MiningWeekly.com Audio Articles

TSX-listed Ivanhoe Mines reports that the 3.8-million-tonne-a-year Phase 2 concentrator plant at its 39.6%-owned Kamoa-Kakula project in the Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to be 93% complete by January 31, with hot commissioning of the concentrator on track to start in April.

Ivanhoe co-chairpersons Robert Friedland and Yufeng “Miles” Sun note that this schedule is at the front end of its previous guidance of the second quarter, as well as several months ahead of the original schedule.

Hot commissioning involves introducing first ore into the plant at a reduced feed rate to set equipment parameters and test performance, with the feed rate being subsequently steadily increased.

The first copper concentrate produced from the Phase 2 plant is expected about one week after ore is fed into the ball mills.

The Phase 2 plant is identical to the 3.8-million-tonne-a-year Phase 1 concentrator plant and, as such, a faster ramp-up profile is expected, with the added benefit of operational knowledge gained during the commissioning of Phase 1.

Ivanhoe reports that the Phase 1 concentrator reached monthly design throughput during September 2021, which was the fourth full month of operation. First ore was introduced into Kamoa Copper’s Phase 1 concentrator plant on May 20, 2021, and first concentrate was produced from the Phase 1 plant on May 25.

The Phase 1 concentrator is currently running at a throughput in excess of its design capacity by more than 15%, with 117% of design throughput achieved in December.

Copper recoveries also are being achieved that are in excess of design recovery of 86%, depending on feed grade, with December’s recoveries about 2% higher.

Going forward, a dedicated project team has been appointed to de-bottleneck both the Phase 1 and Phase 2 concentrators after the latter’s commissioning, with targeted improvements aimed at increasing plant throughput from the design of 7.6-million tonnes a year, to nine-million tonnes a year – producing up to 450 000 t/y of copper in concentrate from the first two plants once steady-state is achieved.

Meanwhile, production guidance for the Kamoa-Kakula copper complex this year is between 290 000 t and 340 000 t of copper in concentrate.

“Kamoa-Kakula represents only the beginning of our undertaking to unlock the potential of this remarkable new copper province, which has the unique combination of outstanding scale, grade, mine life, and environmental, social, and governance credentials,” says Friedland.

MARK FARREN RETIREMENT

Along with the commissioning of the Phase 2 expansion, Kamoa Copper CEO Mark Farren has announced his retirement.

Ivanhoe has started the process of identifying his successor.

Farren first joined Ivanhoe in June 2014 as operations executive VP, before his appointment as Kamoa Copper CEO in October 2019 – a position in which he oversaw the construction, commissioning and operation of the Phase 1 mine and concentrator at Kamoa-Kakula, as well as the project’s Phase 2 and 3 expansions.

“[Farren] has accomplished a great deal during his time with Ivanhoe and Kamoa Copper, including delivering the Phase 1 project on budget and ahead of schedule in an unprecedented macroeconomic environment.

“Under his watch, the Phase 1 ramp-up was exceptionally smooth, and the Phase 2 expansion project is running ahead of schedule. Before he leaves, he will have successfully overseen the development of the Kamoa-Kakula complex into one of the ten largest copper producers on the planet,” says Friedland.

Sun adds that Kamoa-Kakula is an “industry benchmark” because of Farren’s leadership, especially considering the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. “I salute [Farren’s] significant contributions and wish him continuous success.”

Zijin Mining chairperson Jinghe Chen says Zijin Mining, which also holds a 39.6% interest in Kamoa-Kakula, “sincerely appreciates” Farren’s diligent work and his “magnificent” achievements in transforming the operation into a significant c...

JSE- and NYSE-listed Sibanye-Stillwater has decided to terminate its acquisition of the Santa Rita nickel and Serrote copper mines, both in Brazil, from Appian Capital for $1-billion and a 5% net smelter royalty over future production.

Sibanye intended to acquire operating companies Atlantic Nickel, which operates the Santa Rita mine, and Mineracao Vale Verder (MVV), which is developing the Serrote mine.

Sibanye explains that, subsequent to the signing of the sale and purchase agreements in October last year, a geotechnical event occurred at Santa Rita, which has been assessed and determined to have a material and adverse impact on the financial condition, the properties, assets, liabilities and operations of the mine.

The MVV deal will also be terminated, as it is conditional on the closing of the Atlantic deal.

