Celebrating iron ore, celebrating Khumani

The expansion of Assmang’s Khumani iron ore mine in theNorthern Cape adds another chapter to DRA Mineral Projects’ association with the mine.

This relationship goes back to the project’s first phase in 2005. An Inside Mining exclusive.

A long time player in such areas as coal, gold, platinum and diamonds, the project presented DRA with its first major iron ore execution project.

A brief history of Khumani and Phase 1

The opencast Khumani iron ore mine was formerly known as the Bruce, King and Mokaning (BKM) project, referring to the farms on which the iron ore resources are located. It is located near Kathu in the Kalahari Desert and was established to expand Assmang‘s existing iron ore business from its single operating Beeshoek iron ore mine.

Iron ore is transported for export via Transnet’s iron ore rail channel to Saldanha Bay, 860 km away.

Phase 1 of the Khumani mine project pipeline saw the construction of a new opencast iron ore mine on the Bruce farm (adjacent to Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen mine) and a 10 Mtpa greenfield beneficiation plant on the Parson farm.

The Phase 1 detailed design and engineering of the processing plant began in September 2006 and was completed successfully by the end of 2008. Even though the project was DRA’s first iron-ore venture, it was delivered on time and within budget – notwithstanding the tight deadlines with tough and competitive market conditions in the construction industry at the time.

The original design of Phase 1 included scope for expansion to 16 Mtpa and, after the results of the Phase 2 feasibility studies proved positive, the green light was given for the Khumani Expansion Project (KEP) to go ahead.

KEP kicks off

A large project with a value of R6 billion, KEP involved a number of components:

• run-of-mine (ROM) crushing and processing facilities for the new King opencast mine, including workshops and associated mine infrastructure
• material handling, including an overland conveyor belt
• additional ROM stockpiles, stacker and reclaimer machines
• additional washing, screening and jigging capacity
• new primary and secondary thickeners and extension to the dewatering circuit
• extensions to the existing paste deposition facility
• extensions to the product yard, including new stockpiles, stackers and reclaimer
• a second railway balloon and a second rapid load out station
• a new railway siding to access the local rail line and doubling of the export arrivals and departure rail line
• a new robotics laboratory.

Early works on KEP commenced in October 2008 with full-scale construction of the King mine, ROM processing and infrastructure starting in January of 2009. This portion of the project was handed over four months ahead of schedule in November 2010.

Construction of the additional rail infrastructure and load-out station were completed by August 2011, followed by the brownfield Parson plant expansion commissioning in October of the same year, then the extension to the product yard in June 2012.

From mine to rail

Crushing

Khumani’s ore is transported from the open pits by truck to the mine’s crusher plant, consisting of a gyratory primary crushing unit, scalping station and a cone crushing unit for secondary crushing. The ROM plant also includes an 18 000 t buffer stockpile prior to the 3-km long, 3 500 tph overland conveyor feeding the ROM stockpiles at the Parson process plant.

Processing

The ore is stacked onto and reclaimed from the ROM stockpiles to feed the now 16 Mtpa Parson processing plant’s on and off grade streams. The KEP project scope for the off grade circuit consists of:

• an on/off grade ROM stockpile
• tertiary crusher
• three washing and screening systems
• two lumpy jigs and screening system
• one additional fines jig
• an additional HPGR screening system

The scope of the on grade product circuit consists of a number of conveyor upgrades so that the increased throughput of material is screened, washed and re-crushed in the tertiary crusher.

The processing plant’s water circuit required the construction of an extension to the existing dewatering plant and the addition of a 90 m primary thickener, an 18 m secondary thickener, 4 km of overland tailings pipe and a 5 m lift to the existing paste disposal dam wall. In addition, two 20 Mℓ potable water tanks were built.

Once contaminants are removed via the jigs and the product processed, it is transferred to the product stockyard. Separate stockpiles for lumpy, direct reduced iron and fines product were built to store and handle the product, ready to be loaded and railed.

Commissioning of the processing plant was undertaken by DRA with the assistance of Minopex, the group’s mineral plant contract operations and maintenance division.

Rail infrastructure

Khumani’s expansion required a second rail load-out station and the doubling of the existing rail balloon in order to accommodate the additional throughput. The rail infrastructure for the export product required a doubling of the arrivals line while the local product necessitated the construction of a local siding. Each of the two rail load-out stations is capable of loading up to 100 t of material per minute.

