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Applying subject matter expertise to process data streams for accuracy is a necessary part of mining’s new digital age, according to SRK Consulting Global chief technology officer Mike Olsen.

Olsen, the leader of SRK’s data engineering team, spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview from Canada.

Basing analysis solely on data, without first applying subject matter know-how to verify it, runs the risk of valuable information - 'treasure' - being mistaken for trash. In the rough world of mining, those who focus exclusively on the data can easily mislabel as ‘garbage’ what technical discipline experts can identify as valuable data.

A mine site is not a pristine datacentre; field stations get bumped, dataloggers are moved, cables are cut, drop-in sensors get snagged, and people fail to do things in the exact way that today’s digital native practitioners assume happen consistently every time. Applying subject matter expertise to data must occur prior to analysis because no sensor will always be 100% reliable, nor will the right information invariably be delivered on the right schedule.

“A huge stream of unverified data coming at you in enormous volume and incredible velocity isn’t of much value. Regardless of scale, you want verified data for analysis,” Olsen emphasises, pointing to the telling graphic of the two suited data experts, above, declaring as ‘garbage’ what a delighted on-site operative identifies as 'gold'.

“Without a solid understanding of the site, its operations, the actual mechanics of data collection, and a technical understanding of the data itself, too much of a mine site’s data will appear as noise to the uninitiated data expert. “Garbage in, garbage out” is a paradigm for the datacentre. Data from a mine is signal rich but only for those with the background to tune the dials,” says Olsen.

These questions were put to Olsen, whose SRK mining client services cover a project life cycle from early-stage exploration, through development and operations, to closure.

Mining Weekly: You talk about “operational data management”. What is that?

Olsen: Quick, dirty, and effective data management. Not a long, complicated, “what are you trying to accomplish?” management consulting engagement but an agile, rough-and-tumble, immediately effective data collection, ingestion, processing, and analysis exercise. Not that master data management – the “connect everything” model – isn’t an excellent goal – it definitely is – but sometimes the mine super can’t wait 18 months to see whether rainfall affects tonnage at the crusher and to what degree.

Mining Weekly: Why is an operational data management model a better place to start for most mining companies?

Olsen: Master data management is expensive, takes time, and requires significant commitment on the part of the operator’s personnel to implement. There’s a lot of capital investment in infrastructure, connectivity, sensors, and systems. It's a big investment and has definite value, but it's not quick and easy. If you just need to quickly connect two data streams and get some value from the analysis immediately, operational data management is what you need.

Mining Weekly: How soon can operational data management deliver rapid data correlation to solve immediate operational problems?

Olsen: This is one of those “how long is the piece of string” questions but, in many cases, you can get value in days or weeks as opposed to months or years.

Mining Weekly: Once success has been achieved in operational data management, how can this be used to build the business case for a master data management project?

Olsen: Connecting individual datasets helps executive teams decide whether a big project is worth the investment. It might not be. I can think of a lot of examples where, for example, the margins are too tight or the lifecycle too short where a master data management implementation would definitely not be worth it. But some operational data management may still be. So operational data ma...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses Australia’s PEM water electrolyser; Ironveld’s plans to acquire Ferrochrome Furnaces; and Jubilee Metals's Sable refinery.

Diversified miner Anglo American has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Japan-headquartered Nippon Steel to develop solutions for lower-carbon steelmaking.

As an iron-ore supplier to the steelmaking industry, Anglo deems it important to help shape a greener future for the backbone of global infrastructure – steel.

“By working together, we can drive system-level decarbonisation and pave the way for sustainable steelmaking, underpinning the steel industry’s full potential as an enabler of society’s wider economic prosperity and social development,” says Anglo marketing CEO Peter Whitcutt.

The MoU states that the companies will research ways to optimise premium lump ore produced by Anglo to decrease emissions through the traditional blast furnace steelmaking process.

The project will also focus on studying the use of Anglo’s iron-ore in the more carbon-efficient direct reduction iron (DRI) steelmaking method. DRI is estimated to generate significantly lower emissions than the more prevalent steelmaking routes of blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces.

Whitcutt explains that Anglo’s product portfolio focuses on future-enabling metals and minerals that are critical to the transition to a lower-carbon world.

