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-ol ........

Mining takes place in two distinct areas known as the East and West mines. The East Mine comprises predominantly shallow mineral sands stripping. The West Mine entails shallow stripping of the mineral sands followed by a dipper mining operation recovering hardened materials to a depth of about 40m. The shallow mining is done with front-end loaders onto a conveyor system (East mine) or dump trucks (West mine). The deeper mining is done with hydraulic excavators loading rigid dump tracks that convey the material to a central tipping area.

East Mining
The present mining method entails front-end loaders loading and carrying aeolian sand to moveable grizzly feeders. These feeders discharge onto shiftable branch conveyors that feed onto a semi-permanent trunk conveyor or directly onto the dual carry conveyor (DCC). The trunk conveyor system feeds onto the DCC, which in turn feeds the ore via a stockpile feed conveyor onto the PCP East ROM stockpile. The free-standing grizzly feeders are moved by a truck dozer along the branch conveyors to maintain a maximum haul distance of 100m.

West Mining
The West Primary Concentration Plant (PCP West) receives ore from mining of four pits operating within the West Mining. Mining consists of loading ore into haul trucks that discharge into the ROM tipping bin.

The mining sequences start with strip-dozing the topsoil from the surface Red Aeolian Sands (RAS), which is stacked for rehabilitation at the la ........

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