The biggest mineral extraction firm in KwaZulu-Natal, Richards Bay Minerals will move into a new mining area, south of Richards Bay port as minerals in its Zulti North site are depleted. Photo: Supplied The biggest mineral extraction firm in KwaZulu-Natal, Richards Bay Minerals will move into a new mining area, south of Richards Bay port as minerals in its Zulti North site are depleted. Photo: Supplied
Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) was expanding its sand mining operations to Zulti South and expected to extend the life of the mine to 2037, the company said last week.
RBM, owned by global mining company Rio Tinto, said that minerals at its current Zulti North mine were at the stage of depletion.
The company’s acting managing director, Joey Kunji-Behari, said the new Zulti mine would start operating in the first quarter of 2017.
“We are building a totally new mine at Zulti South. However, we are not going to cease operations at Zulti North. The new mine will supplement the current feed to the smelter and extend our life to 2037,” he said.
RBM uses an ingenious system of ponds and floating dredges to mine the ore body, where heavy minerals such as ilmenite, zircon and rutile are recovered from the sand. Roasting, smelting and slag and iron processing is used to extract final products.
The new mine would still be close to the Richards Bay port, which is used to transport the end-product to international customers. The mine exports 98 percent of its products to global industries such as paint, glass and automotive component manufacturers. About 2 percent of its products are sold to local customers.
It produces about 2 million tons of product a year, including about 100 000 tons of rutile and 250 000 tons of zircon.
“At this stage power to Zulti South would be supplied by Eskom through the existing RBM electrification system and the mine is in a process of applying for a water use licence,” Kunji-Behari said.
He added that all the equipment to run the new mine would be newly fabricated.
“We do not have any intention of moving any existing equipment from the current mining operation to the new operation.”
The mine has had to deal with a number of local community protests over the issue of job creation. “Labour would be required for construction, as well as the operation of the plant. We are also in a process of developing businesses from the local community to be actively involved in the construction of the new mine and then supply goods and services to the mine once it is operational,” he said.
After 2037, RBM will consider other options to source feed for the processing operations and will not shut down its smelters operations.
Just like any mining company, RBM was concerned about Eskom’s instability when it came to power supply.
Kunji-Behari said although the company had not had any disruption as far as power supply was concerned, any thoughts of future expansion would have to take into consideration the availability of power. The mine was also investigating a possible co-generation programme through the use of its by-product carbon monoxide gas, which could be used as a fuel.
Like all businesses RBM has been affected by the global economic downturn and as a result has experienced a decrease in its product demand.
This has been visible on sales volumes.