Modern Mining May 2015

MINING News

at a rate exceeding 100 t/h and, once established, development will commence on a full-scale 250 t/h plus long-term main production facility which is earmarked to be operational and producing within 18 months of initiation. Productionwill initially be concentrated on the high-grade/high- value Southwest/Southcentral resource, which has been shown from previous drill- ing programmes to exceed 25 Mt and over 0,7 Mct with an in-situ value of US$867 mil- lion. This high value kimberlite can sustain full production, as planned, for a minimum of 12 years, yielding annual revenue in excess of US$60 million, says Paragon. Paragon already has extensive knowl- edge of the lay-out and internal structure of the existing process plant, and is working with its plant designers and manufacturers to rationalise the design, upgrade the capacity and install the lat- est X-ray Transmission technology (XRT) in order to increase capacity to in excess of 100 t/h and recover diamonds in excess of 200 carats at high efficiencies and with minimised likelihood of breakage. 

Tom Dale retires from CEO position at Sedibelo Sedibelo Platinum Mines, whose main asset is the Pilanesberg Platinum Mine (PPM), has announced that its CEO, Tom Dale, is to retire. He has been with Sedibelo and its predecessor companies since 2009. During his four-year tenure, he was instrumental in building Sedibelo’s operations and oversaw significant increases in output and recoveries, and reductions in unit operating costs. The company recently reported its maiden year profit for 2014.

responsible to the Board. Under their leadership, Sedibelo will continue the development of its shallow orebodies, and its preparations for its IPO once commodity and equity markets improve. Chairman Brian Gilbertson said: “I have worked with Tom since the eighties, and he is one of the true stalwarts of our industry. On behalf of the board and our sharehold- ers, I want to express our gratitude for the unique contribution Tom has provided. Under his leadership, Sedibelo has grown into an exciting PGM producer. I wish him all the best in his well-earned retirement. That said, I am delighted that Tom has agreed to continue in a part-time capac- ity for a transition period, as adviser to the board and management.” Dale arrived as a youngmining engineer in South Africa more than 40 years ago. He started at JCI and for most of his career he worked in hard rock mining, leading the turnaround of Randfontein gold mine and later working at Gengold and Gold Fields. 

He will continue to be associated with Sedibelo as an advisor so that his in-depth knowledge of the company and its opera- tions will be available to the management team and the board during the transition. The search for a new CEO has com- menced. Erich Clarke, the current CFO, will act as CEO for the interim period, and be closely supported by Casper Badenhorst, the current COO. They will report directly to Arne H Frandsen, who has been appointed Executive Deputy Chairman of Sedibelo,

May 2015  MODERN MINING  7