Tag Archives: Khoemacau

Master Drilling’s Mobile Tunnel Borer heads to Anglo’s Mogalakwena mine

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Master Drilling is readying its Mobile Tunnel Borer (MTB) technology for a contract at Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena mine in South Africa.

The company, which revealed the news during its interim results presentation, said on-boarding for this project deployment was underway, with the start of “decline excavation” due by the end of the year.

Anglo American Platinum said in its own interim results recently that it was working on feasibility studies on the future of Mogalakwena, with completion of these studies expected at the end of 2021. Decisions on the pathway forward are expected shortly after this, however, one of the current key milestones at the asset includes progressing an underground exploration decline.

Master Drilling Executive Director, Koos Jordaan, said during the presentation that the contract with Anglo American Platinum is for a “turnkey operation” with Master Drilling providing capabilities in terms of construction, logistics and project management, in addition to its normal excavation services.

The MTB is a modular horizontal cutting machine equipped with full-face cutter head with disc cutters adapted from traditional tunnel boring machines. Unlike these traditional machines, it is designed to work both on inclines and declines, with the ability to navigate around corners and construct 5.5 m diameter decline access tunnels.

One MTB unit was previously scheduled to carry out a 1.4 km project at Northam Platinum’s Eland platinum group metals operation in South Africa, however this was cancelled in March 2020 due to the pandemic. This deployment followed testing of an MTB unit in soft rock at a quarry just outside of Rome, Italy, in 2018.

Alongside news of this latest MTB deployment, Master Drilling said in its results that it was studying the potential to deploy two of these MTB units in tandem for twin-decline access as part of the technology’s second-generation developments.

“We can already see the benefit of utilising two of these machines to do a twin-decline access to an orebody,” Jordaan said.

Looking to vertical developments, Master Drilling reported that it had received shareholder funding approval from the Industrial Development Corporation for the latest work on its Shaft Boring System (SBS), designed to sink 4.5 m diameter shafts in hard rock down to 1,500 m depths.

IM witnessed the main cutting mechanism of what was previously billed as being a 45-m long, 450-t machine at the back end of 2019.

The company has since said it will introduce a “smaller scope system” as part of its introduction to the industry.

While busy on the latest slimmed down design of the SBS, Master Drilling has signed a letter of intent with a prospective South Africa project that could see a machine start sinking activities in the first half of 2022, Jordaan said.

Outside of these developments, Master Drilling reported on several contract awards across the globe, including a three-year raiseboring extension with AngloGold Ashanti in Brazil, a joint venture agreement with Besalco Construction to work on Codelco’s Chuquicamata copper mine, an executed contract with Glencore’s Raglan mine in Canada, an agreement with Zimplats in Zimbabwe and a “long-term contract” on the Khoemacau copper-silver project in Botswana.

Concor Infrastructure closes in on Khoemacu copper-silver project milestones

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Concor Infrastructure says it is nearing completion of a 35 km access road for the Khoemacau Copper Silver Starter project in the Kalahari region of Botswana.

The company is at the same time also busy with constructing a parallel haul road, as well as conducting earthworks and concrete civils at the Khoemacau Boseto processing plant.

The Khoemacau copper project, in the central Kalahari copper belt, is developing underground operations at its flagship Zone 5 deposit. The mine plan involves three adjacent underground mines at Zone 5, each producing over 1.2 Mt/y in their first five years of production.

The haul road in question will allow mineralised material to be trucked 35 km from Zone 5 to the Boseto processing facility, while the access road will be used by light vehicles. After processing at Boseto, the mineral concentrate will be shipped out for smelting.

Good progress has been made on construction of the access road according to Jay Juganan, Contracts Director at Concor Infrastructure. The contract for both the access and haul roads was awarded in November 2018.

“The access road was little more than a sand track when we established on site and was accessible only by 4×4 vehicles,” Juganan says. “Essentially, we are creating a corridor for both roads in parallel, and for the powerlines to be installed by another contractor.”

The planning of the haul road also had to consider the large and ancient Baobab trees that are common in the area. Preservation of these trees is a vital imperative, requiring the haul road to be diverted on occasion to avoid about half a dozen Baobabs, which are hundreds of years old.

The access road is 90% complete and due for completion in the September quarter. The haul road is also expected to be completed next quarter, the company said.

