Heritage Cases

Blaauwboshch is a Group 2 kimberlite comprising of a relatively large pipe and a well-developed fissure which extends both north and south of the pipe. Historically, Blaauwbosch was the 19th largest producing kimberlite pipe and was mined to a depth of about 110m producing 967,000t of ore, yielding 338 carats of a grade of 35 cpht. After flooding in 1967, operations were ceased. The mines reopened in 2004 with the resumption of production. However, tailings were processed since 2003. In 2005 production was halted to undertake plant redesign, shaft deepening and underground development. The shaft was sunk to a depth of 185m and it allowed the shaft to reach 220m underground. This was done to allow for development in a deeper block of kimberlite ore. The focus will be to mechanically remove the tailings material by means of an excavator and front-end loader, loading it onto 40 t trucks and transporting the material (mineral resource) to a Dense Media Separator plant facility (DMS). The tailings deposit will be excavated (opencast method) with an excavator up to the original soil level, stockpiled next to an open area and loaded onto the trucks by a frond end loader. The trucks will transport the tailings via an existing road, which will be upgraded to the required safety standard. No provincial roads will be used. At the processing plant the run of mine tailings will be fed onto a grizzly for the screening out oversize material. The tailings will be processed through a screening and crushing section for delivery to a 75 tph DMS recovery plant and associated equipment.