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Caterpillar autonomously hauls more than one billion tonnes of material Promotions at NSDV Third-party rail access now a reality University of Pretoria to launch research centre for mechanised mining systems
CATERPILLAR
For the first time in mining history, trucks equipped with Cat MineStar Command for hauling have autonomously moved more than one billion tonnes of material in less than a year. Roughly 1.2 billion tonnes (1.3 billion tons) were autonomously hauled in 2021 using Command for hauling.
Autonomous trucks equipped with Command for hauling are operating at 18 mine sites by 10 companies across three continents. Commodities autonomously hauled include iron ore, oil sands, copper, coal and gold, spanning the 190- to 360-tonne (210- to 400-ton) class sizes.
“A recent five-year study by one of our customers autonomously hauling iron ore reported an 11% reduction in fuel usage – resulting in a 4 300-tonne-per-year (4 740 TPY) CO2 emissions reduction – 11% increase in hourly production, 50% higher maximum truck travel speed, and 35% improved tyre life,” says Marc Cameron, vice president, Caterpillar Resource Industries.
PROMOTIONS AT NSDV
NSDV, Africa’s first fully integrated law and consultancy firm – specialising in mining, construction and environmental law, has announced three senior promotions a er growing the firm from three founding members to 28 legal/corporate consultants and support sta over the past three years.
Samantha Reyneke has been promoted from general commercial litigator, operating particularly within the realms of disputes arising from construction and engineering, business rescue, and product liability, to director in the Construction Department at NSDV.
Muhammed Khan moves from his role as senior associate to director in the Mining and Environmental Law Department and Sarah Forshaw has been promoted from associate to senior associate in the Construction Department a er only six months in her previous role.
“Growing our business during the pandemic climate has been challenging, but our philosophy towards people and their growth has allowed us to reward exceptional leadership and avoid the usual ‘bide-your-time’ gauntlet many legal practitioners face,” says co-founder and director Lili Nupen.
“We o er an intimate team structure that doesn’t rely on traditional hierarchy and policies to reward exceptional results for our clients.” The University of Pretoria (UP) is set to host the South African Mining Extraction, Research, Development and Innovation (SAMERDI) Research Centre for Mechanised Mining Systems in its Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology.
Known as the Mandela Mining Precinct (MMP), its role is to modernise mining in South Africa, and is being implemented through five thematic applied research focus areas: the longevity of current mines; mechanised mining systems; advanced ore body knowledge; real-time information management systems; and the successful application of technology centred on people.
Professor Francois Malan, head of the Mining Resilience Research Centre at UP, who will be one of the heads at the new centre, says it will function as a multidisciplinary research initiative between the Departments of Mining Engineering, and Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering.
“It will establish research expertise in automated condition and performance assessment of rock and equipment, from the parameters obtained during drilling and blasting operations. The practical implication of this is that maintenance of equipment can be done more proactively.
“Furthermore, significantly more data can be obtained from the behaviour of rock mass behaviour. This will allow designs to be adapted if, for example, a harder or so er rock mass is encountered in di erent areas.”
THIRD-PARTY RAIL ACCESS IS NOW A REALITY
Private rail operators have welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that third-party rail network access is allowed, as of April this year.
Mesela Nhlapo, CEO of the African Rail Industry Association (ARIA), says the opening up of SA’s rail network to private, fee-paying operators will create cost-e ective gateways into Africa for South African goods through the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. Just as trade across Europe has thrived through the European Union, Africa is expected to benefit similarly, but that will not happen without e icient and interoperated rail systems.
Nhlapo says multiple operators will generate additional revenues for Transnet that will be invested back into catch-up maintenance. The aim is to return South Africa’s rail network to the source of global competitive advantage that it should be.
UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA TO LAUNCH RESEARCH CENTRE FOR MECHANISED MINING SYSTEMS
AECI’S KEY PRIORITIES
While it has reinvented itself as AECI Mining, the company remains focused on its important priorities and on retaining its reputation as a market leader.
With a history that spans nearly 125 years, AECI is one of South Africa’s most enduring and iconic industrial brands. Known today as AECI Mining, the company is the largest and most internationalised business in the AECI Group.
It comprises divisions that manufacture and distribute surfactants for explosives manufacture; commercial explosives, initiating systems and blasting solutions; and chemicals for ore beneficiation and tailings treatment.
The integration of these o erings under the AECI Mining banner is a reinvention of the company in respect of what it is, what it does and how it does it, says Mark Kathan, who has been AECI’s Group CFO since 2008 and recently took over the key role of AECI Mining’s managing director.
Working closely with his predecessors, Kathan has played a pivotal role in developing the integration strategy that brought together AECI Mining Explosives (AEL) and AECI Mining Chemicals (Experse and Senmin) as AECI Mining. He has also played a major part in formulating and executing the globalisation strategy that has resulted in significant expansion activity in Australia, Indonesia and South America over the past 13 years.
Kathan explains that there are priorities that AECI Mining focuses on to retain its market-leading reputation, outlining each of these in turn.
AECI Mining Explosives in South America.
PEOPLE ARE NUMBER ONE
“People are my main priority, particularly in terms of global mindset and skills. Therefore, my top priority is to make sure that our people are motivated for this approach.
“At present, we are based mostly in South Africa, sitting around the table and talking about the world. But we don’t have people from around the world at this table, creating a challenge in that lack of international input reinforces a fairly narrow perspective on reality,” he says.
“We must bring the right skills on board and some of those will have to be global. In looking for the best skills, we must remember that we have a very strong heritage. There are extremely capable South Africans all over the world – they’ve led, they’ve expanded the brand and enhanced the industry as a whole.”
A few years ago, he adds, AECI’s main board came to the same conclusion regarding its composition and consciously sought to recruit non-executive directors from other countries – an approach that has proven successful. AECI Mining now needs to do the same, he says.
