Endeavour readers will recognize Assmang’s story of flexibility, strong belief and dedication to staff. Established in 1934 by Bob Hersov and Slip Menell, Anglovaal (Anglo Transvaal Consolidated Investment Company Limited) initially worked alongside Guido Sacco, who owned Gloucester Manganese. In 1935 the interest in manganese deposits began with the newly registered company Associated Manganese Mines of South Africa Limited, AMMOSAL, now called Assmang Limited.

A MINE IS A MineWRITTEN BY DAEMON SANDS

Staff, are the foundation of any business and historically

the focus a company places on their people is directly

proportionate to their success. It directly relates to how their

clients are looked after.

A great deal has been written regarding the reasons pertaining

to the skill shortage in South Africa and it is a testament to the

philosophy of Assmang that they are not interested in the reasons,

looking instead to the solutions. They focus on where people are

going and not where they have been, “For whatever reason there is

a skill shortage in South Africa,” Willem has said, “As a company we

ensure that employee renumeration makes us a company to work for,

a company where people do not have jobs to perform but careers to

develop”.

Focus On StaffAssmang is also a leader in housing, with a personal endeavour to

ensure every employee has their own house, “We subsidize housing

for our employees, allowing them to purchase their own properties

for themselves and their families. This contributes well to the success

of each of the mines because we build houses for employees in the

nearest towns to the mines.”

When asked about employment and looking for new staff, Willem

told us, “Yes, we do look further afield for specific staffing positions,

however we much prefer to look internally. We’ve found the benefits

of internal promotion and development of our own staff far out

weight those of merely headhunting,” this is something he feels very

strongly about, “We take people from school level, offering bursaries

ASSMANG MANGANESE

Sharing an equal share with African Rainbow Minerals they would consider themselves to be an employee focussed company. A lot of time and funds are invested into their staff and the training of local people, “We bring in people from outside the locale but we find that they don’t always stay while local people do,” Willem told us, “The industry standard on spend per employee training is about 4%, Assmang maintains 8% spend on their employees, over twice that of our competitors.”

Many SolutionsMany SolutionsMany SolutionsOne Source

FLSmidth is your One Source for crushing, grinding, classifying, thickening, clarifying, slurry handling, flotation, underground mining, pyroprocessing, material handling, automation, engineering, screens, centrifuges and complementary products, metallurgical testing and modernisation services. FLSmidth offers you a complete line of equipment and services with proven reliability and enhancing performance from the leading brand names of Krebs, WEMCO, EIMCO, Dorr-Oliver, Pneumapress, Moller, Vecor, ABON, RAHCO, Buffalo, Meshcape and Conveyor Engineering. Meshcape™ Screen Media is an ISO accredited Engineered Consumable Product (ECP) supplier to the Quarry, Industrial and Mining industries throughout Africa. Contact us on: Tel: +27 (0)10 210 5000 • Fax: +27 (0)11 452 2545 E-mail: za-mesh-sales@flsmidth.com • www.flsmidth.com

fls meshcape littlegate 8jul13.indd 3 7/8/2013 2:01:22 PM

and training people up. Develop your staff and you’re company will

grow.”

Assmang is a one stop shop of iron ore, manganese and chrome

striving to continuously improve efficiency and productivity through

an approach strengthened with a scientific strategy involving long

term planning and day-to-day execution.

Having spoken with Willem Grobbelaar regarding Assmang there

is a clear sense of loyalty and pride felt for the company. It is not

just a business but a legacy that has outlived competitors for many

years. To cover all the aspects of Assmang we have touched on three

different mines to represent their major sectors of iron, manganese

and chrome mining.

Manganese At Black RockIn 1940, Assmang acquired a manganese ore outcrop on a

small hillock known as Black Rock in the Northern Cape province of

South Africa where several large properties underlain by ore were

subsequently found and acquired.

“Black Rock is considered to be the largest and richest manganese

deposit in the world,” Willem explain last we spoke, “Manganese ore

operations have been extended and today include the Gloria and

Nchwaning underground mines. Manganese ore is supplied locally

to Assmang-owned smelters, but is mainly exported through Port

Elizabeth to Japanese and German customers.”

The manganese ores of the Kalahari Manganese field are contained

within sediments of the Hotazel Formation of the Griqualand West

Sequence, a subdivision of the Proterozoic Transvaal Supergroup.

At Black Rock, Belgravia and Nchwaning, the Hotazel, Mapedi and

Lucknow Formations have been duplicated by thrusting. The thrusted

ore bodies comprising Black Rock (Koppie), Belgravia 1 and Belgravia

2 are collectively known as Black Rock the ore bodies. The average

thickness of the Hotazel Formation is approximately 490 metres.

Bluechip Mining Solutions offers full-scale or segmental mining

services to companies such as Anglo American, PPC, BHP Billiton

and Assmang.

Our drilling capacity is currently 230 000 to 250 000 metres per

month for 8 blasthole drilling sites, we’re able to drill individual

hole-diameters according to drilling requirements.

Our mechanical staff and fully equipped engineering workshop

allow us to rebuild and modify equipment per rock type.

Services rendered to Assmang include: Blasthole Drilling, Crushing

& Screening and Loading & Hauling (Khumani site); Blasthole

Drilling (Beeshoek site); and Exploration Drilling (Blackrock site).

