Modern Mining January 2019

ZINC

With Phase I of its US$400 million Gamsberg zinc project up and running, Vedanta Zinc International (VZI) is now looking to double the scale of the operation via Phase II, which it expects to approve for development in 2019. Phase I is a remarkable project, as Modern Mining’s Arthur Tassell saw on a recent visit to the site, which has undoubtedly set new benchmarks for other mining companies to emulate. It was delivered on time and budget, features an innovative concentrator and is clearly pushing the boundaries when it comes to the digitalisation of mining operations. Gamsberg in production and

P art of VZI’s Black Mountain Min- ing complex located near Aggeneys in the Northern Cape, Gamsberg is now ramping up to its steady-state production level of 250 000 t/a of zinc in concentrate with this objective expect- ed to be achieved within six to nine months. Given its size and its 13-year life, it is an ‘an- chor’ project for VZI, which sees an ultimate production of 600 000 tonnes of zinc a year from Gamsberg, which has a vast resource of over 200 Mt, making it one of the largest zinc deposits in the world (although it does have a grade which, at around 6,3 % zinc, is some- what lower than the global average). Talking to a media group (including Modern

Mining ) which visited the project in December, Deshnee Naidoo, CEO of VZI, said VZI’s vision was to become the safest, most sustainable inte- grated mining company in the world capable of delivering up to 1 Mt of zinc equivalent produc- tion a year. She said that VZI was also extremely bullish on eventually building a smelter/refin- ery complex at Gamsberg and predicted that the Gamsberg site could become one of the largest zinc-producing complexes in the world. Naidoo joined VZI in 2014 after a glitter- ing career with Anglo American. She has a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Natal and started with Anglo as a trainee metallurgist in 1998 at its Precious Metals Refinery. She enjoyed a succession of

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48 _ MODERN MINING _ January 2019