Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Day 16 Anglo Platinum Mine
18 January 2005
The Underworld of South Africa
Today was the day of the much anticipated visit to the Anglo Platinum mine. Last night we set out our good walking shoes and packed our change of underwear, as instructed. We were off to an early start this morning when Roben, our tour guide, picked us up at 5:15 am. We were also accompanied by Betsy from the Chamber of Mines. With only guesses as to what lay ahead, we set off to explore the inner workings of South Africa's Underworld.
It was a sleepy drive, around 2 hours, to Rustenburg where the Merensky and UG2 platinum reefs were discovered in 1907. From the surface it is impossible to tell that the surrounding 6000 square km of land cover a layer of rich platinum ore. We were welcomed by second breakfast at the sporting club on the mining compound. After a sandwich and tea we met with Rudy Rudolph, the mine manager.
Rudy and his team filled us in on all kinds of interesting platinum facts. For instance Anglo Platinum employs 44,000 people, 7,500 of which work at the Townlands shaft (where our tour eventually took us). South Africa is the leading exporter of platinum. Forty percent of platinum produced is used for jewelry (sparkly!!) Industrial uses include catalytic converters and fuel cells. We also learned about some of the social programs provided for miners. There are education programs as well as treatments for HIV/AIDS.
But, on to the exciting part? Eventually they put a halt to our never ending questions and we loaded in a bus to travel to the shaft.
Upon arrival to the Townlands shaft, we were showed to the changing rooms. Our mining gear was waiting for us in neat little piles labeled with each of our names. We donned our knee high socks, coveralls, hard hats, rubber boots, belts and ear plugs and were extatic to see that we looked like real miners. We made our way over to the shaft where our outfits were completed with a head lamp attached to a good sized battery pack. We were ready to go.
We climbed into the lift as our guides informed us that the lift travels at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour or about 36 miles per hour? There's no need to worry about falling over however, because there is no wasted space in a lift. We switched on our headlamps, and off we went 600 meters into the earth. We arrived at level 15 where we piled into a battery powered tramcar for a ten minute ride to the section of the mine we would be visiting. Packed into the tram we realized why the gigantic cooling and ventilation systems on the surface pumps 550 cubic meters of air into the mine each second. It's a bit like a blast furnace down there. Without the cooling system the underground temps would be well above 100 deg (F). The cooling keeps the mine at a balmy 80 or 90. (and when I say balmy, I mean the ceiling drips and there are trenches of water alongside the walking paths in the tunnels)
Following the tram ride, we discovered that although there's no skiing in South Africa, they still have chair lifts. To reach the working level of the mine we hopped on the miner's version of the chair lift. It looked a bit like a tricycle with no wheels attached to a cable. We zipped off down the inclined shaft (about a 17%) grade.
Despite a few struggles with loading and unloading procedures we made it from level 15 to level 23, near the bottom of the 900 meters of mine. Our meeting had informed us that the temperature underground goes up 17 deg for every 100 meters of depth. We experienced this first hand today.
On level 23 we learned a bit about the safety measures, the daily schedule, and the tunnel structure. The day shift is manned by drillers, who use large pneumatic drills to drill a series of holes in the stope (work area). The then use compressed air to pack explosives into the holes. At 3:00 pm when the mine is cleared of first shift, the explosives are detonated. Then the next shift comes in to clear out the rock.
To see the drilling up close was a bit of a challenge. The major platinum reefs are less than 1 meter thick, so the mined out area near the stope is about 1 meter high. That wasn't enough to stop us, we crawled right in.
After quite a bit of crawling, sliding and crab walking through the muddy gravel we realized why that recommended shower and change of clothes was going to be welcome and necessary.
We made our way back to the ski lift, onto the tram, into the lift, and back out into the daylight. We were dazed by the bright sun, and the fact that the mine we were in produces 290,000 tons of platinum ore per month.
Our adventures were not over. After a quick shower, we were off the condensing plant. After a brief presentation we received our new set of safety gear including steel toed boots, safety glasses and hard hats. The plant is like a small city. Sorry, no photos allowed. It was built two years ago and process 400,000 tons of ore per month. It's a fascinating process that takes 1 ton of ore and produces around 240 grams of platinum. There are rock crushers and vibrating separators, cyclones and float tanks and kilometer after kilometer of pipes for clean water, dirty water, different slurries, all the chemical reactants, the lubricating oil system?
For those of you who can think in Mega Watts, the rock crushing mill requires 9 MW of power! They also use a machine vision camera to optimize the mix of large ore pieces and gravel entering the mill on the conveyor (there's a future for team HEXFIRE).
The rest of the day was pretty anticlimactic after walking the scaffolding above the plant. We were served a delicious late lunch and enjoyed a nice history of South Africa from Robin on the way home. And so concludes the underground adventures of the Calvin College miners.
Before the whistle blows, I will just send my love to all the uncers and buxtons. I will see you soon.
~Dawn