Sibanye continues to look at acquisitive growth opportunities in the battery metals space.

Meanwhile, Appian says there is no basis for Sibanye to lawfully terminate the two agreements.

The company notes in a separate statement that the geotechnical event amounts to a localised fracture that occurs in the normal course of openpit operations.

"To remedy the condition of the area in question, some additional waste will need to be mined earlier in the mine plan which equates to less than 1% of the mine’s volume over a 34-year mine life. Appian does not agree that this constitutes a material adverse event," it notes.

According to the company, Santa Rita is expected to have a strong operational and financial performance in 2022 and generate significant free cash flow.

Appian is currently assessing all of its legal options and will take all necessary action to enforce its legal rights.

There are a lot more people looking at platinum as a hard asset and potential hedge against inflation, World Platinum Investment Council director of research Trevor Raymond said on Monday.

Responding to Mining Weekly’s questions on what has been driving platinum up over the last two weeks, Raymond raised the hard asset and hedge view, along with an array of automotive industry developments likely contributing to the platinum price rising well above the $1 000/oz mark. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Raymond spoke in a Zoom interview of the high surplus forecast of 2021 potentially reducing quite significantly in 2022 owing to factors including:

automotive manufacturers seemingly managing better with the automotive chips that they have at their disposal, which is allowing them to provide more vehicles into the market;

major producers Sibanye-Stillwater and Anglo American Platinum revising production outlook;

metal availability in the market appearing to be tight, despite the surplus forecast;

platinum lease rates rising from 0.1% for the three years prior to the pandemic to over 2% towards the end of December;

indications that fuel cell passenger vehicles might be arriving a little sooner than expected;

growing realisation of the very high carbon footprint required to produce a battery electric vehicle;

Euro 7 and China 6 emission control regulations for internal combustion engines pushing up platinum loadings; and

the recognition that platinum will potentially be in greater demand than might have been recognised.

SURPLUS FORECAST

“What we published in November was a really large surplus of over 750 000 oz for 2021. When we published a forecast for 2022, there was also a surplus of over 600 000 oz. But what we said at the time is that surplus for 2022 could actually reduce quite significantly as new information became available to the market – and I think we’ve started to see some of that,” said Raymond.

“Firstly, we’ve seen some green shoots in the recovery in the automotive industry, the supply chain issues, the shortages of semiconductor chips. There seems to be some softening there and some improvement. Already we’ve seen some of those forecasts increase the amount of light-duty vehicles expected this year by about a million vehicles.

“The other thing is that the automotive manufacturers seem to be managing better with the automotive chips that they have. We know that they are trying everything to meet the strong, pent-up consumer demand and what they’re doing, for example, is that they are delivering vehicles with less features than perhaps those same vehicles perhaps had before,” he said.

Large touch screens have given way to vehicles with much smaller screens being delivered and things such as foot-operated tailgate opening are being dispensed with.

Automakers are finding ways to provide more vehicles into the market.

“The other thing we’re seeing, in December and recently, is that both the major producers Sibanye-Stillwater and Anglo American Platinum have revised their outlook for their production, their mining supply, over the next few years and that seems to be flat to down for the next while.

“So, we think more investors are starting to realise that the spike in production was really the result of the unwinding of that backlog of material that built up due to those converter outages in 2020. We’re seeing some new information flow to the market, certainly putting pressure to reduce that 2022 surplus,” added Raymond.

Mining Weekly: We have seen the price of platinum pick up very nicely over the past two weeks, what do you believe is behind that?

Raymond: Yes, we have seen it. I think the strength is interesting. There are probably two or three main drivers. I think the first is that the gold price has been particularly strong. We do know that when the gold price is firm and moves up, it certainly moves platinum up with it. There are a lot of concerns about global inflation and certainly those inflation c...

Canadian base metals mining company Trevali Mining has started an early works programme on its Rosh Pinah 2.0 (RP2.0) mine expansion project, in south-western Namibia.

The Rosh Pinah underground zinc/lead mine – which is 90%-owned by Trevali and 10%-owned by Namibian broad-based empowerment groupings and an employee empowerment participation scheme – has been in continuous operation since 1969.

Positive results from an independent RP2.0 feasibility study were released in August 2021. The study considered the scenario of expanding the current throughput from 700 000 t/y to 1.3-million tonnes a year through the modification of the processing plant, the construction of a paste fill plant and the development of a dedicated portal and ramp to the WF3 deposit.

