WINNING
Stockpiles had run low at the time of visiting as demand peaked.
quality products, but it became more and
more difficult to get -19mm products for
our trading business. It is not viable to get
supplies from outside Polokwane and within
Polokwane it was becoming problematic.”
When talking of customer service, Van
Waveren explains what he means: “We never
over-promise. We have never sold more
than we could produce (notwithstanding
the current situation, which is temporary); if
anything, we under-charge on price.”
Alpha Sand took the plunge (though Van
Waveren says it was not a sudden decision
but a long time in the planning) and applied
for mining permits as the quickest way to
get into production. Roodepoort Crushers
was established as a subsidiary of Alpha
Sand to meet the requirement for 26% black
ownership. It imported a complete crushing
plant from China, which he describes as “far
more affordable than anything available in
South Africa”. Delivered to site, it cost R8-
million. About a year later, the quarry was
ready to commence mining, having invested
approximately R20-million. The response
of one of the neighbouring quarries was
18_QUARRY SA | MAY/JUNE 2019
to invest close to R200-million. “The
market was not ready for that amount of
investment, and it shows: it closed about
18 months ago.” Roodepoort Crushers
supplies into its holding company Alpha
Sand, which has a large footprint, and
only recently started selling directly out
of its Polokwane quarry.
Location aids the process
The norm in quarrying has been to be
located on a koppie, but Van Waveren says
Alpha Sand sought advice in advance and
rather located its new quarry on level land.
“If you can find a flat location or slope where
the granite is showing, it’s easier. To mine
on a koppie, you have to start on top and
have access roads and there’s often a problem
with working it down. If you start on a flat
surface, it’s much easier to make a pit and to
plan mining operations, and there’s less of an
issue of irregular faces. The quarry produces
everything from -19mm and down all the
way to crusher sand.
“Our biggest seller is our sand products.
Our model has always been to deliver
premium products timeously. We were
also one of the first to wash our sand, and
it’s all shaped, which was different to our
competitors. This is because from the outset
we had a vertical shaft impact (VSI) crusher,
so we have two grades of sand: our normal
scalping sand and higher-grade crusher sand
generated by the VSI.”
Roodepoort Crushers has 12 employees,
but numbers 54 when drilling and blasting
as well as load and haul contractor staff are
added in.
Phillip Botha, mine manager: Roodepoort
Crushers, describes the process through
the circuit: “Typically we focus on drilling
and blasting a block of about 10 000m3 a
time, which lasts us about a month. We keep
it quite small and manageable. However,
currently we are on new ground and so are
able to blast a larger volume of 17 000m3,
which gives us about 27 000t of product,
excluding overburden.”
From the pit, the material is loaded and
hauled less than a kilometre to the plant,
where it goes into a bin that feeds the jaw
crusher. This reduces it to 70mm and from
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