assmang
DESCRIPTION
Corporate BrochureTRANSCRIPT
Endeavour readers will recognize Assmang’s story of flexibility, strong belief and dedication to staff. Established in 1934 by Bob Hersov and Slip Menell, Anglovaal (Anglo Transvaal Consolidated Investment Company Limited) initially worked alongside Guido Sacco, who owned Gloucester Manganese. In 1935 the interest in manganese deposits began with the newly registered company Associated Manganese Mines of South Africa Limited, AMMOSAL, now called Assmang Limited.
A MINE IS A MineWRITTEN BY DAEMON SANDS
Staff, are the foundation of any business and historically
the focus a company places on their people is directly
proportionate to their success. It directly relates to how their
clients are looked after.
A great deal has been written regarding the reasons pertaining
to the skill shortage in South Africa and it is a testament to the
philosophy of Assmang that they are not interested in the reasons,
looking instead to the solutions. They focus on where people are
going and not where they have been, “For whatever reason there is
a skill shortage in South Africa,” Willem has said, “As a company we
ensure that employee renumeration makes us a company to work for,
a company where people do not have jobs to perform but careers to
develop”.
Focus On StaffAssmang is also a leader in housing, with a personal endeavour to
ensure every employee has their own house, “We subsidize housing
for our employees, allowing them to purchase their own properties
for themselves and their families. This contributes well to the success
of each of the mines because we build houses for employees in the
nearest towns to the mines.”
When asked about employment and looking for new staff, Willem
told us, “Yes, we do look further afield for specific staffing positions,
however we much prefer to look internally. We’ve found the benefits
of internal promotion and development of our own staff far out
weight those of merely headhunting,” this is something he feels very
strongly about, “We take people from school level, offering bursaries
ASSMANG MANGANESE
Sharing an equal share with African Rainbow Minerals they would consider themselves to be an employee focussed company. A lot of time and funds are invested into their staff and the training of local people, “We bring in people from outside the locale but we find that they don’t always stay while local people do,” Willem told us, “The industry standard on spend per employee training is about 4%, Assmang maintains 8% spend on their employees, over twice that of our competitors.”
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and training people up. Develop your staff and you’re company will
grow.”
Assmang is a one stop shop of iron ore, manganese and chrome
striving to continuously improve efficiency and productivity through
an approach strengthened with a scientific strategy involving long
term planning and day-to-day execution.
Having spoken with Willem Grobbelaar regarding Assmang there
is a clear sense of loyalty and pride felt for the company. It is not
just a business but a legacy that has outlived competitors for many
years. To cover all the aspects of Assmang we have touched on three
different mines to represent their major sectors of iron, manganese
and chrome mining.
Manganese At Black RockIn 1940, Assmang acquired a manganese ore outcrop on a
small hillock known as Black Rock in the Northern Cape province of
South Africa where several large properties underlain by ore were
subsequently found and acquired.
“Black Rock is considered to be the largest and richest manganese
deposit in the world,” Willem explain last we spoke, “Manganese ore
operations have been extended and today include the Gloria and
Nchwaning underground mines. Manganese ore is supplied locally
to Assmang-owned smelters, but is mainly exported through Port
Elizabeth to Japanese and German customers.”
The manganese ores of the Kalahari Manganese field are contained
within sediments of the Hotazel Formation of the Griqualand West
Sequence, a subdivision of the Proterozoic Transvaal Supergroup.
At Black Rock, Belgravia and Nchwaning, the Hotazel, Mapedi and
Lucknow Formations have been duplicated by thrusting. The thrusted
ore bodies comprising Black Rock (Koppie), Belgravia 1 and Belgravia
2 are collectively known as Black Rock the ore bodies. The average
thickness of the Hotazel Formation is approximately 490 metres.
Bluechip Mining Solutions offers full-scale or segmental mining
services to companies such as Anglo American, PPC, BHP Billiton
and Assmang.
Our drilling capacity is currently 230 000 to 250 000 metres per
month for 8 blasthole drilling sites, we’re able to drill individual
hole-diameters according to drilling requirements.
Our mechanical staff and fully equipped engineering workshop
allow us to rebuild and modify equipment per rock type.
Services rendered to Assmang include: Blasthole Drilling, Crushing
& Screening and Loading & Hauling (Khumani site); Blasthole
Drilling (Beeshoek site); and Exploration Drilling (Blackrock site).
Visit www.bcms.co.za or contact us +27 53 712 2858
ASSMANG MANGANESE
UNEARTHING RESULTS
Iron Ore at Khumani MineKhumani, the San people of the region literally means, “The people
of the Southern Kalahari ” and specularite associated with the iron
ore deposits in the area was actually used by the people as a cosmetic
thousands of years ago. They would mix the specularite (a kind of iron
ore) and mix it with fat in order to make a glittery makeup. The rest
of the world didn’t even know that the birth of the cosmetic industry
could have happened there.
Khumani Mine, replaced the older Beeshoek Iron Ore Mine as the
main iron ore producer for Assmang Limited and has been designed
to produce 10 million tons of export quality iron ore each year.
