Company Profile

Company Description:

Corporate Profile

Assmang Proprietary Limited, a company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa and its joint venture and subsidiary companies.

The Company mines manganese ore at the Black Rock Mining Complex, iron ore at Khumani and Beeshoek Mines in the Northern Cape Province and chrome ore at Dwarsrivier Mine in Mpumalanga province.

The Company also produces manganese alloys at its works at Cato Ridge in the Kwazulu-Natal province and at Machadodorp in the Mpumalanga province. Cato Ridge Alloys Proprietary Limited, a joint venture between the Company and Mizushima Ferroalloys Company Limited (40%) and Sumitomo Corporation (10%), both of Japan, produces refined manganese alloys at Cato Ridge Works.

Incorporated in 1935, the Group employs 6 567 permanent employees and operates as three divisions, namely iron ore, manganese and chrome. Assmang is controlled jointly by Assore Limited and African Rainbow Minerals wich each holds 50% of the issued share capital and voting rights of the Company. Both shareholders are listed on the JSE Limited.

The bulk of the Groups production is exported to the Far East, Europe, India and the United States of America.

Introduction

Manganese ore is mined in the Black Rock area of the Kalahari, in the Northern Cape Province. The majority of the production is intended for export, but a portion is supplied within the Group to the two smelters: Cato Ridge Works in KwaZulu-Natal, and Machadodorp in Mpumalanga.

Location

Black Rock is approximately 80 kilometers north-west of the town of Kuruman. (Map)

History

In 1940, Assmang acquired a manganese ore outcrop on a small hillock known as Black Rock. Several large properties underlain by ore were subsequently found and acquired. Manganese ore mining operations were extended and today include 3 underground mining complexes:

• Gloria (commissioned in 1975) and producing medium grade carbonated ore

• Nchwaning 2 and Nchwaning 3 (commissioned in 1981 and 2004 respectively) and producing high grade oxide ore.

Today the Kalahari Basin is considered to be the largest and richest manganese deposit in the world.

History >>

Geology

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. The average thickness of the Hotazel Formation is approximately 40 metres.

The manganese ore bodies exhibit a complex mineralogy and more than 200 mineral species have been identified to date.  The hydrothermal upgrading has resulted in a zoning of the orebody with regard to fault positions.  

Distal areas exhibit more original and low-grade kutnohorite and braunite assemblages, while areas immediately adjacent to faults exhibit a very high-grade hausmannite ore.  The intermediate areas exhibit a very complex mineralogy, which includes bixbyite, braunite and jacobsite amongst a host of other manganese-bearing minerals.  

A similar type of zoning also exists in the vertical sense. At the top and bottom contacts it is common to have high iron (Fe) and low manganese (Mn) contents while the reverse is true towards the centre of the seam.  This vertical zoning has given rise to a mining practice where only the centre portion of the seam is being mined. 

At the Gloria Mine the intensity of faulting is much less, which also explains the lower grade.

Two manganese seams are present.  The No. 1 seam is up to 6 metres in thickness and approximately 400 metres underground at Nchwaning and 200 metres underground at Gloria.
  
Mining of Nchwaning’s No 2 seam has recently started.  This second seam is situated above No 1 seam and is accessed via the Nchwaning 2 mining infrastructure.

In February 2014 the Black Rock Expansion Project was commissioned to increase the output of high-grade manganese ore products.  This project aims to ensure the mine’s sustainable longevity. Current mining operations produce +/- 3.2 Mt per annum.  The expansion project will lead to increased output to 4.6 Mt.  A total of R6.7bn will be invested to make this expansion possible.