Waste splitting - Differentiating energy for profitability - Riaan

Waste Splitting - Differentiating ENERGY for profitability30 September 2014

WealthUnearthed

Roadmap

Geographical Location

Bambanani

Kopaneng

Simunye

K6

Kwezi

7mt/annum

475k oz

Background

PGM Prices

Production costs

Objective

• To optimise the blast design through effective ENERGY

distribution which will result in reef and waste separation during

blasting operations.

• To derive specific blast designs for specific reef conditions across

the 5 operating shafts and their sections.

• To maintain the ounce production of 475k oz for BP 15.

0g/t

Main Top 12.39g/t

Main Seam 4.56g/t

Main Bot 7.62g/t

Footwall 0 g//t

Leader 2.42g/t

Internal Waste

Methodology and Process

• Reef/Waste splitting was successfully trialled - March to May 2014.

• Safely blasted and loaded waste and reef separately during the trial

and waste packed in swept back areas.

• Logging of panels blasted (both reef & waste) completed – drilling

pattern, cast blasting, start & end time of loading, number of

buckets loaded etc. were recorded.

• A sampling & assay programme was conducted from the inception

of the trial to measure efficacy and results.

• On 30 April the K1 plant milled 8000 tons of only Kopaneng ore.

Blast Design

NOT TO SCALE

Drill Rig 10m x 2.1 & 2.5 (61 holes)

15 cm

50 cm

40 cm

1,3m

80 cm

75 cm

NOT TO SCALE

Drill Rig 10m x 2.1 & 2.5 (56 holes)

ENERGY Distribution

PF by 25% to 1.54kg/m³

PF by 100% to 1.10kg/m³

PF by 57% to 0.77kg/m³

Less is More !!!!

Proposed Typical Cycle

Rig 1

Rig 1

M/S

Drill panel & blast waste


Cycle – 1st Shift - Drill Face & Blast Waste

Cast Blasting


Clean waste & blast reef


A/S

Rig 1

Rig 1

M/S



Cycle – 2nd shift – Clean Waste & Blast Reef

“Drop & Pop”




A/S

Clean reef & Support panel


N/S

Rig 1

Rig 1

M/S



Cycle – 3rd shift - Clean Reef & Support Face




A/S



N/S

Rig 1

Rig 1

M/S



Rig 2

Rig 2

Rig 3

Rig 3


waste












24 Hours

waste



Clean waste

blast reef









waste


N/SA/SM/S

24 Hours

A Marked Blastface

Hangingwall Parting

Bottom Reef/Waste Parting Exposed

Benefits

Improved excavation integrity due to less ENERGY tr ansmitted into H/W

Reef Fragmentation

Waste to be discarded in swept areas

Waste Packing Discipline

Base grade Proposed Head

Grade

Kopaneng

project gradesamples

Silo grade

samples

Strike belt

samples

Plant Recovery Tail grade

2.23

2.9

3.413.57

3.88

>80% 0.77

0.47

Grade Improvement

Reduced drilling costs and time per panelAllows for 2 additional panels to be drilled

Reduced explosives costs – R1.5m

Reduced hoisting costsLess pressure on maintenance

Reduced tramming costs

Reduced Plant costs – R45mImproved Grade

Reduced Tail grade Improved maintenance Scheduling

Benefits

• Original BP15 ore flow per shaft was used as base.• U/G waste packing was recalculated according to blast design

and ore flow was recalculated using BP15 parameters.

BP 20157,137,795 Tonnes Blasted

475,244 ounces

BP 2015 revised6,353,438 Tonnes Blasted

485,696 ounces

10% Less Waste Tonnes sent to the plant………..

10 450 More Ounces……….

R150m

Acknowledgement

Wessel PumoGM Kroondal Operations

Jan StrydomManager Projects Kopaneng

Brent ParkerManager Projects

Dave StarleyGM Projects

Team

Thank You

Wealth flows from ENERGY and ideas.William Feather

Waste splitting - Differentiating energy for profitability - Riaan

Engineering

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