“This figure will eventually rise to 16 million tons upon completion
of phase 2 of the Khumani Expansion Project” said Willem.
The Phase 2 expansion includes development of the mining
platform on the King property, chrushers, material handling systems,
stockpiles, stackers & reclaimers, a local railway siding, an additional
rapid load-out station, a paste disposal facility, haul roads and other
supporting facilities.
The iron ore deposits are contained within a sequence of early
Proterozoic sediments of the Transvaal Supergroup deposited
between 2 500 and 2 200 million years ago. In general, two ore types
are present, namely laminated hematite ore forming part of the
Manganore iron formation and
conglomerate ore belonging to
the Doornfontein Conglomerate
Member at the base of the
Gamagara Formation.
Due to the larger stratiform
bodies and prominent hanging
wall outcrops at the Khumani
mine, the erosion there is less
than some of its counterparts.
The down-dip portions are well
preserved and developed while in
the outcrop the deposits are thin
and isolated. A prominent north-
south strike of the ore is visible.
Hematite is the predominant
ore mineral, but limonite and
specularite also occur.
Chrome From Dwarsrivier Mine
Chromite production from
The geological uniqueness
of this area is a source of the
success of the area and plays a
prominent role in the industry.
With such a rich abundance of
kutnohorite and braunite and
high-grade hausmannite ore.
Intermediate areas exhibit a
complex mineralogy of bixbyite,
braunite and jacobsite amongst
a host of other manganese-
bearing minerals.
Two manganese seams are
present. The No 1 seam is up to
6 metres in thickness, of which
3,5 – 4,5 metres are mined,
using a manganese marker zone
for control. There is, therefore,
minimum dilution. No mining is
presently undertaken on No 2
seam at Nchwaning or Gloria,
however it is due to commence
on Nchwaning shortly.
ASSMANG MANGANESE
In addition the plant has been designed to produce chemical grade
products but due to market dynamics the smelters are converted to
the production of ferromanganese.
Chromite operations at the Dwarsrivier Mine form part of the
Chrome Ores & Alloys operations of Assmang Limited. The mine is
situated on the farm Dwarsrivier, in the Mpumalanga province in
South Africa. Assmang purchased the farm from Gold Fields Limited,
together with all surface and mineral rights in October 1998.
The Dwarsrivier Mine is situated in the eastern limb of the
Bushveld Complex, which comprises persistent layers of mafic and
ultramafic rocks, containing the world’s largest known resources of
platinum group metals, chromium and vanadium. The mafic rocks
termed the Rustenburg Layered Suite, are approximately 8 kilometres
thick in the Eastern Lobe, and are divided formally into five zones.
The rocks of the Marginal Zone at the base of the succession consist
mainly of pyroxenites with some dunites and harzburgites. Above
the Marginal Zone, the Lower Zone comprises mainly pyroxenites,
harzburgites and dunite, and is present only in the northern part
of the Eastern Lobe, and only as far south as Steelpoort. The
appearance of chromitite layers
marks the start of the Critical
Zone, economically the most
important zone. The layers are
grouped into three sets termed
the Lower, Middle and Upper
groups. The sixth chromitite
seam in the Lower Group
(LG6), is an important source of
chromite ore and is the orebody
being mined at the Dwarsrivier
Mine. In the Eastern Lobe, in
the vicinity of Dwarsrivier, the
strike is nearly north-south,
with a dip of approximately
10 degrees towards the west.
Average thickness of the LG6
seam is about 1,86 metres in
the Dwarsrivier area. Pipe-like
ASSMANG MANGANESE
Dwarsrivier Mine is sourced
from underground. Chromite
used to be obtained from the
open-cast mining areas at a rate
of approximately 0.9 million
tons per year; however these
reserves were exhausted in
2005. Underground mining
commenced in 2005 at a rate
of 1.2 million tons Run of
Mine (ROM) per year. Current
underground design capacity
is 120,000 tons per month
ROM. The Dwarsrivier Mine
is specifically geared to deliver
high quality metallurgical grade
chromite to the Machadodorp
Works, but lately the focus
shifted to the export market.
dunite intrusions are evident in
the area, as well as dolerite dykes
that on average strike northeast-
southwest. No significant grade
variation is evident, especially
not vertically in the ore seam.
Small, insignificant regional
variations do, however, exist.
Assmang bears little
resemblance to the fledgling
company that started work on
the Northern Cape’s manganese
fields in 1935. Today, they
benefit from the modern mining
infrastructure and technologies.
Their “we do it better”
philosophy has helped to ensure
low operating costs and high
employee buy-in. With flexibility,
developed over decades of
hardship in difficult operating
conditions they are entering
a new phase in its challenging
but distinguished history with
confidence, even in the face of
tough global market conditions
and challenges.
“As long as we keep looking to
protect what is important we will
be here for the long run,” Willem
concludes.
ASSMANG MANGANESE
0027 53 751 5555
WWW.ASSMANG.CO.ZA
www.littlegatepublishing.com