Name and Location
Styldrift 1 expansion project, North West, South Africa.

Client
Royal Bafokeng Platinum, or RBPlat (67%), and Anglo American Platinum (33%).

Project Description
The Styldrift project area is adjacent to the existing Boschkoppie mining area and is located about 5.5 km from the existing Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine (BRPM).

The project will exploit one of the last major Merensky mining blocks on the Western Bushveld.

Styldrift 1 will deliver an underground operation, which will be accessed through a twin vertical shaft system, with the main shaft being sunk to 758 m and the services shaft to 723 m.

The configuration of the main shaft will allow for a single-deck personnel-and-material cage compartment that can transport 185 people; a cage counterweight compartment; two Merensky reef skip compartments, each designed to accommodate a 22 t skip; and two future skip compartments, each accommodating a 13 t skip.

The services shaft will comprise a personnel-and-equipment cage compartment, with the capacity to transport 22 people, and a cage counterweight compartment.

Four winders will be used during the project construction phase and three during the production phase. The height of the main shaft headgear is 58.6 m and the service shaft 41.3 m.

Concentrator capacity will be 2.76-million tonnes a year.

Initially, wide-reef trackless mining methods will be used and then a combination of wide reef trackless mining and narrow-reef conventional mining methods.

The mine will process 230 000 t/m of Merensky reef and 20 000 t/m of waste at steady state.

Value
The miner reduced the budgeted capital expenditure (capex) for the Styldrift 1 project from R11.4-billion to R11.01-billion in November 2013, with R3.138-billion having been spent to date, of which R627-million was spent during the six months ended June 2014, in line with project progress. The full-year capex for 2014 is forecast at R1.578-billion.

RBPlat has an obligation to fund 67% of the total project.

Duration
Steady-state production is expected in the first quarter of 2019

Latest Developments
RBPlat’s ongoing Styldrift I expansion project is more than two months behind schedule.

“The project is 48.2% complete, which is 3.6% behind the current plan of 51.8%,” the company has said in its quarterly review and production report for the period July 1 to September 30.

At the end of the six months ended June 2014, the project had fallen 26 days behind schedule and was 46.6% complete, against a planned completion of 47%.

In addition to the 26-day loss during the half-year period, another 52 days were lost during the third quarter, owing to poor ground conditions in the main shaft loading-box area, the receipt of a Section 54 notice after an acetylene bottle fell down the services shaft, and hoisting constraints within the services shaft.

The services shaft provided all logistical support for underground development and construction work on the 600, 642 and 708 levels.

The company explains that this will limit the development of key infrastructure required for the commissioning of the main shaft and the start of production ramp-up.

With the impact of the delayed main shaft commissioning and the start of ramp-up being absorbed by savings and contingency, the capital cost of the project remains at R11.01-billion.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
WorleyParsons (main project engineering, procurement and construction management contractor); Anglo technical division (mine shaft design); Mining & Engineering Technical Services, or Mets (services shaft headgears); Shaft Sinkers (main and services shafts and associated works); Louwill Engineering (main and services shafts’ headgears and winder house structural manufacturing and erection); FLSmidth Minerals (main shaft personnel and material winder mechanical portion); Actom - formerly Alstom Industry (main shaft personnel and material winder electrical portion); Coilmech (service winder mechanical and electrical portions); Stefanutti Stocks Civils Wramatshe joint venture (civils Phase 2 contract – main bulk surface civils); Sarens (cranes) Sandvik Mining (underground production trackless equipment).

On Budget and on Time?
The project, which had a targeted production ramp-up start date of the third quarter of 2015 and had been set to reach steady-state production by July 2018, is currently 78 days behind schedule.

The project is now expected to reach steady-state production during the first quarter of 2019, after the main shaft is commissioned in the second quarter of 2015, with the production ramp-up starting in the first quarter of 2016.

The capital cost of the project remains at R11.01-billion.

Contact Details for Project Information
RBPlat communications manager Kea Kalebe, tel +27 14 573 1487, fax +27 86 219 5131 or email kkalebe@bafokengplatinum.co.za.
WorleyParsons, tel +27 11 218 3000.
Mets, tel +61 8 9421 9000 or fax +61 8 9325 8311.
Shaft Sinkers, tel +27 11 445 4300.
Louwill Engineering, tel +27 11 818 5186, fax +27 11 818 5185 or email mail@louwill.co.za.
FLSmidth Minerals, tel +45 36 18 10 00, fax +45 36 44 11 46 or email info@flsmidth.com.
Actom, tel +27 11 820 5111 or fax +27 11 820 5100.
Coilmech, tel +27 11 452 4063, fax +27 11 452 6104 or email info@coilmech.co.za.
Stefanutti Stocks, tel +27 11 571 4300, fax +27 11 571 4370 or email holdings@stefstocks.com.
Sarens, tel +27 11 861 3800, fax +27 11 861 3899 or email info@sarenssa.co.za.
Sandvik Mining EMEA business development manager Bjorn Gohre, tel +27 11 570 9676.