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Open Pits dig up record haul |
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THE Nchanga Open Pit (NOP) and the Chingola Open Pit F&D (COP F&D) have recorded a remarkable improvement in copper ore mining in the current wet season. |
The total copper ore mined in January and February 2009 stands at 823 000 tonnes, compared to 156 000 tonnes mined in the same period last year.
Acting Manager Open Pits Obino Kalela told Konkola News that this quarter's projected copper output of 1,223 000 tonnes will be more than thrice what was achieved in the similar quarter last year, which recorded only 379 000.
He congratulated the NOP & COP F&D teams on the great effort, saying the staff had demonstrated the benefits of concerted effort in achieving the desired results.
“This achievement began with the crusade in October 2008 (just before the onset of rain) to create a sump in COP F&D for the storage and pumping of rain and ground water,” said Mr Kalela.
The sump, though not mined to the initially planned depth, was successfully excavated using a newly procured Hitachi 2500 Excavator.
Pumping using three lines was one of the most critical jobs the COP F&D team embarked on to ensure that copper ore on the higher benches of 105mB to 150mB was available for mining during the wet season.
The Open Pits have always planned to mine copper ore above mill requirements during the dry season so as to move into the wet season with a stockpile. In the recent past, however, low copper ore stockpiles have been achieved due to aging equipment and dewatering challenges experienced in COP F&D.
The current rain season began with continuous heavy down pours which posed a big threat to the operations. The teams in both pits, however, remained focused to keep the mills running on conventional copper ore treatment.
The NOP, which has been on waste stripping for a couple of years, began producing some copper ore from January 2008. “This is where some cobalt ore is also being mined,” said Mr Kalela.
The slump in the copper prices was another great challenge to the viability of the Open Pits due to the heavy and costly equipment involved in the operations.
The team rose to this challenge and managed to reduce the operating costs by not less than 20%. This involved the parking of some high cost and low productive equipment as well as the sensitisation of the team on prudent usage of consumables like fuel and explosives, coupled with proper utilisation of the available equipment.
Management has also been keen on uniting the various sections to work as a team.
“The seamless coordination of the team has made the department look forward to the next dry season with an optimism to build a stockpile by start of the next rains,” said Mr Kalela.
Author: Gerald Mulwanda Date Posted: 2009-05-12 |
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