Tag Archives: Venetia Underground Project

Japie du Plessis to lead Murray & Roberts Cementation

Mining people, Mining services, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Underground mining contractor, Murray & Roberts Cementation, has named Japie du Plessis as Managing Director Designate, taking up the MD position on March 1, 2023.

Du Plessis will succeed the current MD, Mike Wells, who retires at the end of February next year.

Wells’ retirement will mark the end of a career in mining spanning 39 years. After studying Mining Engineering at Wits and graduating in 1981, he spent the first 10 years of his career working for the gold division of Anglo American at the Elandsrand (now Kusasalethu), TauTona and President Brand gold mines.

He joined Cementation Africa in 1994, a company which was subsequently acquired by Murray & Roberts in 2005 and merged with its existing mining contracting arm, RUC, to form Murray & Roberts Cementation.

His move to Cementation brought him into project work and in particular the sinking of the 3-km deep, 9-m diameter twin shafts of the South Deep gold mine, representing, at the time, the biggest shaft sinking contract ever agreed anywhere in the world. The project extended over nine years from start to finish, with Wells acting as Project Manager for part of this period, which he regards as one of the highlights of his career.

While engaged on the project, Wells was involved in devising and constructing a concrete plug to seal off a major water intersection encountered during shaft sinking. A technical paper he wrote in on the methodology adopted earned him the Association of Mine Managers Gold Medal for the best paper of the year in 1997.

After successively serving as Senior Projects Manager, Project Executive and Technical Director, Wells was appointed MD of Murray & Roberts Cementation in 2017. Over his tenure, the company has gone from strength to strength, confirming its status as one of the world’s leading mining contracting organisations, it said. A particular achievement that he takes great pride in is the company’s safety record – it has now gone eight years without a single fatality and recently celebrated six million fatality-free shifts.

In du Plessis, Murray & Roberts Cementation has found a successor to Wells with a similar depth of technical and management expertise, it says.

A Mechanical Engineer, he has spent most of his career in mining. His first assignment after graduating was at Anglo American Platinum’s Amandebult mine, where he worked his way up to the position of section engineer. He then left for a two-year stint with a sugar company in Mpumalanga before joining Murray & Roberts Cementation in 2008. He has been with the company ever since.

Contracts he has been involved with over the years he has been with Murray & Roberts Cementation include Paardekraal 2 shaft and Impala 20 shaft, both in the platinum sector, the Wessels manganese mine, the Booysendal platinum mine and the Cullinan diamond mine. Positions he has occupied include Site Engineer, Contracts Engineer, Senior Project Manager, Engineering Manager and Project Executive.

Over the past seven years, he has had special responsibility for the Venetia Underground Project (VUP) of De Beers, one of Murray & Roberts Cementation’s flagship contracts.

Du Plessis was selected by a panel within Murray & Roberts Cementation that considered both external and internal candidates.

“He was by far the best qualified for the position,” Wells said. “His experience is second to none and he has mining contracting in his DNA. The fact that he is an internal candidate is a further advantage as he has a thorough understanding of how the company works and the culture that drives it.”

Looking ahead, Du Plessis says one of his prime objectives will be to extend the company’s African footprint as the majority of its work is currently in South Africa (although it does have raiseboring contracts in progress in Zambia, Tanzania and Burkina Faso). He will also work to ensure that it stays at the forefront of the move by the mining industry towards ‘green’ mining, digitalisation and automation.

Murray & Roberts Cementation is the African arm of Murray & Roberts’ global mining platform, which also includes operations in the Americas and Australia. The platform is headed by Mike da Costa, who is based in Perth in Australia.

Concor to construct new pollution control dam at Venetia Underground Project

Diamond mining, Environmental, Mineral project development, Mining services, Water management, , , , , , ,

Leading South Africa-based, black-owned contractor Concor is engaging on a 17-month project to construct a new pollution control dam at De Beers’ Venetia diamond mine, South Africa’s largest diamond producer.

The well-advanced Venetia Underground Project (VUP) will extend the mine’s life span to at least 2045, and the new dam – Pollution Control Dam 3 (PCD3) – is the main containment facility in its Storm Water Management Project (SWMP). The SWMP is a key part of the mine expansion, ensuring compliance with the Government Notice R704 on the protection of water resources, preventing the possibility of flooding and ensuring the safety of people working in the new underground mine.

