The Fairbreeze paleo dune complex is an elongated body extending south-southwestward from the town of Mtunzini for about 12 kilometers, reaching a maximum width of about two kilometers and a maximum elevation of 109 meters. Surface drainages have dissected the deposit into five discrete ore bodies, Fairbreeze A, B, C, C-Extension and D. The deposit is hosted by fine-grained sand and silt in a north-northeast trending complex of strandline/paleo dune couplets two kilometers inland from the modem coastline.

Fairbreeze is part of a regional near-shore, coast-parallel corridor of terraces and dunes composed of reddish-colored sands, the “Berea Red Sands,” along the southeastern coast of Africa from Durban to Mombasa. As with most heavy mineral sand deposits, iron-titanium oxides, rutile, zircon and other heavy minerals in the HM assemblage at Fairbreeze are inherited from their source rock provenance and modified by selective sorting during deposition. The Natal Metamorphic Province and younger rift-related basalts are interpreted as the primary source for the Fairbreeze heavy minerals. Terrestrial weathering of terrace deposits to oxidize iron minerals, followed by a period of extensive reworking of coastal sediment by static sea levels completed the formation of the Fairbreeze deposit.

The Fairbreeze deposits span 526 ha, with a total length of more than 15 km, striking 34 0, and reaching 630 m in width. Generally, the different ore bodies have depths clos ........

The Fairbreeze deposit is hosted by deeply weathered “Berea-type” sands which are mined using a combination of track dozers and a hydraulic mining technique.

Primary mining method: Hydraulic mining
Hydraulic Mining - At our Fairbreeze mine in KZN, we employ a hydraulic mining method for mineral sands due to the topography of the ore body and the ore characteristics. A jet of high-pressure water is aimed at the mining face, thereby cutting into and loosening the sand so that it collapses on the floor. The water acts as a carrier medium for the sand, due to the high fines (mineral particles that are too fine to be economically extracted and other materials that remain after the valuable fraction of an ore has been separated from the uneconomic fraction) content contained in the ore body. The slurry generated by the hydraulic monitors flows to a collection sump where oversize material is removed and the slurry is then pumped to the primary concentration plant.

Secondary mining method
Use of earth moving equipment (excavators, bulldozers, dump trucks) for certain activities:
• Bush clearing and topsoil stripping;
• Stripping barren areas in orebody;
• Rehabilitation - once area mined and filled with sand tailings: shaping, covering with layer of reconstituted soil and topsoil and vegetation.

The mining operation is currently active in Fairbreeze CX. Fairbreeze C has been depleted.

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