PALABORA MINING COMPANY
take ,” he says . Time was of the essence , because the new mine , Lift II , needed to take up production and human capacity seamlessly as Lift I declined . Palabora is Southern Africa ’ s only producer of copper rod and many local industries like cable manufacturers depend on it for their supply . A hard stop on one followed by a hard start on the new mine would have made no economic sense .
Rio Tinto decided following a feasibility study that the proposed mine would be viable and backed the initial investment to construct the declines that would connect the Lift I and Lift II ore bodies . “ We started those ramps in early 2012 ,” Fouché explains . “ At that stage we realised we would have to optimise the design . If the upfront capital requirement was too high the grade of our reserve would not support it . We had to leverage the existing shaft infrastructure , and build a second bock cave under the existing one , connect them all up and still make a positive business case
“ This kind of initiative really energised the project : we are doing things here that are pushing the boundaries of conventional mining !”
– Nick Fouché , GM , Growth and Major Projects
62 August 2016