On November 18-24 2023 a delegation of ERG mining engineers from Kazakhstan visited two underground highly automated mines in South Africa – South Deep mine operated by Gold Fields and Cullinan mine operated by Petra Diamonds formerly owned by De Beers.
The South Deep mine is one of the world’s largest gold mines and the seventh deepest. The Kazakh delegation descended to the working level at 2995 m. to see the ore mining production. The mine management briefed the visitors on the ongoing restructuring program aimed at reducing the unit cost of production by introducing new technologies and automation. The use of waste chamber backfill technology and a complete re-engineering of the ventilation system implemented at the mine was also discussed. Dr Kym L Morton PhD (Imperial) MBA (Imperial) C Geol FGS FSAIMM Pr Sci Nat DIC, Water Strategist and Consulting Mining Hydrologist, KLM Consulting Services Pty Ltd accompanied the delegation to South Deep mine.
As part of the visit to South Africa the delegation also visited JAE and Epiroc, manufacturers of mining equipment, the innovative company AVA Solutions and MSP Testing Facility in Vereeniging.