“Working with our customers is one of the cornerstones of our efforts to reduce emissions across our entire value chain – the majority of which are associated

with the downstream use of our products in steelmaking.”

Nippon and Anglo’s relationship spans more than five decades, which bodes well for this endeavour to further combine the groups’ expertise.

In October 2021, the publication of Anglo’s Climate Change report set out an ambition to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2040, building on a pre-existing commitment to reach carbon neutrality across its operations by the same year.

The steel value chain was recognised as key to achieving this ambition, with the majority of Anglo’s Scope 3 emissions linked to materials sold into the industry.

The report outlined a holistic approach to decarbonisation, predicated across multiple levers, including developing high-quality products to feed into more efficient and less carbon-intensive production processes, driving efficiency and minimising emissions and working with customers to accelerate decarbonisation efforts.

In turn, Nippon announced its carbon neutral vision 2050 strategy, which states a goal of reducing emissions by 30% by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

The company’s efforts will include developing a large-scale electric arc furnace by 2030, in addition to its already operating smaller-scale ones and expanding the use of hydrogen in steelmaking.

Nippon plans to speed up the development of a direct hydrogen-reduction steelmaking process for commercialisation before 2050.

A new draconian mining industry Bill, which threatens jobs and investment – and can even impose a penalty of 10% of turnover on a mine company, along with corporate manslaughter charges – must be “very, very strenuously opposed”, top South African mining industry lawyer Willem le Roux urged on Thursday.

The long-serving and highly experienced Le Roux – who is the author of the authoritative loose-leaf 'Mine Health and Safety Law' published by LexisNexis – has an illustrious career which dates back to the industry-changing Leon Commission of Inquiry into mine health and safety of 1994/5, when he served as lead lawyer for what is today Minerals Council South Africa.

At the time of going to press, interested and affected parties had only 15 more days – until July 29 – to submit written representations to the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Le Roux called on all webinar attendees to draft representations opposing the Bill.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t put it in legalese; set it out in your own words,” urged Le Roux in making specific reference to the penalty provisions of the Bill’s Section 86 (A), which he described as being of “very serious concern”.

“This is not positive for our economy. This is not positive to the creation of employment for employees. It’s a sorry state of affairs,” Le Roux lamented during an ENSafrica webinar facilitated by ENSafrica executive and head of mine and occupational health and safety department Pieter Colyn, and co-presented by ENSafrica executive of the mine and occupational health and safety department Celeste Coles.

Various parts of the Bill were described as failing to comply with key pieces of South African legislation, including the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which, in a court of law, the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy would have to show were infringements of rights that were justifiable.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to implement this to control health and safety, and improve health and safety. We’ve got legislation. It must just be applied by competent people, not only at the instance of the department but also at the instance of the prosecution, which doesn’t really happen.

“It doesn’t help just to create legislation and hope for the better. We don’t need it,” said Le Roux, who made reference to Amendment Act 74 of 2008, which saw mining business and mining labour combine to quash the inclusion of corporate manslaughter provisions. Then, in 2013, the idea of a penalty of 10% of turnover was argued out of enactment.

Now, under Section 86 (A) of the new Bill, corporate manslaughter and 10% of turnover penalties are back.

“It seems to us that the drafters have forgotten,” Le Roux told the webinar covered by Mining Weekly Online.

Aim-listed iron, vanadium and titanium developer Ironveld plans to raise up to £5-million to acquire the remaining stake in the mothballed Ferrochrome Furnaces (FCF) business it does not already own, as well as to refurbish the FCF smelting complex, in Rustenburg, in South Africa’s North West province.

Ironveld will raise up to £4-million through the issue of 1.33-billion new ordinary shares at a price of 0.30p a placing share.

It has also granted a broker option to Turner Pope Investments to raise further funds of up to £1-million. The broker option will enable existing shareholders, who are qualifying investors, to invest in ordinary shares on the same terms as the above-mentioned placing.

The net proceeds of the overall fundraising will be used by Ironveld to acquire – through an agreement with business rescue practitioners Tayfin Forensic and Investigative Auditors – 100% of the share capital of FCF for R15-million (or about £750 000).

Ironveld will also pay over R100-million (about £5-million) to the sole creditor over ten years, calculated as a percentage of profits from the smelter, capped at 13.5% a year.

