Modern Mining November 2021

ENGINEERING, PROCUREMENT AND CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

From opencast to underground mining: a Fortune 500 company Fluor speaks to Modern Mining about the global trend among the mining companies to migrate from open- cast mining to underground as open pit resources become depleted and replacement resources are required; the importance of strong partnerships in the mining industry and the vital nature of long- term relationships of trust between the engineering and construc- tion firm and its clients. By Mark Botha .

G lobal engineering and construction firm Fluor entered the underground mining project space in South Africa in 2019, following a trend in its client base to move predominantly opencast mines to underground operations. This was in addi- tion to engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) services already offered in the bulk mine infrastructure and processing value chain. The company, which constitutes three business groups – Energy Solutions, Urban Solutions and Mission Solutions – employs some 44 000 people around the world. According to Charl Klopper, Executive Director and Global Underground Mining Lead in Fluor SA’s Urban Solutions business group, a current trend in the industry is for open pit reserves to become depleted or less economic to mine, forcing the com- pany’s clients to migrate underground, so swapping high-volume, low-grade opencast ore for higher grade but low-volume ore brought to surface. “Going underground is a big trend in mining today,” he says. “Clients typically start off in an

Charl Klopper, executive director and Global Underground Mining lead in Fluor SA’s Urban Solutions business group. opencast environment but these mines tend to become too deep, meaning that they have to tran- sition from surface beneficiation to underground mining. When the stripping ratio becomes out of kil- ter and you’re stripping more waste than recovering ore, the economics dictate that the mine should go underground in the near to medium-term future.” He says that, to design and build a mine cost- ing billions of dollars, “you place that project in the hands of someone you trust, with whom you have a relationship and who has the technical expertise and experience to do the work.” A conscious decision was therefore taken to engage clients with whom Fluor had already estab- lished relationships of trust.

Dishaba platinum mine in South Africa.

22  MODERN MINING  November 2021