Concor Operations Executive, Christo Schoeman, explains that PCD3 will cover some 27 ha to the west of the mine and will be constructed to a maximum height of 13 m. This will equip the facility to hold over 1 million cu.m of water. The water will emanate from upstream catchments including runoff from the adjacent coarse residue deposit and fine residue deposit, as well as potential overflow from the other upstream water containment facility. It will also contain water that has been pumped out the of mine’s open-cast pits and the VUP underground workings.

“Zero harm to our employees and the environment whilst executing our projects remains our principle objective,” Schoeman says. “In order to prioritise these endeavours and ensure that construction work does not impinge on the mining operation itself, among the first tasks required will be to secure the works by installing a new security fence, and upgrading the existing access road to our temporary site facilities which will ensure optimised access to our site and help streamline our workflow.”

As part of the bulk earthworks operations, the topsoil over the dam area will be stockpiled during the excavation operations, to be used later for slope protection and to ensure the regrowth of flora once construction is completed.

“In line with environmental requirements and legislation, the excavated structure will be lined with am HDPE geomembrane to prevent any seepage into the groundwater system,” he says. “A specialised service provider will supply and install the lining.”

Concor’s scope of work includes the construction of a pump station and dam spillways, as well as the installation of a 2.5 km return water pipeline to the mine’s processing plant. This will allow significant volumes of water to be efficiently recycled and re-used in processing, it says.

Schoeman highlights that the project contains a strong local procurement, employment and skills development component. He notes that Concor has always been committed to local enterprise and skills development initiatives in the areas where it undertakes projects.

“We are working closely with our client to source general workers and suppliers locally, who we will, where necessary, upskill with training, supervision and mentoring,” he says. “Certain aspects of the project can be subcontracted to these local enterprises, following the systematic process of identification and engagement.”

Concor supervises the work of subcontractors closely as part of its enterprise development commitments, he notes. Combined with dedicated mentoring, this ensures not only a quality outcome in each deliverable, but also higher levels of sustainability amongst subcontractors once the project is complete.

Murray & Roberts Mining Platform order book returns to pre-pandemic levels

Automation, Base metals, Coal technology, IoT, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining software, Precious metals, , , , , , , ,

The Mining Platform of Murray & Roberts, a leading mining contracting business, is fast putting the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic behind it and its order book has now recovered to pre-pandemic levels, according to Mike da Costa.

“Our order book was eroded in the immediate aftermath of the global economic shutdown caused by the pandemic, but has now recovered nicely,” da Costa, who is CEO of the Mining Platform, said. “It now totals R22.2 billion ($1.44 billion) which is sharply up on the R17.9 billion of a year ago. Future prospects also look good as there is a significant pipeline of new projects that we’re bidding on.”

The Murray & Roberts Mining Platform consists of three regional businesses. These are Murray & Roberts Cementation, headquartered in Johannesburg but with branches in Kitwe in Zambia and Accra in Ghana; Cementation Americas (which incorporates Cementation USA), based in Salt Lake City, which handles the Americas; and RUC Cementation, which operates out of Perth in Australia and works throughout Australasia and Southeast Asia.

“We’re active in virtually every major mining jurisdiction,” da Costa says. “Notable mines and projects where we are currently working include the Venetia Underground Project in South Africa, the Jansen potash project in Canada, the Kennecott Utah Copper Keystone project in the US, the Oyu Tolgoi copper/gold mine in Mongolia, the Grasberg copper/gold mine in Indonesia and the Tanami gold mine in Australia.”

Mike da Costa, CEO of the Murray & Roberts Mining Platform

The Mining Platform, which in Murray & Roberts’ 2021 financial year generated revenues totalling approximately R9.5 billion, offers services spanning every aspect of underground mining, including feasibility studies, specialist engineering, vertical and decline shaft construction, mine development, specialist mining services such as raise boring and grouting, and contract mining.

Murray & Roberts Cementation, the African arm of the global Mining Platform, has been noted for its technical capabilities and, in particular, its shaft-sinking expertise, over the decades. It has played a vital role in the development of South Africa’s deep level gold mining industry and is currently turning over approximately R3.5 billion a year, with aims to lift this to R4.5 billion, the company says.

