MINE OF THE MONTH – EVANDER
Evander: in harmony with th
T
HE Evander operations of Harmony Gold
Mining Co Ltd are in the province of
Mpumalanga in South Africa and comprise
an amalgamation of the former Kinross,
Bracken, Leslie and Winkelhaak mines and
26,952 ha of mineral rights adjacent to these mines.
Mining at Harmony’s Evander is conducted at
depths down to 2,300 m. In fiscal 2006, Evander
operations accounted for about 12% of Harmony’s
total gold sales.
The Evander operations are primarily engaged
in underground mining but also process a limited
amount of waste rock as and when is necessary to
allow the plants to operate efficiently.
Due to the shallow to moderate depths of the
Evander underground operations, seismicity and
pressure-related problems are relatively infrequent.
There is a risk of subterranean water and/or gas
intersections in some areas of the mine. However, this
risk is mitigated by active and continuous manage-
ment and monitoring, which includes the drilling of
boreholes in advance of faces. Where water and/or
gas is indicated in the drilling, appropriate preventa-
tive action is taken.
HISTORY AND GEOLOGY
Gold mining in the Evander Basin began in 1955.
Eventually, four mining operations were established
at Evander. In 1996, as a result of depletion of ore
reserves, all four mining areas were merged to form
Evander. In August 1998, Harmony acquired Evander
as a wholly-owned subsidiary and since then, has
implemented the company’s ‘Harmony Way’ manage-
ment process at the operations.
The area covered by Evander’s mining authorisa-
EVANDER ORE RESERVES AT JUNE 30, 2006
Location
Existing shaft (proven)
Existing shaft (probable)
Brownfield/greenfield exploration projects (probable) 37.9
Operations total (proven and probable)
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12-13MM0609.indd 12
Despite gold mining having started there in the 1950s, the
Evander Basin contains some major untapped resources
that have extended the current mine life to almost 30 years
tion and mineral rights is situated within the Evander
basin, a geologically discrete easterly extension
of the main Witwatersrand Basin (see Regional
Review, p14).
Only one economic placer unit, the Kimberley
Reef, is mined at Evander. In addition to the faulting
of the reef horizon, there are numerous dykes and
sills that complicate the mining layouts, the most sig-
nificant of which is an extensively developed dolerite
footwall sill that occasionally intersects the Kimberley
Reef, causing displacements within it.
MINING METHOD
The average dip of the orebody at the Evander shafts
currently being mined varies between 18 and 30º
with the orebody dipping gradually from south
to north. The channel width varies between 2 cm
and over 300 cm, with the reef varying from being
carbonaceous to a well developed matrix reef in areas.
The depth of mining varies from 1,300 m to 2,300 m
below surface with declines going deeper on a daily
basis.
The mining method used at Evander is conven-
tional, where the development drives are placed in
the footwall and the inter-level spacing is 75 m. The
drives are typically placed +/-50 m in the footwall
and the crosscuts developed to the reef intersection.
A raise with the required boxholes is then
developed on dip till holed on the top level. The
Tonnes Contained gold Grade Gold
(Mt) (000 kg) (g/t) (000 oz)
5.1 36.4 7.2 1,170
15.9 108.3 6.8 3,483
307 .1 8.1 9,874
58.9 451.8 7.7 14,527
back between the raises is between 160 and 180 m
depending on geological factors and the dip of the
reef. All of this development is done by handheld
machines and manual methods, while the blasted ore
is loaded by air loader and locos with hoppers.
Once the raise is holed and ready for ledging, the
stoping teams move in to complete the raise. The
breast ledging method (in the ‘checker board’ fashion)
is used and ledged in for 7.5 m from the centre gully.
Panels of an average 25 m length are established
and mined on strike for +/- 90 m to the limit line.
Some panels have their own boxhole, while with
others, centre-gully scraping is done to tip the ore in
the boxholes.
Stope blasting is done by conventional hand held
machines, drilling 31 mm holes which get charged up
with normal safety fuse and ANFO.
Support is in the form of timber mat packs in-
stope with 0.8 m roof bolts installed close to the face
prior to blasting. Convergence is not very high and
seismicity is fairly low in the area, thus this support
method suffices (in contrast to many South African
gold operations).
Development is supported by steel tendon
support. Meshing and lacing gets done in areas
identified by the rock engineer or areas that have to
remain open for extended periods. Time blasting is
practiced where all personnel that might be exposed
to fumes in the production areas are removed for the
three-hour restricted-entry period.
The ore is transported by means of diesel locomo-
tives with 6.0 t hoppers that pull the ore out of the
stope boxes and tip it into the station boxes. From
there, it gravitates either to the decline conveyor belt
system or to the shaft bottom, and gets transported
to the metallurgical plants for treatment.
The Evander mines are mature, with some shafts
being sunk in 1955 and thus the logistics of getting
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h the future
the ore to the shaft goes through various declines,
sub vertical shafts and cross tramming systems to
get to the main shafts. Once hoisted at the main
shafts, the ore delivered to the plant for metal
extraction.
