Redpath Australia and Redpath Mining Africa have announced the award of the mining services contract at the Venetia Mine, in South Africa, from De Beers Group.

Venetia is South Africa’s largest producer of diamonds, and is situated close to the town of Alldays in the Limpopo province.

The contract comprises Redpath providing skilled management, operational and maintenance personnel to form part of the Integrated Operations Team at Venetia. The Venetia Underground project involves the transition from an open-pit mine to an underground mine. Open-pit mining at Venetia is likely to run until 2021, with the underground mine set to extend the life of the mine to 2046 and provide an estimated 94 Mct of diamonds.

Redpath Australia Managing Director, Gavin Ramage, said: “We are excited to be working with De Beers Group in transferring our safe and efficient operating processes to the South African workforce. Together with Redpath Mining South Africa, we will utilise the skillsets of both our Australian and African business units.

“Redpath have been successful in doing this at other major projects across the globe so we look forward to providing another successful outcome for De Beers at Venetia.”

Work on-site will commence in February 2021, with recruitment to commence shortly, Redpath said.