Modern Mining June 2018

COVER STORY

African growth world-class and which will be part of the offer- ing. In addition, we have a deep knowledge of the African mining environment, particularly the regulatory requirements and the logistical challenges, which has been acquired through many years of working on the continent.” According to Schultz, the partnership with Redpath Mining Australia will see specific skills being transferred to the African arm of Redpath. “We see the skills transfer process as roughly a three to five-year programme, at the end of which we will have a workforce in Africa that has adopted the Australian high- speed methodology, while at the same time matching their impressive advance rates.” Another new offering by Redpath Mining Africa is Mechanised Raise Mining services, which it announced at this year’s Mining Indaba in Cape Town. Offering flexibility, faster excavation speeds and depths in excess of 200 m, the Raise Mining service – which will employ Alimak-style technology – has the abil- ity to meet the demand for ventilation raises, production slot raises, shaft piloting, manways/ escapeways, ore and waste passes, narrow vein mining and raise widening. Says Schultz: “We’re seeing an increas- ing number of enquiries for mechanised raise mining from mines both in South Africa and the rest of Africa, and indeed we already have one contract starting at Harmony’s Phakisa

gold mine. Mechanised raise mining has par- ticular applicability to the mining of narrower, steeper orebodies, which are increasingly being encountered in African mining.” The company’s Raiseboring division, which was launched in the African region several years ago, proved to be a highly suc- cessful move, which has seen Redbore raise drills deployed on major contracts both in

Above: The Redbore 100 pictured on surface at the Synclinorium site on the Zambian Copperbelt. Below: Raiseboring operat- ing crew at the Mindola Deeps Expansion Project on the Zambian Copperbelt with the Redbore 90EX in the background.

June 2018  MODERN MINING  19