Lessons from the past
Remember Burnstone?
There has been a lot of talk about mechanisation, but mechanisation has
failed in certain instances, writes Leon Louw.
M
impressive. Most activities were mechanised,
with massive development work adjacent to
the reef to allow access for equipment needed
to haul out the ore and material.
The mining method adopted at Burnstone
was long-hole stoping. Material was to be
mechanically transported to the surface
stockpile near the portal, where it was
collected for transport to the plant or waste
dump.
Long-hole stoping is a highly selective
and productive method of mining and can
cater for varying ore thicknesses and dips
(0 to 90 degrees). After the blasting phase
in the stope, the blasted rock would fall
into supported drawpoints where it would
be removed with load, haul, and dump
machines, which means workers didn’t access
the stope during this time. Burnstone looked
impressive indeed.
y first mine excursion to the
Burnstone gold mine was in early
2011. Burnstone is about 80km
south-east of Johannesburg, near the town of
Balfour in Mpumalanga. At the time, it was
owned by Canadian outfit Great Basin Gold
(GBG). In January 2011, a large group of
journalists and investors was welcomed with
great fanfare at the opening of this state-
of-the-art mining development. And it was
Underground equipment at the Burnstone
gold mine in 2012.
[34] MINING MIRROR APRIL 2019
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