Road construction comprises a 600 mm deep cut filled with pioneer crushed rock followed by a G3 sub base and base layer. In some areas, the crushed rock is replaced by a natural calcrete.

The wearing course is a 9/19 mm double seal, according to Concor, which had to crush all aggregate on site from the old mine waste rock stockpile at Boseto.

Concor Infrastructure Contracts Manager, Tiaan Krugel, said the remote location of the site and the dry conditions are among the key challenges encountered on this project.

“The sourcing and timing of the supply of equipment, parts and construction material required careful and detailed planning,” Krugel says. “The majority had to come from the capital Gaborone – 900 km away – with the other challenge being that most of our equipment OEMs are based in Johannesburg, which is more than 1,300 km from site.”

The scope of Concor’s work at the Boseto process plant, the contract of which was awarded in November 2019, includes earthworks and concrete civils to the existing and for the new process plant structures for the crushing, milling, flotation and concentrate handling circuits. The plant had previously treated material from an open-pit copper mining operation at Boseto, under the ownership of a different company.

Krugel highlighted the challenges of working with concrete on a remote site, especially where temperatures can reach over 40°C during working hours.

“A special concrete mix was designed to accommodate on-site conditions,” he said. “This includes the use of admixtures to prolong the concrete’s workability as well as having to chill the water we use before it is added to the cement and aggregates.”

In addition to the refurbishment and upgrading work at Boseto, Concor has also contributed to preparing the infrastructure at the Zone 5 mining site, where underground development is underway.

The work included all internal roads at the Zone 5 mine, terracing for the 650-person accommodation camp, the mine administration surface infrastructure area, the mine workshops and stores area and the explosives magazine together with construction of the ROM pads.

The Khoemacau Starter project expects to produce 62,000 t of copper and 1.9 Moz of silver each year over its planned life of more than 20 years, according to the company.

“Despite the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a reduction of staff numbers on site due to individual choices, we are working hard to ensure that program schedules will be met,” Juganan said.

Cupric Canyon rewards Fluor with Khoemacau copper-silver EPCM contract

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Fluor says it has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract by Cupric Canyon Capital for its Khoemacau copper and silver project in northwest Botswana.

The company booked the undisclosed contract value in the June quarter of 2019, it said.

This announcement follows hot on the heels of the groundbreaking ceremony (pictured) at Khoemacau and Barminco being awarded a five-year underground mining contract at the 3.6 Mt/y Zone 5 mine.

Tony Morgan, President of Fluor’s Mining & Metals business, said the two companies previously worked together on the project’s front-end engineering and design phase to establish a “capital-efficient design and execution plan” for the project. This saw Fluor involved in construction management of the early works for the camp upgrade, bush clearing, transport corridor and surface infrastructure terrace preparation, he added.

Fluor’s EPCM scope includes upgrading the existing copper concentrator plant and new mine surface infrastructure, with the project expected to produce 62,000 t/y of copper and 1.9 Moz of silver with a life of mine in excess of 20 years.

Morgan said: “We will leverage our local capabilities and extensive copper experience to execute the Khoemacau project with excellence – safely, on time, on budget and with quality.”

Fluor has worked in Botswana since the early 2000s and opened an office in Gaborone in 2015. From Gaborone, it delivers safety, cost-competitive innovations and execution excellence to clients, it said.

Barminco ready to mobilise at Khoemacau copper-silver underground project

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Ausdrill’s Barminco subsidiary is proceeding with mobilisation and readiness to commence execution of the Zone 5 underground mine at Cupric Canyon Capital’s Khoemacau copper-silver project in northwest Botswana, the Gaborone-based company said.

Following closing of a finance package for Khoemacau’s 3.6 Mt/y starter project, the contractor is now expected to start work on the underground mine in December. This is part of the five-year, US$560 million underground mining contract the two parties signed last month.

This starter project is expected to involve processing ore from a 91 Mt resource base at a head grade of 2% Cu and 21 g/t Ag. First copper concentrate output is scheduled for the first half of 2021, with annual production averaging 62,000 t of copper and 1.9 Moz of silver for over 20 years.

Cupric noted that early construction activities on the underground project had been taking place since the start of the year.

“There are now more than 700 people on site carrying out construction work including boxcuts for underground access, roads, a water pipeline and terraces for surface infrastructure,” the company said.

To date, some 7.8% of the project capital cost, or $31 million, has been spent on these activities, with around 57% of the costs committed, the company said on July 18.