MINE OF THE MONTH – VENETIA

View from Venetia

One of De Beers’ most productive mines, Venetia is evolving rapidly as the pit deepens
and the operation prepares for a major move underground

T
HE Venetia mine is located in South Africa’s GEOLOGY being the first of the Caterpillar D series off the US
Northern Province on the farm Venetia The Venetia cluster comprises 12 kimberlite bodies. production line. Additional equipment includes two
103 MS, 25 km south of the intersection The two largest pipes, known as K1 and K2, are cur- Caterpillar 994 wheel loaders used for ore blending,
of the international borders of Botswana, rently being mined in a single open-pit operation. K1 D10 tractors, two 16H graders and one 24H.
Zimbabwe and South Africa, and 450 km has the highest grade of 122 cpht (carats per 100 t). Blending is often necessary to even out kimberlite
northeast of Johannesburg. Some of the smaller kimberlite bodies also have quality for plant feed. While about 90% of the
The kimberlites there were discovered in 1980, payable grades and these will be extracted at the end kimberlite mined can go into the plant clean, a small
and a full feasibility study conducted in 1988, with of the mine life. proportion has a high clay content, so it cannot go
R1.1 billion voted for mine development in Decem- The main pipe is an irregular elongate body that into the plant direct. Likewise some of the very hard
ber 1989 and first production achieved in July 1992. strikes east-west and has maximum dimensions of hypabyssal kimberlite is too hard for the crushers and
The project was entirely self funded. The mine paid a 640 m by 260 m, dipping at 82º to the north. The pipe must also be blended.
royalty to Anglovaal in what was known as the Saturn was intruded along the axis of a plunging anticline
Joint Venture, but this was dissolved in 2000 when De and follows the structure of the country rock. EXPANSION ROAD MAP
Beers bought out the remaining 50% of the shares. The country rock itself comprises gneiss, amphibo- Venetia has basically been rebuilt in recent years,
Venetia is now the lite and minor pegmatite of the and changes to the operational planning have taken
largest diamond producer cratonised Limpopo Mobile Belt. it from a large producer to a significant producer in
in De Beers Consolidated Dated at 500 My, the kimberlite world terms. In the near term, the mine will be han-
Mines and the third largest consists largely of diatreme dling well over 100 Mt/y of rock. In 2006, the mine
producer in southern Africa, facies tuffisitic kimberlite breccia. handled over 50 Mt of waste and about 6.5 Mt of
after Jwaneng and Orapa Three relatively small hypabyssal kimberlite. In 2007 this will rise to 77 Mt of waste and
in Botswana. Its production facies intrusions occur close to 6 Mt of kimberlite. By 2008/09, some 90 Mt of waste
accounts for over 50% of the pipe margins. One of these will be mined and by 2011, 120 Mt. In these years the
South Africa’s diamond total pre-dates and two post-date kimberlite tonnage will stay around 6.4 Mt, which is
and about 56% of the De the main intrusion. Numerous related to the plant capacity. The huge increase in the
Beers total for South Africa late-stage hypabyssal facies waste proportion is due to the continued deepening
(in 2005). This compares kimberlite dykes also occur. of the open pit. The changes that have been made,
with others such as Cullinan supported by moves such as the implementation of
(9%); Finsch (15%) and Kim- MINING SAP, have involved all aspects of planning from the
berley (13%). In 2005, some The current fleet is all diesel and mining blocks to the finished rough stones.
8.5 Mct of diamonds were includes two Terex RH200 and Operations manager, Johnny Velloza told Mining
recovered from Venetia. three RH340 hydraulic excava- Magazine: “in 2006 we mined some 52 Mt of waste, a
Venetia has 956 tors, five P&H 250XP blasthole normal occurrence of mining deeper. The expansion
permanent employees and The diamond sorting room drills, nine Caterpillar 785 haul will cost some R4 billion over a three-year period. As
500 long-term contrac- trucks, 13 789s and 26 793s. The part of the project we have had to alter signifi-
tors. Long-term contractors are used because the 785s originally handled the kimberlite ore but are cantly our infrastructure. Workshops, offices, and the
company outsources a lot of ‘non-core’ work, such currently in the process of being phased out and crusher have had to be relocated and pit de-watering
as the repair and maintenance of machines and the their work is now done by the 789s. The larger 793s infrastructure increased”. To facilitate the expan-
management of the fines residue disposal site. haul the waste. Among the excavators, one RH200 is sion, the workforce is being increased, and the fleet
It is the youngest of all the large mines in the De used for loading kimberlite and the other for mine enhanced with new orders in place for P&H 250XP
Beers group, only opening in 1992, compared with management such as highwall pin up. The RH340s blasthole drills, Terex O&K RH340 hydraulic shovels
Kimberley, which began operations 135 years ago. are used for waste loading. The 250XPs are used for and Caterpillar 793D trucks.