In a statement issued on January 20, Trevali said it was advancing certain aspects of RP2.0 to maintain the project schedule and mitigate the risks associated with the project as outlined in the feasibility study.

The early works programme, which has a capital budget of $20-million, is expected to be financed from internal cash flows.

The scope of the early works programme includes the procurement of mobile equipment, a power supply system upgrade, the procurement of long lead items for the paste backfill, portal construction and decline development and detailed engineering for the process plant.

“We are excited to kick off the early works programme,” Trevali president and CEO Ricus Grimbeek said.

FINANCING

Trevali said it was concurrently working toward securing project financing for the RP2.0 expansion project and refinancing both the existing corporate revolving credit facility and the existing facility with mining major Glencore, maturing in September.

"I am pleased with the progress made toward securing financing for the RP2.0 project and a new corporate facility. The level of interest we have seen . . . affirms our belief in the high-quality nature of the project,” Grimbeek commented.

Trevali appointed financial services provider Endeavour Financial in September 2021 to advise the company on the formation of a lending syndicate, coordinate lender due diligence and negotiate financing documentation, with the objective of providing a competitive non-equity financing solution for RP2.0 and refinancing the existing corporate revolving credit facility.

Trevali said it was considering several opportunities for the financing package, including project finance debt, subordinated debt and a silver stream on Rosh Pinah's silver production.

Trevali said it had also received nonbinding expressions of interest from several capital providers about participating in the financing process, including commercial banks, streaming and royalty companies, and mining-focused alternative lenders, as well as from Rosh Pinah's concentrate offtaker Glencore.

Glencore had indicated its support for the project by proposing an aggregate $33-million financing package, which Trevali said may include an extension to the existing Glencore facility of $13-million.

Trevali estimated that the RP2.0 expansionary capital costs would amount to about $111-million. The expanded mine was projected to produce, on average, 135-million pounds a year of payable zinc, 23.7-million pounds a year of lead and 303 000 oz/y of silver over an expected nine-year post-expansion mine life.

Modi Mining is a 100% black South African-owned company founded and owned by mining engineer and entrepreneur Samuel Molefi and entrepreneur Christina Motlapele Molefi.

The company was established with the sole objective of rendering differentiated contract mining services and to be a supplier of choice to the mining industry. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Modi Mining started operations in 2011 and has gone from strength to strength, serving some of the biggest names in the mining business.

Sam Molefi has 25 years of mining experience. He started with Gold Fields Academy and qualified as a mine engineer at Wits Technikon.

Holding a mine manager’s certificate of competency, he has managed local and international projects, including an explosives manufacturing plant in Mali.

Molefi provided technical support to Randgold Resources’ mines in Mali, has done long-term planning with platinum mines and has worked as a inme manager for chrome and ferrochrome mining companies.

In the North West, Modi Mining services some of the biggest of the big mining houses; in Mpumalanga it services the coal sector – and the company also manufactures and supplies products for major Gauteng-based gold mines and the Northwest-based platinum mines.

Sam Molefi’s latest deal is highly significant in that the contract won is close to his place of birth – Dobsonville, Soweto – and even closer to where his late father worked ­– Crown Mines, west of Johannesburg.

Modi Mining is now the key contract miner to West Wits Mining, the Australia-listed Witwatersrand gold reviver that is advancing fast on an initial A$9.5-million capital raise.

Helping West Wits Mining to come out of its starting blocks at high speed is an unexpected gold find that will result in revenue being generated considerably sooner than expected.

From next month, West Wits Mining, headed by MD Jac van Heerden, will begin turning valuable vamping material to account that nobody knew was there.

The vamping material escaped the attention of the definitive feasibility study (DFS) because entry of the dormant section of Rand Leases that closed a couple of decades ago was still unsafe at the time.

But that all changed in November and December when a ventilation system was installed, the underground made safe and the ready blasted vamping material came into view.

“It was a nice surprise for us,” an upbeat Van Heerden told Mining Weekly in the same Zoom interview in which he enthusiastically announced the appointment of Modi Mining as the company’s mining contractor.

When West Wits Mining ultimately meets its targeted 50 000 t/m, it will be looking to employ 600 to 700 people.

