Mining method - Truck and shovel, Room and pillar.
Infrastructure of open deposits
The following infrastructure is required for the organization of open-pit mining operations:
- ramps to the pit,
- Motor roads,
- Dumps of the upper layer of soil, soft overburden and hard overburden (including intermediate rock),
- landfill site.
ROM production will start at the Roodekop opencast mining the S2U, S2L, S1, and S1A. The opencast production will be from a typical truck and shovel strip mining operation. The mining operation will begin with the creation of the box cut. The topsoil, soft overburden, and hard overburden from the box cut will be placed on three different areas prepared for these waste dumps. On completion of the box cut, mining will continue on a roll-over basis placing the next strips overburden back into the previous strip.
The box cut for the Middeldrift area will be created during Year 12, when the last coal is mined at Roodekop. This will allow production to continue uninterrupted when operations are transferred to Middeldrift.
Production from the Diepspruit underground mine, mining the S1 only, will commence shortly after the opencast production starts. The mining method will be bord and pillar mining utilising continuous miners and electric shuttle cars. For the first 11 years, underground production will be from two continuous miner production sections in the S1 only. From Year 12, additiona ........