Acquiring 100% of FCF will provide Ironveld with up to 7.5 MW of smelting capacity within six to nine months, enabling processing of about 40 000 t/y of magnetite ore to produce high-purity iron, vanadium in slag and titanium in slag.

About 400 km from Ironveld’s Bushveld mining project, the FCF smelting complex comprises four 2.5 MW tilting electric arc furnaces and four convertors with ladles, cranes and associated buildings and equipment.

Ironveld, in conjunction with technical experts, has carried out a comprehensive due diligence on FCF over the past eight months, including a detailed costing for the refurbishment of the facility and quotations for the necessary equipment and upgrades.

Following the acquisition, Ironveld has a planned refurbishment programme of up to nine months at a cost of about R40-million (about £2-million), including contingencies, to bring three of the four electric arc furnaces into production on a phased basis.

Processing can start from the first furnace while the others are being brought back into production, thereby accelerating cash flow from sales, the first receipts of which Ironveld expects to secure within 12 months of the acquisition.

Once three furnaces are fully operational, the FCF complex will be capable of processing about 40 000 t/y of Ironveld’s magnetite ore, which, in turn, will provide 20 000 t/y of high-purity iron, 190 t of vanadium in slag and 3 800 t of titanium in slag.

Further upgrades to the plant at a cost of about R25-million (about £1.2-million) are planned in future when funding allows, and may be possible pursuant to the take-up of the broker option. These plans enable upgrading of the high-purity iron product to higher-value powder form.

Meanwhile, the FCF smelting complex is currently supplied with electricity from the national grid, which is reliant mainly on coal-fired power generation by power utility Eskom and, therefore, subject to regular bouts of load-shedding.

Ironveld has, however, signed a letter of intent with Enernet Global to build, own, operate and maintain a hybrid power plant using renewable energy.

This will provide Ironveld security of power supply on a capital expenditure-free basis.

The completion of the installation of the independent power supply by Enernet will be broadly in line with Ironveld’s overall refurbishment timetable.

As for supplying FCF with material, mining of Ironveld’s assets can start within six weeks of completion of the acquisition of FCF, with ore being stockpiled at the smelter complex while the furnace refurbishment takes place.

Ironveld intends to use mining contractors on site to reduce capital expenditure and will also use community-based transportation companies to transport ore from the mine to the smelter complex.

Further, Ironveld has also secured a formal five-year offtake contract with diversified comm...

What will be Australia’s biggest electrolyser – a platinum-using proton exchange membrane, or PEM, electrolyser – is on order to provide green hydrogen Down Under at a time when the planet’s lightest molecule is being highlighted as the ‘slam dunk’ of heavy-haul transport in a decarbonising world.

Viva Energy Australia has ordered the PEM water electrolyser from Nel Hydrogen US. When installed, it will provide green hydrogen to a fleet of heavy-duty fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), which also use platinum group metals (PGMs) to catalyse the conversion of hydrogen into electricity for vehicle mobility and, if needed, also stationary power.

With a contract value of about €4-million, the PEM electrolyser system is expected to be delivered in the third quarter of 2023, Nel stated in a media release to Mining Weekly.

Viva Energy Australia, an ASX-listed company, owns the Geelong refinery and supplies a service station network of around 1 350 Shell and Liberty service stations across Australia, where the Australian Renewables Energy Agency is funding a 300 MWh grid-forming battery in south-west New South Wales.

Interestingly, a new heavy transport transition report published by Rethink Energy names hydrogen as the ‘slam dunk’ of heavy-duty long-distance FCEV trucking, ship transport and air travel

News also just out is that the newly established company Innoplate is expected to accelerate the production of bipolar plates for the PEM fuel cell market.

Meanwhile, British Petroleum company bp and Germany’s thyssenkrupp are working together, as part of a memorandum of understanding, to help the hard-to-abate steelmaking sector to decarbonise faster with the use of hydrogen.

Also, Air Products has signed an agreement with VPI of the UK to develop an 800 MW hydrogen production facility in Immingham, in pursuit of decarbonisation.

In addition, Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh of the US, and Port of Antwerp-Bruges CEO Jacques Vandermeiren are working together to bring green hydrogen to the heart of Europe, while Wood Mackenzie reports that 20% of the world’s green hydrogen projects are now located in Spain, which is in second place to the US’s 50% of green hydrogen projects.