As a result it has excellent technology and the latest the larger blastholes on the waste benches. On the Canadian engineering company Hatch
diamond-processing equipment. The grade of the kimberlite, smaller blasthole drill units are used Continued on page 14
resource is also exceptional. for 165 mm holes – a mix of Terex Reedrill SK and
Sandvik models (D25K and Gator).
The Venetia plant showing the water recovery area The larger 793s, used for waste haul-
age, have the distinction of

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 MINE OF THE MONTH – VENETIA
Continued from page 12
is currently preparing an initial Class I and full
conceptual Class III study for the early shaft sinking
and tunnel-development access at Venetia, with the
interim results of the Class I study presented to De
Beers’ directors in November 2006. Much of the work
being done by Hatch is to firm up missing informa-
tion at depth to allow better planning and greater
understanding of the geotechnical issues involved.
The full conceptual study has started and, on its
completion, a final decision on the underground
project will be made. An early access shaft is set to be
sunk in 2008.
The depletion of the opencast ore resources at a
final pit cut depth of 600 m is projected to occur by
2021. An underground mining operation to exploit
the resources at an increased depth of approximately
1,000 m below the surface would extend the life
of the mine. In 2020 and 2021 there would be an
overlap of open pit and underground operations.
The overall life of mine is currently planned to 2057.
This includes mining out the current open pit, the
underground operations that are planned and then
the possible treating of coarse residue deposits at the
end of the operational life.
SAFETY
Safety performance is an ongoing focus area. The
target and policy of the mine is to pursue an aim of
zero harm to all employees. It was found that some
14 Mining Magazine January 2007
12,14,16MM0701.indd 14
90% of the accidents at the mine were caused by plant for final
incorrect behaviour of individuals and the balance recovery before P & H has five
by dangerous or incorrect conditions. To this end moving to the 250XP blasthole
the mine embarked upon a behaviour based safety sort house. Any rigs in Venetia,
system in 2006, which was aimed at the entire remaining coarse with two to be
workforce. The main driver of the system is to ensure material from the delivered
that correct behaviour is rewarded and encouraged coarse DMS plant is
through direct face to face interactions between sent to a Polysius roll
people, under a culture of no name, no blame. This crusher and fed back
system is starting to bear fruit at the operation, and into the scrubbers.
the level of safety awareness and the perceptions of Fines from the fines
people around safety have improved dramatically, DMS are rejected as
according to the company. tailings.
About 85% of the
PROCESSING diamonds produced at
Venetia operates a conventional diamond processing Venetia are gem
plant. A primary gyratory crusher reduces the raw Continued on page 16
ore size to under 150 mm, which is then conveyed
to the main stockpile. Following scrubbing and
screening, -25 mm + 8 mm material goes to a 25 mm
coarse dense media separation (DMS) stockpile, and
any +25 mm ore to a secondary crusher. The -8 mm
+1 mm material goes to a DMS fines stockpile. The
DMS plants were designed and built by Bateman
Engineering and installed in 1992.
Material smaller than 1 mm is classed as waste,
and after passing through a water recovery system
goes to a fines residue disposal facility. Following
the DMS process, most of the material goes to a
bank of Multotec cyclones in the reconcentration
4/1/07 10:10:58
 MINE OF THE MONTH – VENETIA
Continued from page 14
quality and the rest sold for industrial uses. Mr Velloza
commented, “our diamonds are good quality, but not
the best in the group. It all boils down to the source.