“At the moment, we’ll employ people through Modi Mining. They’ve got all their systems set up. We try to keep our head office, if I can call it that, relatively small, with most of the focus from the five guys we’ve got here going into Modi Mining, so that Modi Mining can do the employing. Modi Mining has got all the systems set up from their previous contracts. It's a lot easier to employ these operators through Modi Mining,” said Van Heerden.

These are the questions Mining Weekly put to Sam Molefi:

Mining Weekly: What has Modi Mining been contracted to do for West Wits Mining?

Molefi: The scope of our work is quite clear and detailed. It requires us to do the box cut brow support and to rehabilitate the old workings that have been left unattended to for years. So, we are going to be rehabilitating the brow area of the decline and putting in installations to ensure that when we enter the decline, a safe environment can be accessed. We have to make sure that the mine is set up to be able to be operated for a long-term basis. We are on early-stage works where we are establishing the footprint that will allow long-term mining to happen. That includes debushing all around the decline area. As you will recall, these mines were left a long time ago without any work happening there, so there were a lot of trees and b...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer unpacks huge advantages in South Africa modifying its Integrated Resource Plan to focus its energy effort exclusively solar, wind and storage; Hillside Aluminium which could go green by 2030; and Australian investment in Orion’s Prieska as well as in West Wits Mining.

Following successful trials, specialist graphite and graphene company Tirupati Graphite will ship the first commercial-scale column flotation system (CFS) for installation and operation at its 9 000 t/y Vatomina graphite production plant in Madagascar.

In July 2021, the Tirupati Graphene & Mintech Research Centre (TGMRC) established a pilot-scale version of its unique CFS, which it developed for use across its primary and downstream specialty graphite production plants.

The new technology is aimed at improving the performance of its primary graphite and downstream specialty graphite production processes, ultimately culminating in the latest plant, which has a capacity of 1.5-million tonnes an hour.

Tirupati executive chairperson Shishir Poddar says global flake graphite demand continues to grow on the back of the acceleration in the transition to electric mobility and growth in other flake graphite consumption areas, such as flame retardant and thermal management applications.

As such, he says, Tirupati is increasingly confident in its strategy of rapidly increasing its production capacity.

The CFS developed by Tirupati has demonstrated several advantages over conventional flotation-cell technologies commonly used in graphite processing, including the ability to reduce power consumption during the flotation stage of the process by about 40% and eliminate corrosion and wear in flotation, thereby reducing maintenance costs and production downtime.

The plant can also reduce the number of processing/flotation stages required to achieve desired graphite purity levels, thereby lowering the overall cost of production.

Tirupati will be incorporating the new CFS in its upcoming capacity expansion projects, replacing three of four flotation stages. This can be achieved without changing the planned timelines and is expected to deliver significant commercial and operational improvements, further strengthening its status as a low-cost-quartile producer of natural flake graphite.

As such, Tirupati expects significant benefits on cost and efficiency in the upcoming 18 000 t/y Sahamamy expansion to be completed at the end of the first half of this year, as well as the 54 000 t/y of additional capacity planned to be built in Madagascar by 2024.

“Our dedicated research centre in India, which is the technological backbone supporting the group’s operations, has enabled us to commercialise our CFS with many unique features,” says Poddar.

He adds that this enables the company to further reduce its costs and increase efficiencies at its primary flake graphite operations in Madagascar, downstream specialty graphite operations in India and, in due course, its primary flake graphite projects in Mozambique as well.

“We believe in continued innovation and technological improvements and continue to make progress towards being an important contributor to the energy transition economy and in the process seize the opportunities for creating sustainable values for our shareholders,” concludes Poddar.

Mineral resources group Sibanye-Stillwater has restarted some of its operations following safety-related interventions and stoppages that were announced on December 15, the company said in a statement on January 20.

Despite these interventions, however, another mineworker has died. A locomotive driver was killed in 2 Shaft at about 14:46 on January 19 at the company’s Driefontein gold mine near Carletonville, in Gauteng.

Sibanye investor relations senior VP James Wellsted tells Mining Weekly that a power outage appeared to have occurred on the locomotive level, which led to the electric locomotive stopping. During this outage, the locomotive driver exited the cab for reasons that have not yet been established, which appears to have led to him being fatally struck by either the locomotive or a hopper.

Wellsted confirms that investigations into the incident are ongoing and that Sibanye is cooperating fully with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) and the relevant unions.

