Modern Mining June 2019

MINING News

Partner and New Business Director at Murray & Roberts Cementation. “We are bringing a depth of coal min- ing experience and expertise from both JV partners, and are confident that we will deliver an efficient and cost effective solu- tion to the client.” As part of the mining services offered, Boipelo Mining Contractors will also be negotiating the geological features of three mining sections, which is likely to require drilling and blasting of dykes in the orebody when necessary. New Clydesdale Colliery, whose roots go back to its initial formation in 1942, when the first exploration borehole was drilled, produces thermal coal for local consumption and the export market. The mine has been operated by Universal Coal since 2016, and is one of four in South Africa owned by the company. “We are pleased to be able to work closely with Boipelo Mining Contractors on this important contract,” says Chris Silver, General Manager at Universal Coal New Clydesdale Colliery.“The joint venture represents a solid collaboration of enter- prising new entrants and well-established players. While expecting a high level of quality in the services to be delivered, we are also proud to be contributing to mean- ingful transformation in the mining sector.” Boipelo Mining Contractors is a Level 2 B-BBEE accredited company with a strong focus on sustainability in terms of health, safety, quality and environmental management. 

NewVolvo A60H hauler on show in Botswana The new 60-ton payload Volvo A60H articu- lated hauler, the biggest truck of its type in the world, was on show in Botswana for the first time at the recent Botswana Resource Sector Conference (BRSC), held at the Gaborone International Convention Centre on 10/11 June.

Keitumetse. Babcock is the Southern African dealer for Volvo Construction Equipment. Babcock has a strong presence in Botswana and has recently notched up some strong sales in the country, includ- ing an order from Kalcon for 12 Volvo A40G articulated haulers and two Volvo EC750DL crawler excavators. Kalcon has deployed the machines on its contract to excavate the boxcuts for the new Khoemacau copper/ silver mine in the Kalahari Copperbelt. 

Seen with the machine are Kobus Nortje (right), Regional Manager Service/ Equipment Botswana, Babcock International Group, and colleagues Davis Kopi and Mavis

Positive results from deep drilling at Kunche West African gold explorer and devel- oper Azumah Resources, listed on the ASX, reports that three widely-spaced exploratory drill holes at its Wa gold proj- ect flagship Kunche deposit have all intersected mineralisation down to at least 500 m below surface and returned some exceptionally high-grade intercepts.

in depth in West Africa, Canada, Western Australia and elsewhere in the world. The confirmation of deep mineralisa- tion at Kunche follows the recent discovery of substantial, high-grade mineralisation at the nearby Bepkong East Lode deposit. This has a drill defined strike of over 300 m and has been confirmed to extend to at least 580 m below surface. “Given the excellent drilling results since our last Wa gold project mineral resource upgrade in September 2018, we would expect to be able to increase the current 2,5 million ounces, especially as we undertake further exploration below and in the vicinity of existing deposits and more generally across our vast tenure of prospective Birimian terrain, the host rocks to a majority of West Africa’s world class gold mines,” comments Azumah MD Stephen Stone. 

zones extending below the planned Kunche open-pit mine. The holes, drilled 540 m apart for a total of 2 120 m, were specifically designed to test for repetitions and vertical extensions of the ‘main’ central mineralised ‘fluid con- duit’ discovered at Kunche a year ago. Whilst generally narrow intercepts were returned in this latest round of drilling, the discovery of gold at these depths marks a step-change in depth expectations for the Kunche deposit and provides considerable geological information to guide the next phase of drilling. This phase will infill back up towards the surface as well as probe for mineralisation to even greater depths as other examples of orogenic, structurally controlled ore deposits are known to extend to over 2 km

Notable intercepts from this first con- certed phase of deep drilling at Kunche included 0,5 m at 168,3 g/t Au (over 5 oz of gold per tonne) from 650,5 m (KRCD855) and 0,5 m at 89,39 g/t Au (nearly 3 oz of gold per tonne) from 613,5 m (KRCD853) with visible gold observed at 650,5 m and 613,5 m respectively. These results raise expectations that infill drilling could identify multiple, min- eralised ore shoots associated with feeder

June 2019  MODERN MINING  7