Modern Mining January 2019

ZINC

be sourced from China – being supplied by a local company. Finally, no story on Gamsberg would be com- plete without highlighting the digitalisation initiative being undertaken by VZI. At its heart is a ‘Smart Ore Movement’ system, in which VZI is collaborating with GE South Africa and which was first announced in November 2017. In its release at the time, VZI said that “The concept of ‘Smart Ore Movement’ cen- tres on the need to ensure that all information about the state of the mine, the quality of the ore, the conditions of the processing plant and

deposit – being developed to provide a further plus 150 kt/a of zinc in concentrate. This would constitute Phase III of the project. To undertake the open-pit mining, Moolmans has deployed a mining fleet which currently consists of 66 items of primary mining equip- ment and which includes two of the company’s largest-sized face shovels at 530 tonnes each loading 19 Caterpillar 200-short-ton payload rigid rear dumpers. Also deployed are 280- tonne excavators loading 100-short-ton payload rigid rear dumpers. The Gamsberg contract is currently the company’s second biggest con- tract but has the potential to grow to become the largest operation. The scope of work includes the feeding of ore material into the primary crusher. Companies supporting the mining operation are BME, responsible for explosives supply, and Gulfstream, which supplies all the fuel. To suppress dust, products from Dust-a-Side are being applied to all the haul roads. One of the downsides of the Gamsberg resource is the presence of manganese in the orebody, which is regarded as a contaminant. VZI is confident, however, that it can effec- tively manage the problem by blending ore production to keep the manganese level in the final concentrate to well below 3 %, which is acceptable to most customers. The construction of the entire Gamsberg project – including a 20 km long powerline and a 38 km long water pipeline to bring in water from the Orange River – saw over 3 000 people being employed on site at peak. The project consumed around 35 000 m 3 of concrete and has approximately 300 km of electrical cabling. According to Kumar, South African contrac- tors and suppliers stepped up to the plate in a big way to deliver the project, with even the steel – which was originally expected to

Access roads to the mining operation. Mining contractor Moolmans has deployed a fleet which currently consists of 66 items of primary mining equipment, including two 530-tonne face shovels.

Fuelling growth at Gamsberg Gulfstream Energy has partnered with Vedanta Zinc International since the inception of the Gamsberg project in July 2015. The installation of Gulfstream’s Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) system has proven to be of significant value at Gamsberg mine, where the responsibility for fuel supply and management rests squarely with Gulfstream Energy. The permanent installation of the VMI system, which has a total capacity of 470 000 litres, has removed the burden of fuel procurement and man- agement from Gamsberg mine. “Gulfstream deals with all the headaches relating to fuel supply, enabling us to focus on our core business of mining,” says the mine’s General Manager, Mubarik Khan. Despite the remote location, the vendor-managed inventory installation at Gamsberg mine is fuelled predominantly from the Burgan Cape storage terminal in Cape Town harbour where Gulfstream holds a monthly storage position of 8,5 million litres of diesel. The benefits of the VMI system, which currently dispenses nearly two million litres of diesel every month, include the accurate tracking of fuel consumption through daily, weekly and monthly reporting and cost effi- ciency as customers are only billed once fuel is dispensed. The implementation of the permanent installation, being managed and operated by six permanent Gulfstream employees, has positively impacted operations at Gamsberg mine creating a solid foundation for production planning and fuel management. Gulfstream says it remains committed to the partnership with Vedanta, to operating safely and within the boundaries of both Gulfstream and Vedanta Health and Safety standards, and to maintaining its current record of zero stock-outs. „

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