two pits, with the West Pit – which will be mined first – ultimately being 1 000 m long, 400 m wide and 80 m deep and the East Pit 1 000 m long, 1 000 m wide and 80 m deep. The strip ratio is very favourable and is estimated at 0,04 over the life of mine. Construction of the ROM pad – which will have a capacity of 360 000 tonnes – is underway with comple- tion expected in February 2017.” Strange added that training of 20 mobile plant operators had started and that it was the intention that the mining operation would eventually be manned by workers drawn mainly from local communities. Turning to the processing route at Balama, this will be a conventional process including crushing, grinding, flotation, filtration, drying, screening and bagging. The plant, which will have a capacity of 2 Mt/a, has been designed by CPC Engineering located in Perth, Western Australia. “Primary crushing is by means of a sizer

the Ncala coal terminal and the upgrade of the Beira coal terminal. Overseeing Syrah’s activities at Balama is the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Darrin Strange. A metallurgist with a background with Rio Tinto (he was previously GM of Rio’s West Angelas and Robe Valley iron ore operations in Australia’s Pilbara), he speaks Portuguese and spends a major part of his time on site in Mozambique. Talking to Modern Mining recently, he

The primary mill looking south.

The TSF with welding of the liner seams in progress.

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28  MODERN MINING  January 2017