Mine excursion
geology, ground conditions, and narrow
veins. The mechanised operation
at Bathopele, however, has proven
that it is safer, and materially more
productive, than conventional, labour-
intensive mining.
According to Jaco Grobler,
vice-president mining at Bathopele,
there has been no serious injuries at
the mine this year. “Our focus has been
on slip and fall, which has, in the past,
caused the most accidents in the mine,”
says Grobler. “Our first line of defense
was to get the shift supervisors or shift
bosses on the working face to make
sure people comply with our safety
standards. We also provided all workers
with a whistle, which is compulsory to
carry, and in any unsafe situation, the
workers can blow the whistle,” Grobler
adds. In a mechanised operation like
Bathopele, with a substantially smaller
group of underground workers than
in a traditional mining environment,
the agents of accidents are slightly
different. Factors like trackless mobile
machinery, fall of ground, and conveyor
belts need to be monitored more
closely to prevent serious injuries and
fatalities.
Apart from the safety benefits,
Dawie van Aswegen, head of mining:
SA PGM operations at Sibanye-
Stillwater, says that mechanised
operations are much more productive,
but it can have its own challenges. To
convert a conventional mine into a
mechanised operation is not easy, but it
is something that Bathopele didn’t have
to deal with. Sibanye-Stillwater does,
however, operate other conventional
shafts in the area that could be
converted, but it is probably not viable.
“To operate a trackless fleet where
there is a conventional infrastructure
remains difficult,” says Van Aswegen.
All Sibanye-Stillwater’s trackless
mines in the area are board-and-pillar
operations, not more than 600m deep.
Converting conventional mines will
entail implementing a similar method,
which will require leaving massive
pillars as support, while the extraction
ratios will decrease.
Sibanye-Stillwater operates three
conventional shafts in the Rustenburg
area — Siphumelele, Khuseleka,
and Thembelani — and six trackless
shafts, namely Kwezi, K6, Bathopele,
Kopaneng, Simunye, and Bambanani.
Van Aswegen says the trackless shafts
together produce close to 900 000
tonnes of PGMs per month (tpm),
while about 300 000tpm are brought
to surface from the three conventional
shafts. All the mechanised shafts
are mining the UG2 reef, while the
conventional mines target both the
UG2 and the Merensky reefs.
Accessing the ore body
Sibanye-Stillwater’s Rustenburg
operations are on the southern side
of the western limb of the Bushveld
Igneous Complex. The average reef
width is extremely narrow in these
areas and varies between 70cm and
90cm on UG reef mines, while
Merensky Reef varies between 20cm
and 50cm (the company mines both
UG2 and Merensky reefs). The reefs
dip from south to north at a constant
nine degrees. To the east of Sibanye-
Stillwater’s operations lies Lonmin’s
SEPTEMBER 2018 MINING MIRROR
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