Modern Mining September 2023

run by Takalani Randima (who is the first woman to run a shaft sinking company). The Professional Engineering services division is managed by Graham Roberts. Both have extensive operational under ground mining experience. “Deeply rooted in our culture of innovation at UMS is that we question the conventional wisdom,”

led to us designing an appropriate shaft solution to meet the client’s objectives and then being appointed to implement it, a task which has seen us undertake the capital cost estimation, engineering design, project schedule and procurement. We’re now well into the execution phase and busy with the changeover from the pre-sink to the main sink, which will get underway towards the end of this year.” He adds that UMS has also designed a full head gear that can rapidly swing over and facilitate a changeover to blind sinking should the hole block up. “We hope we never have to use it, but it is avail able and further de-risks the project,” he says. The range of skills that UMS offers derives from its rich heritage. The Group is the inheritor of the expertise of Shaft Sinkers, which was established more than six decades ago. UMS acquired the Shaft Sinkers brand in South Africa in 2015. Hull points out that as result of the acquisition UMS can claim a vast library of sinking knowledge and experience built up across 250 mining and shaft projects undertaken globally, 170 km of vertical shafts sunk and over 35 km of incline and decline shaft construction. “Along with the acquisition, we also purchased a fleet of winders and other sinking equipment, which we’ve subsequently expanded significantly,” Macnab adds. “We now have more than 35 units in our fleet which can be deployed at short notice to projects. This gives us a distinct competitive advantage as procuring new winders can take between two and three years.” UMS’s South African sinking operations are

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