Heritage Cases

Aquila Steel (S Africa) (Proprietary) Limited (Aquila), a wholly owned subsidiary of Aquila Resources Limited is the applicant of the proposed Meletse Iron Ore Project. Aquila proposes an open pit iron ore mine with an estimated life of mine of 18 years (but with on-going exploration this may well be extended), planned on the Remainder of the farm Donkerpoort 448KQ and the Remainder of the farm Randstephne 455KQ, located approximately 30km east of Thabazimbi; in the Limpopo Province. The open pit will be mined through conventional truck and shovel mining techniques. The topsoil (seed bearing soil) will be stripped prior to mining and placed on a separate dump situated close to the coarse tailings to be used during rehabilitation. The overburden and waste rock material will be stripped and dumped on the waste rock dump which is proposed to be established on the contour of 1620 mamsl on the south-eastern side of the open pit. During the final years of the open pit, an in-pit waste rock dump will be established in the north-eastern section of the open pit, should the pit design and geotechnical parameters allow. The final pit is planned with four push backs. The production benches are 12m high based on the mining equipment considerations. Discard dumps have been designed for safety and will be located on the less biophysically sensitive areas. Once the mining faces have advanced sufficiently, an in-pit waste rock dump will be established in the north-eastern section of the open pit. The open pit will be started through creating an initial boxcut. The objective of the boxcut will be to expose sufficient iron ore reserves for the first production year, and will be positioned optimally to act as a future access ramp, and at a location in close proximity to the run of mine (ROM) crusher location. The mining sequence in the open pit environment will be as follows: • Creating initial free faces by making a boxcut; • Drilling and blasting of overburden; • Loading and hauling of overburden to waste dumps or backfilling after iron ore extraction; • Drilling and blasting of waste rock; • Loading and hauling of waste rock to waste dumps or backfilling after iron ore extraction; • Drilling and blasting of Iron Ore lodes; • Loading and hauling of the Iron Ore to primary crusher/ ROM stockpile. The waste rock dump will be located on the mountain top of Donkerpoort 448 KQ. The supporting mining infrastructures will be located on the lower lying Randstephne area. The proposed infrastructure will consists of the following: • Access and haul roads to the plant area and other mining infrastructure; • Crushing and Screening Plant, Dense medium separation (DMS) Plant Area; • 200mm pipeline running from the water supply to the reservoir, • Change rooms 600m², • Stores 200m² & 800m², • Offices 1300m², • First aid bay 100m², • Visitors parking 100m², • Staff parking 200m², • Weigh bridge, • Salvage yard 2500m², • Security 165m², • Access control, • Diesel workshop 500m², • Boiler workshop 400m², • Washbay 200m², • Doser workshop 500m², • Tyre workshop 400m², • Electrical workshop 400m², • Fuel storage 35m x 25m, • Lab and core shed 250m², • Hazardous and general waste storage area (this activity will be included in the waste license application), • Sewer treatment plant of 13m x 9m serving 492 people (this activity will be included in the waste license application), • Blasting and explosive stores, • Coarse tailings, • Waste rock dump 200 million m³, • ROM pads of 1 million tonnes, • Plant discard dump 2 million tonnes, • Product stockpiles, • Reservoir 25m x 25m; • Pollution control dam 102,000m3 The rail network of Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has a line linking Thabazimbi (40km away) with Rustenburg and onwards to Vanderbijlpark or the export harbours. The project is considering two options which are: • Rail siding will connect to either the Thabazimbi-Rustenburg line (40km away) and onwards to Vanderbijlpark or the export harbours; or • The unutilised agricultural line from TFR (~40km away) that connects Alma with Modimolle and onwards to Vanderbijlpark and the export harbours. Electricity is available from the Eskom transmission network either 22kV or 132kV overhead transmission lines. Possible water sources include groundwater extraction or alternatively taking water from the Crocodile River which is approximately 40km away. General and hazardous waste will be stored in skips with a concrete base. All general waste will be taken to the Thabazimbi landfill site and hazardous waste to a licensed facility such as Holfontein. Oil will be taken to the oil recycling facility in Thabazimbi