Modern Mining October 2015

MINING News

Community turns out in support of diamond mine

the K3 pit, a dewatering exercise began in February 2015 to pump all water from the K3 pit out to the K6 pit, where it will be stored until potentially required for pro- cessing operations. Pumping has been ongoing for the past seven months and water is now suf- ficiently cleared so that mining operations can commence as soon as required. With the water cleared from the K3 pit, this has facilitated better access and enabled a detailed geotechnical mapping exercise to be undertaken in this pit by a consulting geotechnical engineer, who will confirm the slope stability parameters to provide for updated open-pit designs. Geotechnical mapping was conducted in the K2 and K5 pits, which are scheduled to be mined early in the mining schedule at Lerala. The preliminary geotechnical assessment results suggest that there is scope for improving the design param- eters and reducing pit stripping ratios, which KDL anticipates will reduce overall mining costs. Once the preliminary report with rec- ommended slope design parameters for each pit is received from the geotechnical consultant, KDL plans to undertake a min- ing optimisation exercise. According to KDL, all aspects of the Lerala project are progressing very well to date and remain on schedule. KDL believes that if this progress can be maintained and barring any unforeseen delays, this will see the project well prepared for re-commis- sioning early in 2016.  of technologies used at the Eternity Power clean energy plant had not previously been used in a smelter environment and a sig- nificant amount of novel work was done to design the integration of the technology into the smelter complex and to establish the technical feasibility of the process. “These patents were developed spe- cifically for the purpose of capturing and harnessing waste thermal energies from metallurgical and chemical processes for the purpose of power generation and are likely also patentable worldwide. The result is that the Eternity Power Thermal Harvesting™ power plant is the first of its kind in the world in terms of being con- nected to a convertor at a metallurgical smelter.” 

Members of the local Lerala community, visiting pastors and KDL senior management at the blessing ceremony held on site recently (photo: KDL).

ASX-listed Kimberley Diamonds Ltd (KDL) has announced that its Botswana sub- sidiary, Lerala Diamond Mines Limited, recently held a site ‘blessing ceremony’ with the local community at the Lerala diamond mine. The ceremony was held at the request of the local community and was aimed at mobilising the community to provide its support and best wishes for the success of the mine. KDL is in the process of re-establishing Lerala, located in Botswana close to the Martins Drift border post with South Africa. The process plant is currently undergoing a major refurbishment and re-engineering, prior to recommissioning. Approximately 400 people attended the blessing ceremony, which was led

by Lerala’s Chief Moroka. Also in atten- dance were his 16 sub-chiefs, several pastors and chairpersons from the Village Development Community. Several mem- bers of KDL’s leadership team were also present, including Noel Halgreen, KDL’s Managing Director. KDL has also provided an update on its preparation for the resumption of min- ing operations at Lerala. The mine has five diamond bearing kimberlite pipes to be mined, K2, K3, K4, K5 and K6. Mining is currently scheduled to start early in 2016 in the K3 pit. During the time Lerala was on care and maintenance, the K3 pit was allowed to fill with groundwater and act as a water storage facility. With the planned commencement of mining activities in and developed by Vuselela Energy in col- laboration with Anglo American Platinum at a total project cost of R150 million. This ground-breaking initiative uses waste heat from the Anglo Converter Plant (ACP) convertor cooling circuit to evaporate an organic liquid and drive an expansion turbine. The plant has an installed capacity of 5 MW of which 4,3 MW is available to the grid, reducing Anglo American Platinum’s capacity bought from Eskom. The amount of power generated also results in a reduc- tion of the smelter’s carbon footprint and a more efficient use of energy. Jacques Malan, Director at Eternity Power and Vuselela Energy, said: “The set

Clean energy power plant at Waterval opened Anglo American Platinum, together with Vuselela Energy and H1 Holdings, recently officially opened a clean energy power plant, Eternity Power, at its Waterval Smelting Complex in Rustenburg.

The project was made possible by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) providing a R30-million grant as part of its Infrastructure Development Support which leverages investments to the South African economy by providing infrastruc- ture critical to industrial development. The incentive programme is part of the Critical Infrastructure Programme (CIP). The Eternity Power Thermal Harvesting™ project was commissioned in June 2015

10  MODERN MINING  October 2015