Sandvik MN330 narrow reef miner to help up productivity at Anglo American’s Mototolo platinum mine

With its new and innovative Sandvik MN330 narrow reef production system, Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions says it has succeeded in developing a new method for continuous hard rock mining. Anglo American has placed the first order, which is currently being assembled in Zeltweg, Austria, and is due to be shipped to the Mototolo platinum mine in South Africa before the end of 2021.

“This is the result of a long-term collaboration, where we have developed not only a new system but a whole new method of mining,” says Arne Nicolaas Lewis, Vice President, Hard Rock Continuous Mining, Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions. “Even the mine’s layout has been designed specifically for this system.”

The solution consists of the innovative hard rock cutter Sandvik MN330 and a Hencon system that extracts the cut material from the mine and sends it through a series of filters and separators. Since it can be operated remotely, it greatly reduces the need for personnel to be inside the mine and drastically reduces employee risk exposure. Compared with the traditional drill-and-blast method used by Anglo American, CO2 emissions are reduced by half.

Anglo American Platinum wholly owns and manages four mining complexes – Mogalakwena, Amandelbult, Unki and Mototolo. These stretch across the Bushveld complex in South Africa while Unki is located on Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke. Except for the open-pit Mogalakwena mine, all mines are underground conventional and mechanised operations.

The company is working on productivity improvement at Mototolo – the company has said it is looking to expand production from 240,000 t/mth to 320,000 t/mth through technology deployment, aiming for a ~20% productivity improvement by 2025 relative to 2020. It is also looking at the development of the Der Brochen orebody to extend Mototolo’s life of mine. This includes development of a decline and required infrastructure to access Der Brochen, and help replace declining production from Mototolo. The Der Brochen project at Mototolo has received the first stage of approval and is on track to be fully approved by the end of the year, with the start of development shortly thereafter. The technical scope is being finalised, and first production is estimated to be in the first half of 2023.