Modern Mining Marchh 2017

MINING CONTRACTING

working in Namibia (where it has a presence at the Langer Heinrich uranium mine) and in West Africa, where it is working for AngloGold Ashanti at Sadiola in Mali (where it has car- ried out the mining since start-up of the mine in the 1990s) and for Nordgold in Burkina Faso and Guinea. Comments White: “We’re thrilled to have secured Nordgold, a London-listed, midcap miner, as a client. We are doing the open-pit mining for the company at its Lefa mine in Guinea and its Taparko mine in Burkina Faso. We’ve worked in Guinea before but the Taparko contract represents our first entry into Burkina Faso, which is fast emerging as one of the pre- mier African gold mining countries.” Turning to Aveng Shafts & Underground, White says its current flagship contract is the sinking of Shaft 1 at Ivanhoe’s Platreef proj- ect near Mokopane in Limpopo Province. The project is now well into the main sink phase with the shaft having reached a depth of over 200 m by early February. Included in Aveng Mining’s scope is the development of two main stations at below-surface depths of 450 m and 750 m. “We’re extremely happy to be involved in this standout platinum project which ranks as one of the biggest platinum mining devel- opments currently underway in the African region,” says White. Aveng Mining, along with all its competitors, will be hoping to secure the contract for the next phase of the project – Shaft 2, which is the main production shaft. According to Ivanhoe, this will be an 1 100 m deep, 10 m diameter shaft with a hosting capacity of 6 Mt/a. To put this in perspective, Impala’s Shaft 16 – widely regarded as being one of the biggest shafts in Africa – has a capacity of 2,6 Mt/a (although it is deeper, at just over 1 600 m). White also notes that Aveng Mining is in the process of finishing off at Wesizwe’s Bakubung platinum mine on the Western Limb of the Bushveld Complex. “This has been another prestigious – and successful – contract for us, which has involved the sink- ing of a main shaft of 820 m in depth and a ventilation shaft of 810 m.” Other shafts either recently completed – or nearing completion – are the main and vent shafts (both of medium depth) at Kalagadi Manganese in the Northern Cape and the main and vent shafts at Sasol Mining’s Shondoni project near Secunda. The Shondoni shafts are relatively shallow, as is the norm in South African coal mining, but have substantial diam- eters of 11 m (main shaft) and 9 m (vent shaft).

Although much of Aveng Shafts & Under­ ground’s work over the past several years has centered on shaft sinking and associated development work, it also has the capacity to undertake contract mining. “We would cer- tainly like to get some contracts in this field,” states White. “It’s what I call ‘annuity’ work – it gives a steady, predictable return and has a bet- ter risk/return ratio than project work. Coming from the open-cut mining environment, I’ve been surprised at the level of risk that under- ground mining contractors are expected to assume when they take on capital projects such as shafts.” Finally, and outlining Aveng Mining’s strat- egy moving forward, White points out that the company is one of the few that can offer a tightly integrated open-cut and underground mining contracting capability – a genuine ‘one stop’ solution. “This is a key differentiator for us and our intention is to exploit the syner- gies between the two ‘halves’ of the business to a greater degree than we have in the past and allow them to leverage off each other,” he says. “We’re also very open to further geo- graphical diversification beyond the African continent. The Chuquicamata contract has shown that this is a viable option and has cer- tainly raised our profile in South America. We see opportunities in several other parts of the world, including the Middle East and the CIS region. We will almost certainly continue to be an Africa-focused business but I’m hope- ful that we can in the future look forward to at least a portion of our revenues coming from the international market.” 

Headgear of the 11 m internal diameter vent shaft at Codelco’s Chuquicamata copper mine in Chile. The successful sinking of this shaft has established Aveng Mining’s reputation in the South American mining market.

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March 2017  MODERN MINING  39