Jwaneng's Cut 8 gathers momentum

MBONGENI MGUNI
Staff Writer | Friday May 21, 2010 00:00

According to the mine's in-house publication, The Bulletin, the tonnage Basil Read has moved since February is against the contract stipulation of 20 million tonnes per annum.

Cut 8 involves the stripping away of 713 million tonnes of waste in order to expose a further 75 million tonnes of ore and 95 million carats at Jwaneng Mine. The current mining operation is expected to have depleted its ore by 2017, thus Cut 8 will add another seven years of mine life at 10 million tonnes of ore processed every year. The project will also extend the existing Jwaneng Mine pit to 650 metres.

Last Friday, the in-house publication quoted Mining Project Engineer (Cut 8), Thabo Moepi, as saying the three million tonnes of waste moved thus far was 'slightly below target'. Moepi said additional machinery would be moved to the site to accelerate the project.

'Initially the plan was to commence Cut 8 waste mining in 2012, which meant a steep ramp-up from 40 million tonnes per annum currently being moved to a massive 122 million tonnes per annum,' he said. 'In order to mitigate the steep ramp-up, waste mining had been split into two phases and phase one mining is currently under implementation.'

Capital costs for the project have been pegged at US$500 million (P3,4 billion) while all project stages from feasibility, design and equipment to mining operations will require an investment of US$3 billion (P20 billion) over the next 15 years.

After 2024, Cut 8 will deplete its ore, posing technical challenges for Debswana. With Jwaneng Mine's diamond bearing rock extending to 1 000 metres, analysts expect the diamond giant could initiate Cut 9 - another waste mining operation - to unlock value.

But options, which include underground mining, will be subject to full feasibility studies, including recovery cost and revenue analyses. Recovery costs tend to jump the deeper a mining project goes, meaning that mineral prices and potential revenues may rule out certain options.