“At the same time we must remember that diversity and transformation are equally important. For example, bringing women into the mining sector is both a legislative requirement locally and a global imperative.”
TRAINING AND SAFETY
To enhance skills development and training, the latest technologies – like virtual reality – are being applied. Implementation enables consistency across the world, providing users with a uniform real-life experience that enhances their capabilities. “As an example, AECI Mining has >
New water treatment facility at AECI Mining Explosives in Modderfontein.
partnered with North West University to provide six technical short learning courses that combine theory and practical exposure. The courses reinforce the requirement for e icient and safe blasting in mining and quarrying.”
He says the courses cover: ■ Commercial explosives in construction, mining and quarrying. ■ Underground tunnel and narrow reef mine blasting. ■ Underground massive mine blasting. ■ Surface mine blasting. ■ Commercial initiation systems for surface mine blasting.
“An immovable focus on safety at AECI Mining’s operations has morphed into an enduring culture where safety is viewed as a way of life. Testimony to this is the organisation’s consistent and continuous improvement in safety performance over the past decade, culminating in the best-ever total recordable incident rate of 0.16 in 2021. This is comparable with the world’s best.
“To keep improving, we have developed a safety, health, environment and quality (SHEQ) framework that maps the process of maturing safety processes and procedures from compliance to being proactive and ultimately to being resilient.
“At the same time, AECI Mining invests heavily in research and development that enhances safety at sites, through the incorporation of smart technologies including biometrics, facial recognition and virtual reality.
“We’re also members of SAFEX. Through this international learning organisation, members learn from each other as they share SHEQ information on any topic that can prevent unwanted explosives-related incidents.”
SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE
Better mining is one of the AECI Group’s sustainability goals because the company recognises the importance of making mining safer and more circular. Sustainability, explains Kathan, has a two-fold influence on AECI’s way of thinking. Firstly, it’s about looking for ways to reduce its own impact on the environment, and secondly, it takes into account the impact of its products through their life cycle.
“We are certainly on the path to Going Green, which is one of AECI’s core values. For example, we’ll be harnessing green ammonia going forward as well as some of the technology relating to extractives, to help reduce water usage.
“We’re also building two solar farms – one in Sasolburg to support the AECI Mining Chemicals business, and one in Modderfontein to support the AECI Mining Explosives business. Other Going Green initiatives already under way include the use of used oil in the production of emulsion explosives.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing the organisation today is its supply chain, due mainly to the ongoing disruptions caused by COVID-19. This was apart from activating a business continuity plan that addressed anticipated risks and challenges well ahead of COVID-19 restrictions being imposed, on the movement of people and goods across many parts of the globe, he states.
This involved locking up future raw material supply with key suppliers and filling the supply pipeline. In addition, by applying near-shoring principles and looking to suppliers closer to the point of use, shipping delays were avoided. This ensured that the supply chain was geared to manufacture and distribute products in line with customers’ changing needs during COVID-19.
AECI was able to keep all customers supplied during the worst of the pandemic. Furthermore, since the coal mining industry remains key to electricity supply in South Africa, AECI Mining was classified as a provider of “essential products and services” and was thus able to keep operating, despite the local lockdowns.
“Other swi and strategic measures we took from the outset included even greater emphasis on safe behaviours at our operations and AECI as a whole set up a health and safety task team which met virtually on a daily basis for well over a year.
“Members of the task team included the whole AECI Group executive committee, medical personnel and other subject specialists. The team developed and deployed related policies and guidelines and we tracked the health of all our employees globally on a daily basis.
“On a positive note, we were able to continue paying employees their full salaries and keep our teams intact, without needing to retrench anyone. This bears further testimony to the commitment and resilience of AECI’s people. They have taken us to marketleading positions and will keep us there into the future,” says Kathan. ■
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We provide valuable insights and expertise in the practice areas of mining law, mineral regulation and environmental law. The extensive services that we render include, but are not limited to, regulatory compliance advisory, management of licences to operate from application to compliance reporting, legal support in preparation of environmental management programmes, social and labour plans, and mining work programmes, among others. Additionally, we o er commercial transaction advisory services in mining related transactions together with mining litigation. Peta Attorneys also provides further training on mining and environmental law regulation.
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OUR LEADERSHIP
Our brand, Peta Attorneys Inc, is derived from the values and extensive expertise of our founder Dineo Peta, who is a seasoned attorney with over 16 years’ postqualification experience.
Dineo has amassed extensive experience in mining law that she acquired during her tenure at global mining companies, including BHP Billiton Energy Coal South Africa and BHP Billiton Manganese South Africa. Within these entities she managed the legal aspects pertaining to the company’s mineral and surface rights matters.
She holds numerous qualifications, including an LLM degree in Environmental Law (Wits), a certificate in Prospecting and Mining Law (Wits) and a PGD International Maritime Law (World Maritime University, Sweden). Dineo serves on various boards and currently, is the deputy chairperson of the National Nuclear Regulator as well as an interim director to the board of Alexkor SOC Ltd. She also serves on the environmental appeals panel for the Gauteng Province.
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For more information or legal assistance, please visit www.petainc.co.za or contact dineop@petainc.co.za ■
International trade and export of amongst others, mineral resources through shipping, is one of the major contributors towards greenhouse gas emissions across the globe. In Article 2 of the Paris Agreement 2015, there is an aim “…to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change…”. There have been developments at international law level and also the foreign laws of many maritime countries to promulgate various legislative, policy and strategic measures designed to reduce the usage of fossil fuels, thereby decarbonizing shipping transportation. South Africa being a signatory to the Paris Agreement and other similar international instruments, should accelerate the formulation of laws that will give effect to strategies designed to decarbonize the shipping industry.
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