Modern Mining January 2019

DIAMONDS

VUP on course to start delivering

South Africa’s biggest mining project in execution, the US$2 billion Venetia Underground Project (VUP) of De Beers, is continuing to make steady progress with first ore expected in 2021 from the K2 orebody. According to Sailesh Sahu, the new Head of the VUP, the main challenge facing the VUP team is to synchronise the winding down of the open- pit operation and the start-up of the underground mine in such a way as to minimise the impact of the transition to underground mining on Venetia’s production profile.

T he VUP is a key project for De Beers as it represents the group’s future in South Africa. In recent years it has disposed of most of its mines in the country with the only one left, apart from Venetia, being Voorspoed in the Free State, a relatively small operation which is currently in the process of being closed. The VUP, which will create an underground mine beneath the current open pits at

Venetia, will extend Venetia’s life to 2045, while maintaining dia- mond production at the current level of approximately 4 million carats a year. Located to the west of Musina in Limpopo Province, Venetia – which was opened in 1992 and is South Africa’s biggest diamond producer – is widely regarded as being a Tier 1 asset and the inventory of the VUP is close to 100 million carats. The underground resource con- sists of two ore bodies, K01 and K02,

with evaluation having confirmed that K01 extends to at least 1 044 m and K02 to at least 864 m below ground level. Both the K01 and K02 ore bodies will be mined by means of the Sub Level Caving (SLC) mining method. The K01 cave will produce 4 Mt/a and the K02 cave 1,9 Mt/a. To access the ore bodies, two vertical shafts, each 7 m in diameter, are being sunk to a depth of 1 065 m. In all, the project involves the development of around 70 km of shafts, surface decline, tun- nels, chambers, workshops and water and ventilation systems – with this figure rising to just over 200 km over the life of mine. Although the current processing plant should be able to handle the projected 5,9 Mt/a

Sailesh Sahu, Head of the VUP.

tonnage of the underground mine, some plant modifications might be necessary and De Beers is currently undertaking a study and testwork to ensure successful treatment – at the specified rate – of the underground ore types. Modern Mining recently spoke to Sahu, as well as Peet Greyling, Project Director – Large Projects (Mining) at WorleyParsons RSA, and Japie du Plessis, Project Executive Designate with Murray & Roberts Cementation, to get an update on the VUP. WorleyParsons is the

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44 _ MODERN MINING _ January 2019

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