Commenting on the current performance of Murray & Roberts Cementation, its Managing Director, Mike Wells, says the bulk of its work is in South Africa.

“Historically, we’ve worked all over Africa but at the moment our African presence – outside of South Africa – is largely confined to some raiseboring contracts we have in Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and Tanzania, as well as a contract at the Navachab gold mine in Namibia where the client is developing a trial underground mine. In South Africa, however, we are extremely busy. We’ve definitely put the impact of the pandemic behind us.”

Wells says a particular highlight for Murray & Roberts Cementation at the moment is the coal sector.

“We’re working at New Clydesdale colliery through our Boipelo joint venture,” he notes. “We’re also at Matla 1, where we are doing stonework to re-establish the mine in a new location. Another opportunity in the coal sector is to do stonework by the method of road heading and we’re actively pursuing work of this type.”

Murray & Roberts Cementation’s flagship contract is the Venetia Underground Project, where the company’s work on the sinking and equipping of the two vertical shafts the project requires is now well advanced, with the shaft sinking phase nearing completion. Although Murray & Roberts Cementation’s current scope of work runs through to about 2024, Wells believes there is a reasonable prospect of the company remaining active at the mine for years to come, given the scale of the VUP.

In the PGM field, Murray & Roberts Cementation has worked for several years on various aspects of the giant Platreef project, near Mokopane (pictured above), and is just starting its latest contract at the site, which will see it carrying out development for the initial Phase 1 mine. An interesting feature here is that the contract will see Murray & Roberts Cementation using a battery-powered mining fleet – owned by the client, Ivanplats – for the first time.

Murray & Roberts Cementation is working at the New Clydesdale colliery through its Boipelo joint venture

Moving to safety, Wells labelled Murray & Roberts Cementation’s safety record as ‘outstanding’.

“We notched up five million fatality-free shifts just over a year ago, which was a major milestone, and we should hit the 6 million mark shortly,” he said. “We’ve now been fatality free for around six-and-half years, which is a truly exceptional run. We attribute our success to our Major Accident Prevention program, as well as the excellent training we provide at our world-class Training Academy at our Bentley Park premises, near Carletonville.”

The task of bringing new business into Murray & Roberts Cementation is the responsibility of Allan Widlake, New Business Director, who says there is plenty of scope for the company to grow both in South Africa and the rest of Africa.

“Clients across the board are starting to put out new tenders and projects that were previously on hold,” he states. “This is particularly the case in South Africa, but we’re encouraged by developments in other parts of Africa. In Zambia, for example, there are definitely some opportunities emerging on the Copperbelt.”

Widlake says Murray & Roberts Cementation is differentiated from most other players in the market by the breadth of its offering, its procurement ability, its balance sheet, its HR skills, its safety record and the training facilities at Bentley Park.

“Our Training Academy is a huge asset and is particularly important now that localisation of employment opportunities is a requirement on virtually all contracts,” he said. “We can take people with no mining experience and bring them up to an impressive level of competence very quickly by putting them through Bentley Park.”

Moving back to the global perspective, da Costa says the relatively recent acquisition by Murray & Roberts of Terra Nova Technologies in the US and Insig Technologies in Australia will significantly expand the Mining Platform’s capabilities.
San Diego-based Terra Nova has given the platform a strong foothold in the materials handling market. The company designs, supplies and commissions overland conveyors, crushing/conveying systems, mobile stacking systems and in-pit crushing and conveying systems.

“Terra Nova is a perfect fit for Murray & Roberts’ Mining Platform and gives us the capability of delivering, for example, conveying systems of up to 12 000 t/h capacity,” da Costa said. “Its biggest market is North America but it is also active in South America and has an office in Santiago in Chile. It has, in fact, just won a major contract in Chile. Our intention is to grow the business by leveraging our global footprint.”

Commenting on the Insig acquisition, da Costa says it takes Murray & Roberts into high-tech territory, as the company specialises in developing IoT (Internet of Things) systems and remote control solutions in the mining field.

“We’ve been working on a digital strategy for the Mining Platform for some time now and the acquisition of Insig is central to our digital journey,” concludes da Costa. “We will be using Insig’s systems in house initially but will ultimately market them to the wider mining industry. We see them as being vital in our move to increase efficiencies, cut costs and increase safety through digitisation.”