Visit www.bcms.co.za or contact us +27 53 712 2858

ASSMANG MANGANESE

UNEARTHING RESULTS

Iron Ore at Khumani MineKhumani, the San people of the region literally means, “The people

of the Southern Kalahari ” and specularite associated with the iron

ore deposits in the area was actually used by the people as a cosmetic

thousands of years ago. They would mix the specularite (a kind of iron

ore) and mix it with fat in order to make a glittery makeup. The rest

of the world didn’t even know that the birth of the cosmetic industry

could have happened there.

Khumani Mine, replaced the older Beeshoek Iron Ore Mine as the

main iron ore producer for Assmang Limited and has been designed

to produce 10 million tons of export quality iron ore each year.

“This figure will eventually rise to 16 million tons upon completion

of phase 2 of the Khumani Expansion Project” said Willem.

The Phase 2 expansion includes development of the mining

platform on the King property, chrushers, material handling systems,

stockpiles, stackers & reclaimers, a local railway siding, an additional

rapid load-out station, a paste disposal facility, haul roads and other

supporting facilities.

The iron ore deposits are contained within a sequence of early

Proterozoic sediments of the Transvaal Supergroup deposited

between 2 500 and 2 200 million years ago. In general, two ore types

are present, namely laminated hematite ore forming part of the

Manganore iron formation and

conglomerate ore belonging to

the Doornfontein Conglomerate

Member at the base of the

Gamagara Formation.

Due to the larger stratiform

bodies and prominent hanging

wall outcrops at the Khumani

mine, the erosion there is less

than some of its counterparts.

The down-dip portions are well

preserved and developed while in

the outcrop the deposits are thin

and isolated. A prominent north-

south strike of the ore is visible.

Hematite is the predominant

ore mineral, but limonite and

specularite also occur.

Chrome From Dwarsrivier Mine

Chromite production from

The geological uniqueness

of this area is a source of the

success of the area and plays a

prominent role in the industry.

With such a rich abundance of

kutnohorite and braunite and

high-grade hausmannite ore.

Intermediate areas exhibit a

complex mineralogy of bixbyite,

braunite and jacobsite amongst

a host of other manganese-

bearing minerals.

Two manganese seams are

present. The No 1 seam is up to

6 metres in thickness, of which

3,5 – 4,5 metres are mined,

using a manganese marker zone

for control. There is, therefore,

minimum dilution. No mining is

presently undertaken on No 2

seam at Nchwaning or Gloria,

however it is due to commence

on Nchwaning shortly.

ASSMANG MANGANESE

In addition the plant has been designed to produce chemical grade

products but due to market dynamics the smelters are converted to

the production of ferromanganese.

Chromite operations at the Dwarsrivier Mine form part of the

Chrome Ores & Alloys operations of Assmang Limited. The mine is

situated on the farm Dwarsrivier, in the Mpumalanga province in

South Africa. Assmang purchased the farm from Gold Fields Limited,

together with all surface and mineral rights in October 1998.

The Dwarsrivier Mine is situated in the eastern limb of the

Bushveld Complex, which comprises persistent layers of mafic and

ultramafic rocks, containing the world’s largest known resources of

platinum group metals, chromium and vanadium. The mafic rocks

termed the Rustenburg Layered Suite, are approximately 8 kilometres

thick in the Eastern Lobe, and are divided formally into five zones.

The rocks of the Marginal Zone at the base of the succession consist

mainly of pyroxenites with some dunites and harzburgites. Above

the Marginal Zone, the Lower Zone comprises mainly pyroxenites,

harzburgites and dunite, and is present only in the northern part

of the Eastern Lobe, and only as far south as Steelpoort. The

appearance of chromitite layers

marks the start of the Critical

Zone, economically the most

important zone. The layers are

grouped into three sets termed

the Lower, Middle and Upper

groups. The sixth chromitite

seam in the Lower Group

(LG6), is an important source of

chromite ore and is the orebody

being mined at the Dwarsrivier

Mine. In the Eastern Lobe, in

the vicinity of Dwarsrivier, the

strike is nearly north-south,

with a dip of approximately

10 degrees towards the west.

Average thickness of the LG6

seam is about 1,86 metres in

the Dwarsrivier area. Pipe-like

ASSMANG MANGANESE

Dwarsrivier Mine is sourced

from underground. Chromite

used to be obtained from the

open-cast mining areas at a rate

of approximately 0.9 million

tons per year; however these

reserves were exhausted in

2005. Underground mining

commenced in 2005 at a rate

of 1.2 million tons Run of

Mine (ROM) per year. Current

underground design capacity

is 120,000 tons per month

ROM. The Dwarsrivier Mine

is specifically geared to deliver

high quality metallurgical grade

chromite to the Machadodorp

Works, but lately the focus

shifted to the export market.

dunite intrusions are evident in

the area, as well as dolerite dykes

that on average strike northeast-

southwest. No significant grade

variation is evident, especially

not vertically in the ore seam.

Small, insignificant regional

variations do, however, exist.

Assmang bears little

resemblance to the fledgling

company that started work on

the Northern Cape’s manganese

fields in 1935. Today, they

benefit from the modern mining

infrastructure and technologies.

Their “we do it better”

philosophy has helped to ensure

low operating costs and high

employee buy-in. With flexibility,

developed over decades of

hardship in difficult operating

conditions they are entering

a new phase in its challenging

but distinguished history with

confidence, even in the face of

tough global market conditions

and challenges.

“As long as we keep looking to

protect what is important we will

be here for the long run,” Willem

concludes.

ASSMANG MANGANESE

0027 53 751 5555

WWW.ASSMANG.CO.ZA

www.littlegatepublishing.com