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South Africa
Namakwa Mine

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 Location:
300 km N from Cape Town, South Africa

  Address:
PO Box 223
Lutzville
South Africa
8165
Phone  ...  Subscription required
WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
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  • Reserves
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  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Heavy Minerals
  • Titanium
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Processing
  • Desliming
  • Gravity separation
  • Hot Acid Leach
  • Dry Screening
  • Electrostatic separation
  • Spiral concentrator / separator
  • Magnetic separation
Mine Life25 years (as of Jan 1, 2018)


Owners & OPERATOR

Source: p. 31, 289
CompanyInterestOwnership
Exxaro Resources Ltd. 26 % Indirect
Tronox Holdings Plc. 74 % Indirect
Tronox Mineral Sands (Pty) Ltd (operator) 100 % Direct
South African operations are 74%-owned by Tronox Holdings plc through its subsidiaries, Tronox Mineral Sands (Pty) Ltd and Tronox KZN Sands (Pty) Ltd, with the remaining 26% being owned by Exxaro Resources Ltd.

Tronox Mineral Sands (Pty) (Ltd) operates a heavy minerals mining business which includes the Namakwa Sands Mine and the Mineral Separation Plant (MSP) near Koekenaap, both north of Vredendal, on the Western Cape coast.

Deposit Type

  • Sedimentary
  • Mineral sands


Summary:

The Namakwa ore reserves are contained within and non-reserves material, covers an ellipsoidal area of mineralization 15 kilometers in a northeasterly direction with a maximum width of about 4 km, with no overburden. The NE-SW dimension is interpreted to reflect prevailing winds at the time of the deposit’s formation. A narrow sub-economic corridor divides the reserves into two proximal ore bodies, Graauwduinen West and Graauwduinen East, which are more commonly called the “West” and “East” deposits. Nearly two-thirds of historic ore production has been extracted from the West mine pit, to a maximum depth of about 45 meters. In the medium term, 60-65% of extracted ore will be mined from the West pit, but the long-term LOM Plan calls for a nearly even split between West and East mines.

The very large Namakwa HM deposit is broadly the result of prolonged, repetitive weathering-erosion-deposition cycles that were initiated with the breakup of the Gondwana Supercontinent approximately 100 million years ago. The separation of the African and South American proto-continents triggered weathering and erosion of massive volumes of sediment from high-grade metamorphic crystalline “basement” rocks of the one billion-year-old Namaqua-Natal orogenic belt. The sandy sedimentary sequence that hosts our Namakwa HM deposit is interpreted as being derived mostly from the Namaqua-Natal metamorphic belt which was welded onto the western and southern margins of the 2.6+ billion-year-old Kaapvaal Craton. High grade metamorphism facilitates the partitioning of titanium into ilmenite and rutile crystals making them available for erosion, transport and deposition to form economic deposits. Heavy mineral concentrations in beach placers, marine terraces and in coastal dunes were reworked by water and wind into what is now our Namakwa heavy mineral deposit, the end-product of 100 million years of geologic evolution.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader


Summary:

The Namakwa Sands heavy mineral deposit at Brand-se-Baai was discovered in 1986 by Anglo American, who commissioned the integrated mine-MSP-smelter project in 1995. Ore is excavated from two open-pit dry mines and delivered by trucks and conveyors to two primary wet concentration plants. [2019 AR Form 10-K, p. 33]

Namakwa Sands does not use blasting in its operations. The mined material is transported by trucks to the mineral sizers where primary reduction takes place.


Crushing and Grinding


Processing

  • Desliming
  • Gravity separation
  • Hot Acid Leach
  • Dry Screening
  • Electrostatic separation
  • Spiral concentrator / separator
  • Magnetic separation

Flow Sheet: Subscription required

Summary:

Tronox Namakwa Sands undertakes the mining and beneficiation of heavy minerals. Facilities are based at three geographically separated sites situated at:
• Brand-se-Baai: East Mine, West Mine, Primary Concentration Plants (PCP) East and West and the Secondary Concentration Plant (SCP);
• Koekenaap: Mineral Separation Plant (MSP); and
• Saldanha Bay: Smelter facility and Receiving and Dispatch area.
Heavy mineral sands are extracted and concentrated into magnetic and non-magnetic concentrate at the Mine. These magnetic and non-magnetic concentrate streams are transported to the MSP where the magnetic material is treated in the magnetic (ilmenite separation) Dry Mill Circuit to produce ilmenite and the non-magnetic material is treated in the Non-Magnetic Circuit to produce zircon and rutile related products. The ilmenite, zircon and rutile related products are transported to the Smelter, where the ilmenite is further processed, while the zircon and rutile related prod ........


Production:

CommodityProductUnits201820172016
Titanium Slag kt  ......  Subscription required180113
Zircon Mineral in concentrate kt  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required
Rutile Mineral in concentrate kt  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required
Iron Pig kt  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics2019201820172016
Annual production capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required31,000 t of rutile mineral in concentrate
Annual production capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required190,000 t of titanium slag
Annual production capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required100,000 t of iron pig
Annual production capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required125,000 t of zircon mineral in concentrate
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Reserves at December 31, 2019:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven 159 Mt Heavy Minerals 8.2 % 13 Mt
Proven 13 Mt Zircon 9 %
Proven 13 Mt Rutile 8.2 %
Proven 13 Mt Ilmenite 37.3 %
Probable 589 Mt Heavy Minerals 5.5 % 32.5 Mt
Probable 32.5 Mt Zircon 11.2 %
Probable 32.5 Mt Rutile 10.9 %
Probable 32.5 Mt Ilmenite 52.5 %
Proven & Probable 748 Mt Heavy Minerals 6.1 % 45.6 Mt
Proven & Probable 45.6 Mt Zircon 10.5 %
Proven & Probable 45.6 Mt Rutile 10.2 %
Proven & Probable 45.6 Mt Ilmenite 48.1 %


Heavy Mobile Equipment:

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
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Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Staff:

Total WorkforceYear
Subscription required 2019

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2018
Form 10-K 2017
Form 10-K 2016
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Aerial view:

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