Beating schedules & safety records

Two particular milestones stand out on the KEP project for DRA – the fact that the project was completed ahead of schedule and, more importantly, an impeccable safety record during the entire construction process.

Safety has always played a critical role in DRA’s corporate culture both on and off site. By September 2012, when the last section of the project was completed, the project achieved a fatality-free record of more than 12 million man hours worked. The labour on-site peaked at 2 700 during the middle of 2011.

Contributing to the project coming in ahead of schedule was the fact that only three 14-day shutdowns were required with most of the pre-shutdown work taking place on scheduled maintenance days.

As a brownfield project, construction had to accommodate the mine’s existing operations. An excellent communications channel between the project team and mine operations ensured that the process remained smooth and trouble free. In addition, the project team maintained close supervision of site contractors to ensure quality of construction work, as well as ensuring that suppliers and contractors were kept on track with the programme milestones.

A few of the project’s milestones include the handing over of both the King mine and Parson plant four months ahead of schedule, while the ROM stockpile was handed over six months ahead of schedule. In addition, the product yard extension and second rail load-out station was on time as per the baseline programme.

Sidebar: KEP vital statistics

Key statistics for KEP include:

 

• 7.5 million cubic metres of earthworks moved
• 78 000 m³ of concrete cast
• 7 500 t of steelwork erected
• 39 conveyors installed and an additional 38 modified
• 28 km of conveyor belting installed
• 31 km of rail tracks installed
• 52 km of piping installed
• 430 km of electrical and 150 km of instrumentation cabling installed

As a result of the success that DRA has achieved with the KEP project, the company was awarded a further EPCMcontract for a super fines recovery plant at Khumani. This plant makes use of wet, high intensity magnetic separation to process tailings for the extraction of saleable product.

Construction on the plant commenced in September 2011 and the engineering and procurement phases of the project are already complete. By the end of the first quarter this year material had been introduced to the plant and the first product produced. When going to print, it was expected that the plant would be handed over to theKhumani mine by the end of May 2013, two months ahead of schedule and under budget.

Hammond Visits Teesport

Under Secretary of State for Transport, Stephen Hammond, has visited Teesport the North East based port, owned and operated by PD Ports. As well as visiting the operations on the ground, Mr Hammond took a harbour launch trip to see the port from the River Tees.

PD Ports has invested almost £17m in infrastructure improvements at Teesport in the last 18 months, which has included a new terminal operating software system to improve productivity and provide greater visibility for customers.

The container terminal facilities have also been upgraded and include the arrival of new rubber-tyred gantry cranes with GPS-assisted technology.

David Robinson, CEO of the PD Ports Group, said: “We were delighted to welcome the Under Secretary of State for Transport to Teesport. During his visit he could see for himself the vital role Teesport plays as a key economic driver in the region, as well as the benefits our customers are realising through our portcentric logistics activity.

“Teesport is well placed to make a material difference to the way companies organise their supply chain markets and we are looking to build on our existing platform to position the North East, and in particular the Tees Valley, as a leading centre for UK logistics.”

Teesport, the UK leader in portcentric logistics, is home to large import centres for ASDA, Tesco and others, as retailers take advantage of the commercial and environmental benefits accrued from locating at the port itself. Portcentric logistics reduces road miles, handling costs and helps reduce CO2 emissions.

By attracting new businesses to locate at or near Teesport or its other major port, Hartlepool, PD Ports plays a crucial role in helping both the local and regional economies grow.

Mr Hammond said: “The ports and the maritime sector are vital to the UK economy, and Teesport plays into this both nationally and regionally.”

“On Monday I saw for myself the impact the port is making. This includes its distribution centres for two of our largest supermarkets and its container handling facilities, including those carrying liquids and chemicals.

“I wish the team here every success with their plans and in building further on the port’s recent very strong performance.”

Congresswoman Herrera Beutler Helps Secure Small Port Dredging

Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler announced that the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations approved legislation that would designate $30 million specifically for the purpose of small port dredging.

As a member of the U.S. House Appropriations committee, Jaime has strongly advocated to make small port dredging a federal priority. Recently, Jaime took to the U.S. House floor to highlight the difficulties many small ports are facing in her area due to a lack of maintenance dredging, particularly the Port of Chinook and Port of Ilwaco in her district.

The funding will come from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, which is directly supported by commercial port usage fees. If enacted into law, the Energy and Water bill would give small ports a better opportunity to receive federal funds for the dredging of their channels.

