Venetia mine is sparkling as brightly as the diamonds it brings to surface
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The successful transition from opencast mining to underground mining is being achieved with considerable aplomb at Venetia Diamond Mine, which Mining Weekly has just visited.
De Beers' $2.3-billion investment in the Venetia underground project, in Limpopo province, represents the biggest single investment in South Africa's diamond industry in decades.
Stay-in-business capital of $0.6-billion extends to 2027, with no investment needed into Venetia's large processing plant, coping as it does with the feed of six-million tonnes a year, from which 4.5-million carats of diamonds will be recovered annually. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)
Underground infrastructure includes two vertical shaft systems for personnel transport, ore transport and the routing of services, as well as lateral access to stations on level 54 - to which Mining Weekly descended - level 91 and level 94 for the services shaft, and the station on level 100 for the production shaft.
The service shaft has an internal diameter of 7 m and will eventually provide all the services and people transport for the underground workings. The production shaft, with the same internal diameter, is fitted with two rock winders, each having two 24 t payload skips.
Presently, Venetia is processing lower-grade surface stockpiles while the operation transitions and that will continue as the underground production slowly ramps up.
Mining underground until 2049 is expected to yield 81-million carats of diamonds from 115-million tonnes of diamondiferous material.
Reductions in the mine's carbon footprint will be realised when Envusa Energy's renewable-energy projects are operational. Envusa Energy, a joint venture between Anglo American and EDF Renewables, aims to establish a regional renewable-energy ecosystem in South Africa to meet the group's long-term power requirements.
Located 32 km south of the Limpopo river, Venetia is the only remaining diamond mining operation of the De Beers Group in South Africa and has been this country's largest producer of diamonds since 1995.
Back in the day, De Beers at some stages probably had about nine to 11 operations in South Africa and all of those operations have been sold. There are still legacy closure footprints, such as Voorspoed in the Free State, the Big Hole of Kimberley, and Namaqualand on the West Coast.
At Venetia, sampling began in 1969, opencast development in 1990, opencast mining from August 1992 to December 2022, and underground mining has been proceeding since 2023.
With ramp up of the underground to six-million carats a year having been slowed to 2032, the life of mine now extends to 2049.
The 17-person leadership team that has emerged from the resizing process is now implementing the new underground ramp-up projection.
During opencast mining, a very good 101 grade was achieved and the 838-million tonnes of ore and waste moved yielded 143-milion diamond carats.
Venetia Senior GM Ntokozo Ngema, Venetia GM Underground and Projects Jan Nel and Venetia Senior Mining Manager Thabo Mokone outlined the next chapter of Venetia's journey to Mining Weekly.
They led us through the Integrated Operations Centre (IOC) and thereafter up the production shaft headgear, which provided an overview the mine's infrastructure, taking in the large plant, primary crusher, primary stockpile, secondary and tertiary crusher, water recovery, primary and secondary scrubbing, fines and coarse dense media separation, and diamond recovery. Noteworthy is the mine's dry tailings dam.
The descent down the mine in the cage highlighted that safety is front and centre of the underground environment, which is reflected by the mine achieving 13-million fatality-free shifts.
We witnessed the IOC helping to advance safety still further, al...
South Africa