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South Africa
Wessels Mine (Hotazel Complex)

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 Location:
217 km NE from Upington, South Africa

  Address:
1 Peperboom Ave
Post Office box: 1, Hotazel, 8490
Hotazel
South Africa
8490
Phone  ...  Subscription required
WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeUnderground
Commodities
  • Manganese
Mining Method
  • Bord-and-pillar
Mine Life58 years (as of Jan 1, 2019)


Owners & OPERATOR

Source: p. 66
CompanyInterestOwnershipInvestor's Info
Anglo American plc. 29.6 % Indirect
South32 Corp. 44.4 % Indirect
Samancor Holdings (Pty) Ltd. 74 % Indirect
Hotazel Manganese Mines (pty) Ltd. (operator) 100 % Direct
South32 Limited holds a 60 per cent interest in Samancor Holdings (Pty) Ltd and Anglo American Plc holds the remaining 40 per cent. Samancor indirectly owns 74 per cent of Hotazel Manganese Mines (HMM), which gives South32 Limited its ownership interest of 44.4 per cent. The remaining 26 per cent of HMM is owned by B-BBEE entities. Anglo American Plc effective ownership interest in HMM is 29.6%.

South32 holds an effective 60 per cent interest in Metalloys alloy smelter.

Deposit Type

  • Banded iron formation


Summary:

The Wessels mine is situated in the Northern part of the Kalahari Manganese field.

Mineralisation of the Kalahari Manganese field is developed in three braunite-kutnahorite lutite layers interbedded with iron formation in the Hotazel Formation of the Palaeoproterozoic (2400 to 2100 Ma) Transvaal Sequence which was deposited within an intracratonic basin on the Kaapvaal Craton. The relatively flat lying, concealed, mineralised, Hotazel Formation units of the Kalahari manganese field covers an area of some 30 x 10 km.

The base of the Hotazel Formation consists of a bright-red banded iron formation bed (varying from massive to fine-grained specularite and/or euhedral magnetite cystals) overlying volcanic glass breccias and lavas of the Ongeluk Formation. The banded iron-formation units grade into microcrystaline kutnohoritic ovoidrich braunite rock. The kutnohorite in this area is concentrated in ovoids, which represent partially compacted, early diagenetic concreations in hematite and braunite rock. The braunite rock bed of the lower section of the lowest of the three sedimentary cycles present in the Hotazel Formation, is between 5 and 45m thick. This is the major ore unit of the Kalahari manganese field with a manganese content varying between 20 and 48 weight percent. The middle manganese-bearing unit (cycle 2) is a maximum of 2m thick and in not economically viable. The top manganese ore body was mined in previous years. It rarely exceeds 5m thickness. Grey hematitic and manganese minnesotaite rocks are found between the lower and the middle maganese ore bodies.

The Wessels Mine is seperated into three underground areas. The first, the central-southern area, is particularly rich in carbonates, primarily manganoan calcite, kutnahorite and rarely rhodochrosite. The second, the north-western area, in known for its sturmanite, gaudefroyite and sugilite. Finally the third area, the central eastern area, has sugilite, andradite, inesite, hydroxyapophyllite, ruizite, barite and celestine.


Mining Methods

  • Bord-and-pillar


Summary:

Wessels is an underground bord and pillar operation with a current capacity of approximately 1.2 Mtpa of ROM production (100 per cent basis).


Crushing and Grinding


Processing


Summary:

Primary crushing of ore takes place underground, while secondary crushing forms part of the surface operations. ROM ore is washed and screened on the surface to produce various quality products.


Combined production numbers are reported under Hotazel Complex

Operational Metrics:

Metrics2015
Annual mining capacity 1.2 Mt

Reserves at June 30, 2019:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGrade
Probable 78 Mt Manganese 42.4 %
Indicated 136 Mt Manganese 42.5 %
Inferred 7.7 Mt Manganese 44.1 %
Total Resource 144 Mt Manganese 42.6 %


Heavy Mobile Equipment:

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 27, 2020
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 27, 2020
Subscription required - Subscription is required.


Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2018
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2017
Annual Report 2016
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2016
Other 2015
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Aerial view:

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