The technology for producing green hydrogen is now a central component of the European Union’s climate strategy for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

Neon director Lion Hirth advocates on LinkedIn that hydrogen rather than electricity be transported given that hydrogen pipelines have the potential to carry so much more energy than electricity power lines, though both have comparable investment cost.

As reported by Anglo American Platinum CEO Natascha Viljoen last month, South Africa is one of only four countries that has more renewable energy potential available to it than what it needs for itself, which places the country in a very strong position to be able to export green energy, with hydrogen in the form of ammonia, hydrogen gas or liquid hydrogen among the best ways of doing so.

As Mining Weekly reported last week, a green electron and green molecule energy transition is tailor-made for South Africa, owing to this country’s superior sun, prime wind and land, favourable storage potential, know-how and PGMs for green electricity and green mobility.

Not all hydrogen generation is done with the help of PGMs. Hydrogen generation through alkaline electrolysers does not require PGMs, and nor does hydrogen from ammonia and direct combustion.

Hydrogen is only green when renewables apply and renewables are inconsistent, which means storage is essential, and energy is exceedingly storable as hydrogen.

If PEM electrolysers and PEM fuel cells win out – which they should on efficiency grounds – it will be a colossal bonus for South Africa because these require the PGMs that Southern Africa hosts in such abundance.

In fact, a green hydrogen energy transition can be the just energy transition that South Africa simply must have.

More news on the platinum front is that platinum i...

Aim-listed diamond producer BlueRock Diamonds, which owns and operates the Kareevlei diamond mine, near Kimberley, in South Africa’s Northern Cape, has had a “disappointing” second quarter as a result of excessive rain, BlueRock executive chairperson Mike Houston said on July 11.

“The extreme weather conditions, which saw 145 mm of rain fall during the period compared with 9 mm of rain recorded for the corresponding period in 2021, are reflected in what is a disappointing quarter, with production significantly less than budget,” he explained.

During the period, Houston said BlueRock had limited access to fresh kimberlite, which resulted in the feed to the plant being a lower grade, while also having to contend with a higher percentage of fines or clay material, which are more susceptible to wet conditions and which impacted negatively on throughput tonnage.

"We have benefitted from improved weather over the past month and a better-balanced drier material has been supplied to the processing plant, taking us one step further towards achieving our stated objective of increasing production to one-million tonnes a year,” Houston said.

He explained that the market had remained buoyant for non-Russian rough diamonds during the second quarter and that Kareevlei had averaged $576/ct in the quarter, 35% higher than the $428/ct achieved during the same period last year.

“With the ongoing tightness of supply of rough diamonds and the expected recovery of the Chinese retail market, the outlook for the rest of the year for rough diamond prices is positive,” Houston said.

With additional financing secured, BlueRock said it would continue to focus its efforts on optimising the Kareevlei mining operation to better leverage the potential of the new plant and take advantage of the strong market.

MANAGEMENT CHANGE

Given Kareevlei’s poor performance, BlueRock's major shareholder Teichmann Group has decided to take a more direct role in the management of the company and its Kareevlei operations.

An experienced, high-level technical and commercial team, previously from diamond mining major De Beers, has in the interim completed a full review of the operations and, although the detailed report is expected soon, a number of positive proposals have already been made, which BlueRock said would enhance operational performance.

As part of the interventions made by Teichmann, current Kareevlei CEO Meiring Burger will step down on July 31 with BlueRock nonexecutive director Gary Teichmann expected to be appointed interim CEO.

BlueRock said “two experienced individuals”, who would cover the mining and processing disciplines, have been secured to work alongside Teichmann at Kareevlei over the next six months to implement recommended changes while the group searches for a new CEO.

While guidance for next year remains unchanged, BlueRock’s revised guidance for this year is for between 24 500 ct and 30 000 ct of diamonds, down from the previous guidance of 28 000 ct to 33 000 ct, leading to revised revenue expectations of between $12-million and $16.5-million rather than the previous estimate of $14-million to $18-million.

Dual-listed Tharisa achieved a “commendable” third quarter, ended June 30, maintaining strong production, which was supported by the favourable commodity markets, ensuring a healthy balance sheet that will allow the company to continue implementing its strategy, CEO Phoevos Pouroulis says.