“I’ve worked hard to ensure that our ports and channels remain passable for our region’s job creators because the survival of our coastal communities depends on it,” said Jaime. “I was happy to help bring about this positive development for those individuals and families whose livelihoods depend on our small ports. We’re not done, though, and I will do everything possible to ensure this support for small port maintenance becomes law.”

Hanford Cleanup

During the bill’s committee markup today, Jaime also introduced an amendment to increase funding for the Hanford Nuclear Site clean-up to the levels specified in the President’s proposed budget. She chose to withdraw the amendment upon receiving assurances from the chairman of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations subcommittee, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, that the committee would work with her to strengthen Hanford cleanup assistance.

“Hanford is not simply a local issue – it is an obligation of the federal government to clean up the nuclear waste that poses a danger to our entire region,” said Jaime. “I took action today to ensure we live up to this obligation at Hanford, for the sake of the people, ecosystems and wildlife that are at risk. It’s vital we move forward with efficient cleanup as quickly as possible.”

 

 

Teck buys hefty Midas Gold stake

On the back of a $15 million deal with Franco-Nevada, Midas Gold raised C$10 million through a private placement withTeck.

With the funds Midas said it had enough money to keep it going until 2014 as it works on a prefeasibility study of its Golden Meadows gold-antimony-silver project in Idaho and related permitting.

Of note, Midas showed some muscle in doing the financing during an otherwise near impossible financing market. The placement with Teck was for 12.7 million shares at C$0.77 a share – a modest, but these days rare, 5-percent premium to its average shareprice over the past five trading days. Meantime the deal came without warrants.

In recent months buyers have been driving harder bargains in the financing market with notably tougher terms usually involving more warrants than has been typical in recent years.

Teck gets a 9.9 percent stake of Midas through the placement along with rights to keep its proportion of shares constant through further financings.

Back in May Midas sold a 1.7 percent net smelter return royalty on potential gold production from Golden Meadows, where it holds 4.6 million ounces gold in measured and indicated resources @ 1.65 g/t Au, to Franco-Nevada for $15 million.

Franco-Nevada has its eyes on what looks lucrative on paper so far. Last year Midas projected, in a scoping study, that Golden Meadows might produce 348,000 ounces gold a year, for 14 years, with cash costs around $425 an ounce, taking into account credits for byproducts such as antimony.

 

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UK: IHC Engineering Business Develops Hi-Traq Vehicle

The design of a demonstration vehicle that meets the challenges of cable laying for the development of offshore wind farms is being developed by IHC Engineering Business.

The Hi-Traq vehicle is backed by a history of innovation. It is the result of investment in focused research and development by the company which is based in North East England and part of the global IHC Merwede group.

Ralph Manchester, Chief Trenching Engineer at IHC Engineering Business explains the revolutionary design, “The High Traction (Hi-Traq) vehicle uses patented technology to improve manoeuvrability, traction and overall trenching capability.”

He adds, “It has been specifically developed to reduce the day to day issues facing operators. They have no option at the moment but to use technology designed and build for the oil and gas sector – technology that is not appropriate for the offshore wind farm sector.”

A demonstration vehicle applying and introducing the next generation technology will be launched soon by IHC Engineering Business. This is part of the company’s ongoing multi-generation product development strategy.

The Hi-Traq project forms part of the RETA project, which is part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 to 2013. The Department for Communities and Local Government is the managing authority for the European Regional Development Fund Programme, which is one of the funds established by the European Commission to help local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support local businesses and create jobs.

Improved diaphragms easier to install

Wilden has recently improved the design of its Wil-Flex Diaphragms to allow for easy installation.

The Wil-Flex diaphragms are now available in a flat profile design, so there is no need to invert the diaphragm when rebuilding a pump.

The diaphragms are made of Santoprene, a thermoplastic elastomer that links EPDM (ethylene propylene diene Monomer) rubber and polypropylene. They are suitable for for use in paint and coatings applications due to long flex life, ability to easy handle abrasion and wide swing in pH levels. Because of their thermoplastic qualities, Wil-Flex diaphragms have inherent tensile strength and do not need fabric reinforcement.

The diaphragms are currently available for use on the Advanced Series Metal 25 mm (1 in) bolted stainless steel and aluminium, 38mm (1-1/2 in) bolted stainless steel, and 76mm (3 in) bolted stainless steel and aluminium models. Wilden’s Advanced bolted pumps also feature the Pro-Flo X air distribution system.