Workers remain the backbone at Kumba
Kumba Iron Ore is increasingly using technology to improve efficiency and cut costs, but at the heart of its operations are people who are putting in enormous effort during the fundamental tasks of loading and hauling rock, the biggest cost items at the company’s flagship Sishen mine in the Northern Cape.
Loading and hauling make up two-thirds of the cost of the iron ore coming from SA’s largest iron ore miner. Since the iron ore price collapsed in 2015, Kumba gave that aspect of its operation close attention, says Mapi Mobwano, GM of Sishen.
Despite a drop in the size of the truck fleet to 98 machines from 136 in the first half of 2016, the mine’s daily tonnage has shot up 62% to 613,000 tonnes since then, with a more highly motivated workforce, a better mine design, changed shift systems and improved blasting, he says.
The drivers of monster trucks, which can haul 327 tonnes of rock at a time, push themselves hard, keeping Anglo American subsidiary Kumba steadily moored in fifth spot in the global league of seaborne iron ore exporters, but their shift system demands working hours that would leave most people numb and bored. In a 12hour shift, there is a 20-minute lunch break followed by a 30minute discretionary break towards the end of the shift, but some drivers opt not to take either, pushing right through with their eye on a quarterly bonus that can triple their small salary for the period. Truck drivers earn a basic wage of R12,000-R15,000 a month.
“This job is not for everyone,” says a driver with six years of experience as he steers a truck so large a series of ladders built onto the front of the engine is needed to reach the small air-conditioned cab perched high above the ground. “Fatigue is the big thing,” he says.
The truck, which has surprisingly soft suspension and rolls like an old scow in a storm, inducing instant seasickness in those unfamiliar with the ride, is combined with a digger that takes three scoops to fill the truck. With the use of an onboard computer that calculates loads and a running tonnage total for the shift, the driver relies on an electronic map of the 60km² mine to find loading and tipping points sent to him from a central office, a huge advance on six years ago when drivers relied on memory to traverse an array of roads.
The Sishen mining team will visit the vast open-pit Jwaneng diamond mine in Botswana to see how their peers in the Anglo stable are running their truck fleet more efficiently than at Sishen, with a fraction of the time spent idling engines and wasting diesel.
With a truck burning through 6,000l of fuel in a 24hour