“The global macrotrends are challenging, but Tharisa Mine’s life of more than 60 years gives us a strong foundation and the necessary financial resources to weather the headwinds of a tough economic climate, slowing growth, rising inflation and weaker commodity markets.

“As always, our focus remains on safety, operational excellence and maintaining a low-cost profile. This quarter, our platinum group metals (PGMs) and chrome output were strong once again, driven by the volume extracted from the Tharisa Mine openpit,” he notes.

The Tharisa Mine is located in the south-western limb of the Bushveld Complex, in South Africa.

For the quarter to June 30, there was strong mining and milling throughput leading to PGMs production at 42 100 oz, at a normalised rougher feed grade of 1.65 g/t, with steady recoveries at 75.6%.

Chrome production was 389 000 t, up from the previous quarter.

Strong commodity prices and steady production during the quarter delivered strong cash balance increases.

A PGMs basket price of $2 677/oz was 4.6% lower than the previous quarter, while the metallurgical grade chrome price was up by 39.5% quarter-on-quarter, at $247/t.

Tharisa had a cash balance of $112.6-million at the end of the quarter, and debt of $64.6-million after an interim dividend payment of $8.8-million.

The increased cash has resulted in a positive net cash position of $48-million.

Pouroulis says production from the Vulcan plant at the Tharisa Mine is steadily increasing to nameplate capacity, proving that Tharisa’s proprietary technology is working well.

The Vulcan plant ramp-up reflected in steady improvement in chrome recoveries – throughput recoveries of 80% are expected to be reached by year-end.

Pouroulis notes that investment in almost 10 MW of standby power generation has ensured negligible disruption to the company’s operations owing to the challenges at State-owned power utility Eskom and the subsequent power curtailments.

Tharisa also successfully registered a solar power project for 40 MW with the environmental and development authority to further de-risk the operations from the dependence on the national power grid and reduce carbon emissions in line with the company’s carbon reduction strategy.

“Notwithstanding the rail and port infrastructure challenges, the logistics team has successfully exported our chrome products via various channels and modalities,” says Pouroulis.

Tharisa also owns Karo Mining Holdings and Salene Chrome – development stage, low-cost, openpit PGM and chrome assets, respectively, which are located on the Great Dyke in Zimbabwe.

“Beyond South Africa, our growth strategy remains on track with the detailed engineering design work, upfront infrastructure and placement of long lead capital items for the Karo Platinum project continuing to progress in parallel with the finalisation of the financing options.

“Overall, this has been a supportive quarter for our organic and development growth,” Pouroulis comments.

MARKET UPDATE

The PGMs market, while pricing lower comparatively with the beginning of the year, is holding up well, supported by the continued tight supply-demand fundamentals of the various elements, Tharisa says.

Slowing economic growth will influence the demand side; however, a slowdown in supply and no major new projects coming online within the next 24 months means any demand increase is expected to lead to price increases. Recycling continues to slow, requiring shortfalls to be met from primary supply, the company adds.

It notes that the quarter under review continued to be overshadowed by significant external factors including the war in Ukraine, concerns about inflationary cost pressures, supply chain constr...

Harmony Gold, which met its yearly production guidance in the 12 months to end June against strong odds, is continuing to “mine with purpose”, which includes leaving a cleaner and healthier planet.

Harmony CEO Peter Steenkamp said headwinds had again been turned into opportunities, with the “phenomenal grit and perseverance” displayed in financial year 2022 (FY22) placing the company in a “strong position” to create further value for all its stakeholders.

Delight was expressed about Phase 1 of the renewable energy programme being underway, along with the securing of a R1.5-billion green loan for the rollout of Phase 2, which is linked to being net-zero by 2045, de-risking operations and improving margins.

“Not only did we meet our annual production guidance, but we took a bold step forward on our decarbonisation journey, and finished this financial year on the front foot, confident and with good momentum,” stated Steenkamp, who expressed confidence that the company’s brownfield and greenfield project pipeline, alongside the renewable energy projects, would ensure continued value creation for shareholders and stakeholders.

The JSE-listed gold mining company described itself as managing costs aggressively while progressing key brownfield projects.

A comprehensive update on capital expenditure is scheduled to be released on August 30, as part of the presentation of FY22 financial results.