He adds that, although the section where the fatality occurred has been shut down, 2 Shaft remains operational.

This is the first death at Sibanye’s operations this year, and follows the 18 fatalities recorded in 2021 – a number that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) described as a grim record for the company.

“December alone saw two incidents in less than a week, killing three mineworkers at Sibanye’s Beatrix operations in the Free State and one mineworker at Khuseleka Shaft in Rustenburg [in the North West],” AMCU claimed in a statement.

In early December, production was suspended at some of the company’s gold mining operations to improve safety conditions. The suspensions included the Kloof 1 Shaft in Gauteng, as well as at the Beatrix 1 and 3 Shafts.

Trade union Solidarity on January 20 also expressed shock over the latest fatality, suggesting that inspectors from the DMRE consider closing down the entire Driefontein mine until Sibanye “can prove that it is safe to work in [its] mines”.

Meanwhile, Sibanye reported that following the implementation of extensive safety audits and corrective measures, operations at Kloof 1 Shaft restarted in January with a gradual ramp-up of production activities.

Operations at the Beatrix 1 and 3 Shafts, however, have not yet restarted because audits and engagements with the DMRE are still ongoing. It is anticipated that production from the Beatrix operation will resume towards the end of January, Sibanye said.

The company claimed that the operational restart at the remainder of its South African gold operations, following the seasonal break, has been consistent with what was planned.

PROCESSING

Meanwhile, processing operations at Beatrix were temporarily suspended on December 28 so that rehabilitation work could be undertaken on part of an active tailings storage facility (TSF).

“A limited portion of the Beatrix TSF requires precautionary reinforcement and buttressing work and a decision to cease deposition while this work is being completed has been taken,” Sibanye said.

The suspension of processing operations at Beatrix is expected to last about three months and is scheduled for completion by April.

The company stated that underground mining activities will continue during this time and that stockpiled ore will be processed over the remainder of the year, once the TSF remediation has been completed.

PLATINUM GROUP METALS

After an initial slow return to work and startup at the company’s Marikana operation in the North West, Sibanye said that its South African platinum group metals operations were “ramping up well”.

This follows a December break at the company’s Rustenburg operation, also in the North West, where the Khuseleka shaft underwent a management-imposed safety suspension, in addition to the temporary suspension of the Thembelani shaft, which was necessary owing to an increase in Covid-19 infections among supervisory and senior management. Both shafts have resumed produ...

The executive team of Orion Minerals is re-evaluating the development schedule of the Prieska copper-zinc project to assess the potential for its fast-tracking.

Also flagged is the opportunity to extract pillars left by historic mining.

“This could present a major breakthrough for the project,” upbeat Orion CEO Errol Smart said on Thursday, when he spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also see attached Creamer Media video.)

The early production investigations, which are due for completion by mid-year, coincide with prevailing positive macroeconomic factors and the continued long-term positive outlook for both copper and zinc prices.

If given the thumbs up, opencast mining would run concurrently with the 33-month development phase of the underground Prieska Deeps Mine, rather than at the end of the project life, as was planned in the 2020 bankable feasibility study.

The focus is to reschedule the feasibility study’s phased implementation, with the studies underway assessing the potential to mine the open pit first, rather than at the end of the mine life, and for this to concur with the 33-month dewatering and mining development schedule for the 200 000 t/m Prieska Deeps Mine.

“This alternative scenario is looking increasingly like the route we should go down,” said Smart.

The early production scenario relies on the material assumptions for the mine plan already incorporated in the 2020 bankable feasibility study.

The pillars left by historic mining are soon to be tested shortly as part of a 3 500 m underground drilling programme to allow for their inclusion in the mineral resources and reserve estimation.

Engineering studies indicate that many of the pillars – left in a grid pattern purely as ground support I the absence of modern backfilling – would not be required for continued geotechnical stability of excavations if cemented tailings filling from the opencast mine were placed in the historical voids, as planned in 2020 bankable feasibility study.

Using cemented open pit mine tailings to back-fill the historic voids also provides a rethink opportunity on the size of the planned tailings storage facility, which has a high upfront capital cost.

Negotiations with multiple banks and financing institutions for the funding of the Deeps Mine, which are continuing as a priority, are not affected by the engineering studies and financial assessments of an early production value enhancement scenarios underway.