Namdeb, for example has, on average, better quality
stones as its source is alluvial. As a result, the lower-
quality stones have been broken up, leaving behind
only the higher quality ones”. The final rough stones
are transported to the main De Beers sorting centre
in Kimberley.
TECHNICAL LIMITS PROJECT
A project, known as the Technical Limits Project (TLP)
has been started with an aim to improve productiv-
ity on the mine. The TLP looks at all aspects of the
value chain. The drilling section has shown excellent
improvements, with utilisation increasing from a
base of 34% to the current level of 60% in the space
of nine months.
The loading and hauling team has improved the
haul-truck tyre life over the past four years, neces-
sitated by a lack of supply of large earth moving
tyres. In the various size classes, tyre life has almost
doubled. This has significantly reduced the risk of the
operation.
Another main driver is plant stability. The mining
team has managed to assist plant stability by consist-
ently keeping the plant supplied with material. For
example, in May 2005 the plant was experiencing an
average delay of 26 hours per month. With a focused
intervention this has been reduced to an average
of four hours per month. The knock-on effects have
been better plant stability, better diamond recovery
and a subsequent increase in profitability.
While the plant is not being enlarged in physical
terms, the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) in
the plant has increased. The OEE is a measure of how
16 Mining Magazine January 2007
12,14,16MM0701.indd 16
P&H AT VENETIA
Venetia operates five P&H 250XP-ST diesel blast-
hole drill rigs – all under full maintenance and
repair contracts (MARC) with P&H.
A Terex Reedrill SKF drill rig is also maintained
by P&H under a full MARC. Two further P&H
250XP-ST rigs (maximum 349 mm holes) are
set to be delivered – one in early January 2007
and another one at the end of June 2007. Both
of these machines will come under the existing
LCM (Life Cycle Management) contract with
Venetia.
Future drill requirements post the last 250XP
delivery in late 2007 are dependent on successful
sourcing of tyres. With the bias ply tyres Venetia
uses, the mine cannot utilise the full loading
capacity of the Caterpillar 793 trucks and thus the
haulage capacity is much lower than expected.
Full ramp up of volumes at the mine will only be
possible if Venetia can obtain the quantity and
correct quality of tyres needed. That said, tyre
management programmes have been quite suc-
cessful in extending life to some extent.
The P&H 250XP size is well suited to the
requirements of the mine. At this stage there is
well the plant is being used. The technical
limit of the plant has now been set at
6.4 Mt. However, the performance of the
“In the
plant over the last six years has improved various size
from 54% to 77% for 2006. This has been
achieved by following a number of well
classes,
known processes including Six Sigma tyre life
analysis, Theory of Constraints and Value
Chain analysis. has almost
Venetia Mine has just received the
National Productivity Institute (NPI) Gold
doubled”
Award as South Africa’s top Corporate
The main Venetia pit
Inset: Caterpillar 789 hauling kimberlite
no anticipated requirement to use larger drills or
move to electric power supply.
Venetia utilises the Aquila drill-monitoring
system and uses GPS positioning for drill hole
location. This system interfaces with the onboard
drill programmable logic control (PLC) system.
Drilling data, for example drill hole depth, pen-
etration rate, final drill hole location (if this varies
from the required GPS co-ordinates) and drilling
time is downloaded to a database on comple-
tion of the hole and is used for production and
blasting analysis.
The P&H team is seen as an integral part of
the Venetia mining operation rather than solely a
service provider or contractor. P&H MinePro Serv-
ices has 18 employees on-site in the LCM team
and has fully equipped site offices, workshops
and support vehicles which are used to repair the
fleet of equipment under a full 24/7 repair and
maintenance contract.
Safety is also a central factor, and the P&H Mine-
Pro Services Venetia LCM site team has received
the highest safety ranking ever for a supplier on-
site at Venetia no less than 19 consecutive times.
Company. This prestigious award is pre-
sented annually to public and private
sector enterprises that have made a
significant and productive improve-
ment in their working environment.
These awards recognise the successful
management practices and improve-
ments that the enterprises apply by
paying attention to evidence of social
and economic benefits like job creation,
empowerment, improved working
conditions and safety.
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