Regulatory approvals are in hand to proceed with the Kareerand tailings expansion project at Mine Waste Solutions, in the Vaal river area as the low-risk South African surface retreatment business continues to contribute meaningfully to production and cash flow.

Operational plans for FY23 include weighing up investment in lower-risk assets to be able to realise meaningful returns in the current economic environment.

Harmony’s risk-based approach to creating a sustainable company through responsible stewardship, operational excellence, value-accretive acquisitions and capital allocation has improved the quality of its portfolio and diversified its revenues across:

South African underground assets;

South African surface low-risk, high-margin, long-life assets; and

international Papua New Guinea (PNG) operations.

Harmony’s Hidden Valley mine, in PNG, has resumed full production after the overland belt failure in January 2022, with good prospects for FY23.

The negotiating team for the Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture engaging with the PNG State negotiating team for the special mining lease for the Tier 1 copper/gold Wafi-Golpu project, is hoping to reach an agreement soon.

CLOSURE OF BAMBANANI MINE

The closure of Harmony’s over 50-year-old Bambanani mine, near Welkom in the Free State, has highlighted the company’s deployment of environment, social and governance, or ESG, principles as jobs were maintained and wealth distributed to the surrounding communities by extending its life-of-mine by more than 20 years. In the end it was seismic risk and safety taking precedence over production that eventually brought Bambanani to a close.

Job and skills retention will be brought about by highly skilled Bambanani crews being deployed elsewhere within the group.

The embrace of a culture of safety across all operations is underpinned by a humanistic approach integrated into an optical character recognition system, work note tool and missing person’s locator, to ensure that high-quality data, controls and the right safety culture are deployed across the group.

Changing the hearts, actions and minds of all employees to avoid complacency and proactively derisk is being emphasised to achieve zero harm.

“We have achieved some extraordinary safety milestones as a company and indeed as an industry,” Steeenkamp stated in a release to Mining Weekly.

Lower fall-of-ground and rail-linked incidents have resulted in more ‘white-flag’ accident-free days, and a first-ever January and February free of loss of life.

Vigilance, alertness and refusal to enter workplaces deemed to be ...

The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) and Gold One Group subsidiary Newshelf have signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to improve the availability and reliability of the Eastern Basin acid mine drainage (AMD) plant.

Under the MoA, the Gold One subsidiary will procure and deliver the critical equipment, such as submersible motors and spare parts, for exclusive use at the AMD plant by TCTA.

TCTA will be responsible for installing and maintaining the equipment, which will be delivered to the AMD plant in October and operational by November.

“The Eastern Basin AMD plant has not been able to treat acid mine water since February owing to the failure of pump motors. This has affected TCTA’s ability to abstract water from the Eastern basin, thus, resulting in the increase in the AMD level within this basin,” explains TCTA project management and implementation executive manager Johannes Mavuso.

The spare parts for the AMD pump motors were ordered in 2021; however, the supplier could not deliver them in time owing to the global supply chain challenges relating to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first batch of spare parts was delivered in June 2022, which will enable the first AMD pump to be operational by August 2022 and a third of the AMD plant production capacity to be brought online by August 2022.

“TCTA is expediting the delivery of the remaining spare parts to ensure that the AMD plant returns to full production by late this year,” he says, stating that the TCTA is confident that operations at the AMD plant will revert to normal and its availability will improve through the assistance provided by the agreement.

The TCTA says it will take all reasonable steps to maintain the continuity of dewatering at the AMD water treatment plant.

“Through the partnership, TCTA and Newshelf will endeavour to ensure the continuous and stable operation of dewatering of the AMD plant within one month after the equipment has been delivered to TCTA.”

Further, the authority continues to monitor the AMD water levels in the basin and is expediting the implementation of the remedial actions to ensure that the decant level is not reached.

“Whereas the Environmental Critical Level of 106 m has been breached, with the water currently at 53.45 m, the situation has not reached the dangerous level of a possible decant, which is set at 25 m below the surface. As reported previously, the danger of a decant is predicted to be only around December 2022 if the situation were to remain the same,” states Mavuso.

“TCTA is delighted with this breakthrough. It appreciates and understands the frustration this has caused affected and interested stakeholders; however, this was an unfortunate situation that could not be avoided. The organisation commits itself to work tirelessly to ensure that it avoids similar incidents in the future,” he concludes.