The 2020 bankable feasibility study of the outlines the plan to re-establish Prieska Copper Mine, which was previously operated as an underground mine between 1971 to 1991 when 46-million tons mined produced 430 000 t of copper and 1.01-million tons of zinc in concentrates.

“The Prieska project is something special in that it is a relatively large base metals project in South Africa but it’s going to take four years to build and it’s a big capital ticket,” said Smart.

“Over the last while we’ve been taking a lot of investors and financiers to site and people look at our open pit, that we’ve planned to mine in 30 years’ time, which is very high grade because it's a 1.9% open pit. And they say ‘why don’t you mine this upfront’, and it was always a Catch 22,” he said.

When Orion began its bankable feasibility study, the copper prices were in the US$6 000/t, whereas last week they touched on US$10 000/t.

“So, the world has changed – and there’s one thing about copper, it seems to be the one certain thing for the medium-long-term future, so, we do need to start looking through different eyes,” said Smart.

While the open pit study was always planned to be mined at 100 000 t a month in year 13, mills are already on order, deposits paid to Eskom for power connections, which has prompted Orion to start asking itself about getting production going earlier.

It was always about there being insufficient tons. The open pit’s JORC-compliant sulphide tonnage is roughly 1.1-million tons.

“We can only really speak about the JORC-compli...

Mining explosives and blasting technology supplier BME has unpacked the benefits of its latest and most advanced electronic blast detonation system called AXXIS Titanium.

The company hails this system as a significant advance for both the company and the country, as it improves South Africa’s competitiveness in the blasting space.

“The release of AXXIS Titanium has raised the bar globally for the electronic detonator market,” says MD Ralf Hennecke.

He adds that this flagship product reflects the company’s continued focus on digital advancement of mines, and is designed to seamlessly integrate with BME’s software systems and hand-held digital tools.

Technology advancement has become particularly accelerated since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, with rapid developments in modernisation, automation and digitalisation, Hennecke notes.

In keeping with these global developments and to remain competitive, BME’s technology is focused on process optimisation, which also advances environmental, social and governance prerogatives.

Hennecke says the AXXIS Titanium system is safer, more flexible and more accurate than its predecessors.

Particularly, with it operating more accurately, it ensures less fragmented blasting and, thereby, a reduced environmental impact, since it saves on mining cycles having to handle more material.

Additionally, more accurate blasting has the effect of less vibration, which is better for surrounding communities.

The manufacturing of the system supports local supply chains, since it is a South African designed and made product.

AXXIS Titanium improves safety levels and manufacturing quality through enhanced communication with the detonator during manufacturing to avoid defects.

Performance is raised through the increased blast duration per detonator, more units per blasting box and precise firing accuracy.

“The robustness of the wire, the easy-to-use interface and the improved integration will improve efficiency in terms of time, data and reporting,” notes product manager Tinus Brits.

BME puts safety at the heart of its products, particularly the AXXIS Titanium system – it incorporates a Swiss-designed integrated circuit chip in the detonator, which affords the system more safety gates against stray currents and lightning and allows for safer logging and testing.

“A unique innovation is our use of dual capacitors and dual voltage, allowing us to conduct low-voltage logging to avoid any chance of detonation,” Brits points out.

Blasts are initiated by a robust, encrypted blast command, ensuring that detonators all receive their respective commands and fire as planned. He emphasises that the detonator will only react if it receives the correct, encrypted firing sequence from the blasting equipment, not from any other source.

“We have developed AXXIS Titanium to be resistant to electromagnetic pulses caused by the blast, which can affect the accuracy of detonators or even cause them to fail.”

Brits explains that underground blasting – within confined spaces – makes detonators particularly susceptible to re-setting and misfiring owing to voltages from electromagnetic pulses, as well as from dynamic pressures.

Moreover, the application-specific integrated circuit chip boasts more memory and a faster processing speed, facilitating easier timing and centralised programming if the timing needs to be changed after being conducted on the bench. It also achieves lower power consumption with the incorporation of dual capacitors – so more detonators can be initiated per blast.

The system can now manage 1 000 detonators per blasting box, doubling the capability of the previous generation.

Brits adds that up to 20 blasting boxes can be linked and synchronised through hard wiring, enabling the possibility of initiating up to 20 000 electronic detonators in a single blast.

The AXXIS systems have been proven in some of the largest mining blasts on record, giving mines the choice of conducting fewer blasts and thereby reduci...