EQUIPMENT AND SAFETY
The locos used for tramming on the levels are still the
old Funkey-type diesels and side-discharging 6.0 t
hoppers for the tramming trucks. The internal tram-
ming between the two main shafts underground is
via an overhead trolley wire loco with 18 t hoppers.
These move 75,000 t/mth from number 8 to number
7 shaft, where the ore is hoisted for delivery to the
plant.
The two declines currently being sunk at number
7 and 8 shaft are blasted by hand-held machines
but cleaned by
3.5 m3 load-
haul-dump
machines
that load the
ore onto a
conveyor system
for removal from
underground. The two
declines are equipped
with 105 cm conveyor belts to
transport the ore with a typical capacity rating
of 180 t/h.
The safety record at the Evander operations in
terms of Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR)
is slightly higher than the group average, but the
fatality frequency rate for underground operations
is lower.
Safety receives high-level attention and where
problems are identified, steps are taken to address
the situation. Underground falls have historically
been the most significant causes of fatal injuries at
Evander, and roof-bolting has been implemented
in an effort to address this risk. The Executive for
Sustainable Development is responsible for leading
initiatives to improve workplace health and safety at
Harmony’s South African operations.
12-13MM0609.indd 13
CURRENT PRODUCTION
Production for the financial year 2005/06 was
265,157 m² mined, resulting in 1.28 Mt of ore milled at
a grade of 6.4 g/t, yielding 8,118 kg (261,005 oz). Total
development was 18,548 m, of which 6,439 m were
on-reef and 3,392 m capital projects. The sub-decline
shafts currently produce 71% of all production.
The ore reserves (see table) from existing shafts
will provide production at current rates for another
nine years after which a gradual decrease from exist-
ing shafts will be supplemented from the Rolspruit
and Poplar projects to provide a 28-year mine life for
Evander.
EXPLORATION AND EXPANSION
The Evander Basin is one of the best drilled in the
gold industry and within the Evander mining rights
area there are major untapped project areas contain-
ing substantial
resources
such as
Evander
South, Twist-
draai and 6 Shaft
Lower (below 18
level) – all situated
within the southwestern
and southeastern portion of the
mining rights area.
The two greenfields projects – namely Rolspruit
and Poplar – are situated within the northern portion
of the area and these ore reserves are inclusive of the
current 28-year mine life.
The two declines are sunk concurrently with min-
ing and serve to open up levels below the currently
mined levels.
Both are planned to carry on for two more levels
from their current position.
On the Winkelhaak No 2 shaft, exploration drilling
is being conducted underground to extend the
mining from the current lowest level 24 to 26 level.
Should the ore reserves prove robust enough, a
decline will be sunk from 24 to 26 level which could
extend the life of mine by around seven years.
GOLD PLANT METALLURGICAL
PROCESS FLOW
Milling
In the gold plant operation, ore is passed (by
conveyor belts) from the shaft bins into the plants
storage silos. From the silos it is fed by conveyor
to six run-of-mine (ROM) mills in parallel where it
is ground. The mill discharge is classified by hydro-
cyclone classifiers (one for each mill) into two frac-
tions, the coarser fraction which underflows the
classifier and the finer fraction which overflows.
Free/liberated gold
The free/liberated gold is recovered from part of
the cyclone underflow by three Knelson gravity
concentrators (one for a pair of mills). The gold
concentrate is collected into containers and sent
to the smelt house while the Knelson concentra-
tor discharge flows with the cyclone underflow
stream back to the mill for further grinding.
Dewatering
The finer fraction of the cyclone classifier (milling
process product) containing larger quantities of
water, flows to the thickeners for de-watering
where the excess water overflows the thickeners
into the low level dam from where it is re-used
in the milling process. The higher-density pulp
(thickener underflow) is pumped from the thick-
eners to the treatment section.
Carbon in leach/Carbon in pulp
The thickener underflow pulp comes into contact
with cyanide in the leach tanks which dissolves
gold from the solids. From the leach tanks the
pulp flows by gravity through the CIL tanks where
it comes into contact with carbon and proceed
through the CIP tanks until it reaches the residue
tanks from where it is pumped to the tailings
dams. Carbon flow is countercurrent to the pulp
flow, ie it flows from the last CIP tank to the first
CIL tank while pulp flows from the first to the
last tank. It adsorbs gold from the solution as it
flows through the circuit. The carbon gold value
increases upstream while the pulp (solids) gold
value decreases downstream.
Electrowinning
Loaded carbon is pumped from the CIL circuit
into the loaded carbon tank via the linear screen.
From the loaded tank it is loaded into a column
where gold is stripped off the carbon by electro-
lyte solution. The pregnant electrolyte solution
is pumped through the electrowinning cells
where gold plates onto the steel wool cathodes.
The eluted carbon is regenerated in the kiln and
washed with acid solution. The regenerated car-
bon is then pumped back to the CIL/CIP process.
Smelt house
The plated gold is washed from the cathodes and
the liberated gold is cleaned on a shaking table.
The gold concentrate is then dried, bagged and
dispatched to the Harmony Refinery in Free State
province. This is the only gold refinery in South
Africa apart from the Rand Refinery.
September 2006 Mining Magazine 13
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