Palabora Mine - Still Churning Out Copper Next to Kruger

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PRETORIA 002250 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE PLEASE PASS USAID STATE PLEASE PASS USGS DEPT FOR AF/S, EEB/ESC AND CBA DOE FOR SPERL AND PERSON E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EMIN EPET ENRG EINV EIND ETRD SENV SF SUBJECT: Palabora Mine - Still Churning Out Copper Next to Kruger National Park -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Palabora mine is South Africa's largest copper mine, producing 148,000 tons of copper per year at its peak in 1998 and about 4.5 million cumulative tons since the start of full production in 1966. The open-pit was one of the world's biggest and lowest cost copper producers but it closed in 2002 after reaching a depth of 819 meters. The orebody is known to continue down to at least 1,800 meters and mining operations have been successfully extended underground to mine ore below the pit. This has given Palabora an additional 20-30 years of life. The mine has been a significant growth engine for the region and also produces by-products of magnetite, nickel, precious metals, and sulfuric acid. Palabora also operates two open-pits adjacent to its copper operation where vermiculite is mined and processed. The mine shares a boundary with South Africa's famous Kruger National Park and on a September 30 visit, Minerals/Energy Officer and Specialist were impressed with seeing elephant, African buffalo, and antelope walking freely around the mine property. End Summary. -------------- Palabora Mining Complex -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The Palabora copper mine is located in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, approximately 560 kilometers northeast of Johannesburg. It shares a boundary fence with South Africa's famous wild-life reserve, the Kruger National Park, and lies only some eight kilometers from a park's main entrance. This gives the mine and town an ambience shared by few other mining communities in the world. Palabora Mining Company's major product is copper rod, mainly used for making electrical wire and cable. The company is South-African listed and is 47.2 percent-owned by the multi-national, diversified mining company Rio Tinto. The mining complex consists of a large underground mine, concentrator, copper smelter with anode-casting facilities, sulfuric acid plant, electrolytic refinery tank house, rod-casting plant, and by-product recovery plants. By-products include magnetite, nickel, anode slimes and sulfuric acid. Palabora also operates two open-pits adjacent to its copper operation where vermiculite is mined and processed for sale worldwide. Vermiculite is a versatile industrial mineral with many uses based on its unique insulation, inertness, and thermal expansion properties -- on heating it expands some thirty times its original volume. Adjacent to Palabora's operation is state-owned Foskor company that mines phosphate minerals to produce phosphoric acid used in the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers for local sales and export. The two companies cooperate by exchanging phosphate and copper, which are waste products in the respective operations. -------------- Palabora Geology is Unique -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The unique Palabora deposit is a cylindrical-shaped volcanic plug that was intruded into the granitic terrain some two-billion years ago. It consists mainly of carbonate minerals and Qtwo-billion years ago. It consists mainly of carbonate minerals and is known geologically as a carbonatite. Its central core contains most of the copper and is surrounded by a number of concentric rings of differing mineral composition, hosting a unique variety of minerals such as copper, nickel, phosphates, magnetite, uranium, zirconium, and precious metals. Carbonatites are fairly rare occurrences and Palabora is unique in that it is the only one in the world mined solely for its copper. Others tend to be mined for rare earths and rare metals such as niobium and tantalum. -------------- A Carbonatite Yields its Riches -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Palabora operates an integrated underground mine, concentrator, smelter and refinery complex. The mine was PRETORIA 00002250 002 OF 004 established as an open-pit operation and commercial production began in 1964, reaching full production in 1996. The mine reached peak output between 1977 and 2000, and declined thereafter as the pit deepened and narrowed. The open-pit ore graded at about 0.5 percent copper, making it one of the lowest-grade, but still profitable copper mines in the world. It produced 100,000 to 148,000 tons of copper per year during its peak years from 1977 to 2000. Over its forty-year life to date the mine has produced for sale a total of about 4.5 million tons of copper and 13 million tons of magnetite concentrate. In the process it also accumulated some 240 million tons of magnetite-rich ore, which have been stockpiled for future sale. -------------- Moving Underground -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Deep drilling had shown copper ore to exist to at least 1,800-meters below surface. As the pit approached its economic limit, two shafts were sunk near the pit edge to a depth of 1,280 meters each. The total cost of the shafts and mine development was $410 million. By the time the new mine reached designed output of 30,000 tons of ore per day in 2005, the now non-economic pit had reached a depth of 819 meters. This made it the deepest and biggest circular pit in Africa and one of the largest in the world. Underground operations have since yielded nearly 300,000 tons of finished copper and 3.3 million tons of saleable magnetite concentrate. ¶6. (SBU) The move underground reduced ore production by 60 percent, but this has been partially offset by an increase in grade to about 0.7 percent copper. The new mine uses a bulk-production "Block Cave" mining method because it is safe and cost effective and uses natural stresses to break the rock with minimum blasting. The majority of capital was expended early in the mine development sequence. The 450-meter thick rock mass lift being mined hosts 245 million tons of copper ore, including that still at the base of the pit. The next planned lift of 400 meters will take the mine to a depth of 1,700 meters and the two lifts will extend the mine's life by between 20 and 30 years, given present conditions. Deeper mining is likely to impact the shaft system, and the cost to re-enforce or re-establish the infrastructure will determine its viability. The ambient rock temperature at 1,250 meters is 48-50 degrees Celsius and provision for costly refrigeration will also be a decision factor. -------------- Extracting the Valuable Products -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Ore processing at Palabora uses a conventional crushing-milling-flotation concentration circuit followed by smelting and electrolytic refining to produce copper cathodes and copper rods. Palabora produced about 92,000 tons of refined copper in 2007 of which 67,000 tons were copper rod. This supplied some 85 percent of South Africa's copper needs with the balance being exported. Palabora concentrate contains 30 percent copper and the Qexported. Palabora concentrate contains 30 percent copper and the mine blends high-grade copper concentrate from Chambishi in Zambia containing 43 percent copper to improve process economics. Palabora also produced in 2007: -- 1.31 million tons of magnetite concentrate, mainly exported to China to be used in their coal and steel industries, and also supplied to the local coal industry; -- 108 tons of anode slime from the refining process, containing 12.2 tons of precious metals of gold, silver, platinum and palladium; -- 154,000 tons of sulfuric acid for own use and sale; -- 200,000 tons of vermiculite concentrate; -- 36 tons of nickel-sulfate; and -- 95 tons of nickel metal in a concentrate. ¶8. (SBU) Palabora's stockpiles hold about 240 million tons of raw PRETORIA 00002250 003 OF 004 magnetite, but magnetite exports are constrained by limited rail capacity. Management is evaluating the feasibility of reviving plans for a 10-million ton per year slurry pipeline to transport magnetite to Mozambique for export to steel mills in Brazil. This was first mooted decades ago, but turned down because of the cost of routing the pipeline around the Kruger National Park. The current high price of iron ore has rekindled the company's interest in this project. -------------- Living in Harmony with Wildlife -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Palabora Copper Mine is South Africa's only major copper producer, but it is a relatively small producer compared to the giant mines of the Central African Copperbelt. The mine comes close to satisfying a reasonable standard of sustainable development in a rural environment. Wildlife from the adjacent Kruger National Park freely winter in the mine concession area, seeking grazing and watering during the dry winter months. Minerals and Energy Officer and Specialist toured the mine on September 30, and were privileged to see herds of elephant, African buffalo and antelope roaming the veld near the mine offices. The team also saw "evidence" of minor destruction of trees and structures that had got in the way of advancing elephants. Despite these slight "inconveniences", the animals appear neither threatened nor threatening and their presence is generally enjoyed by the locals. -------------- A Big Mine with a Huge Positive Footprint -------------- ¶10. (SBU) Far from being a "Resource Curse", the Palabora mine appears to have been a blessing to the local community and the region. The Palabora mine: -- completed a seamless conversion from open-pit to underground mining with little disruption to economic activity and a significant injection of capital; -- has grown a small rural settlement into a modern thriving town of 200,000 people; -- enables South Africa to continue to be virtually self-sufficient in copper; -- allows the town to use its proximity to the Kruger Park to ensure its socio-economic sustainability through tourism when the mine eventually ceases production in 20-30 years; -- with Foskor contributes 80 percent of the area's GDP; -- constitutes the single largest employer in the region and provides employment to 2,200 people; -- contributes millions of rands per month to schools, clinics and numerous social and upliftment programs; -- spent 90 percent of the recent $410 capital expenditure to establish the underground mine in South Africa, of which more than 11 percent was been spent in the town of Phalaborwa. -------------- Some Outstanding Issues -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Some issues and concerns confronting the Palabora mine include: -- a possible future land claims from local inhabitants, which management may seek to convert to equity to meet the Mining Charter requirement for 26 percent black ownership; Qrequirement for 26 percent black ownership; -- an ore dilution and related grade decline caused by a pit wall collapse could result in a 30 percent loss of the block cave ore reserve; -- a shaft infrastructure is too close to the pit and may prevent development of a life-extending third lift; -- a severe skills shortage due to emigration of white staff and loss of trained black staff who are highly marketable (there was a 33 percent loss in 2007); -- the need to complete negotiations with neighbor Foskor for a buy-in of a western extension of the concession that would give Palabora an additional three-year life; PRETORIA 00002250 004 OF 004 -- an on-going search for buy-in of copper concentrate to maintain concentrator tonnage and process economics. Fortunately the needed copper concentrate is readily available from Zambia and the DRC. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶12. (SBU) A view from the top of the mine shaft shows a defunct open-pit with collapsed and crumbling pit walls, and other scars inevitably associated with mining. The open-pit is not a pretty sight, but the mine has made a significant socio-economic contribution to the area. The presence of substantial wildlife is testimony to the environmentally sustainable approach taken by Rio Tinto and its mine management. Current copper prices provide reason to believe that the mine will continue to contribute to the Palaborwa community for the next 20-30 years. End Comment. LA LIME