This is the land of the First People. The Khomani San Bushmen have roamed the Kathu Pan, the Kalahari and southern Africa for tens of thousands or possibly even up to 100,000 years. Recent research has shown that the Bushmen carry the oldest known lineage of modern humans, our forefathers’ genome. These hunter-gatherers used arrows and spears with tips made of bone or stones for thousands of years before they were introduced to iron by other tribes.

The landscape in the Northern Cape of South Africa changes the farther north one goes. In the Kathu area the desert hasn’t taken over yet, but farther north the countryside transforms into red sand dunes. At the Khumani mine everything is covered with red iron ore dust. Pierre Becker is the senior general manager at the Khumani Iron Ore Mine. He started with the Assmang Group in 2004 as an engineering manager at the nearby Beeshoek Mine, and he moved to the Khumani project in 2006.

Assmang signed a contract with Transnet, the South African state-owned ports and railway company, to export 10 million tonnes of iron ore per year, using the iron ore railway link and Saldanha iron ore export terminal, north-west of Cape Town. With the Beeshoek mine not producing enough, and iron ore reserves becoming severely depleted, it was important that the new Khumani mine proceed without delay. Becker remembers how the green fields were transformed into a modern mine.

“We had to select the right equipment solution and supplier for the materials-handling side, which formed a critical part of the Khumani design, since the ore body had to be optimized over the lifespan of the mine and required blending of both the run-of-mine ore feed side as well on the final product side,” he says.

There was careful planning for a series of processes, with no room for any weak links. The iron ore would be mined from open pits by drilling and blasting. It would be loaded onto trucks to be transported to crushing facilities, then transferred by conveyor belts and stockpiled onto blending beds before going to the beneficiation plant. After that the material would move to the washing and screening plant. There would be a special circuit for the off-grade material. The final product would then be stockpiled in three different categories before moving to a rapid load-out station. Assmang needed reliable reclaimers and stackers to handle the material before it reached the processing plant, and at the stockpile.

The company searched worldwide for suppliers, as it was critical to select an equipment supplier with experience in this field and machines of a suitable size. The group initially decided to only acquire Sandvik stackers and reclaimers for phase one, and then later came to the same decision for phase two, which has just been commissioned.

“At Khumani we mine very hard iron ore, and that’s why Sandvik has been selected as our equipment and technology supplier,” Becker says. “The hard iron ore presented a challenge for us in the handling of material as well.”

It has been a learning curve for both Khumani and Sandvik in that some designs have been changed to fit the mine’s iron ore conditions.

“We are busy rolling out a new version of software with Sandvik,” Becker says. “It was first tested on the run-of-mine machines. Also, the run-of-mine stackers and reclaimers are a bit different to what was installed in phase one. I think we succeeded well in that.”

The Khumani mine is the first Sandvik-equipped mine in Africa that has fully automated reclaimers and stackers. Several machines, some weighing 500 tonnes, move around the stockpile with no operators in sight. In the control room several kilometres away, Leroux Ekkerd, a Khumani process controller, starts up the giant machines with his computer’s mouse.

“Every stockpile has its settings in the reclaimer, and it knows how many metres to go forward and where to stop before reaching the bottom of the stockpile,” Ekkerd says. “We select the product we want to reclaim and then we start the sequence.

“At the previous mine I was at, they had a conveyor running underneath the stockpile, not a reclaimer at the side of the stockpile like here,” he says. “There were lots of problems because you can’t see the problems underneath.”

Every working day, Gideon Pietersen “babysits” his machines, three huge Sandvik stackers at the stockyard. He walks around them, inspecting for faults, but seldom finds any.

“I take a walk in the morning when I come on shift,” Pietersen says. “Mostly I am here to move the machines for oversized material.”

Pierre Becker remembers the scene when he first saw what would become Khumani. “There was nothing here, absolutely nothing,” he says. “There was some game and cattle, game like kudu antelope. Some of them are still here on the property.”

The senior general manager is a keen hunter who often goes out hunting for antelopes on his farm. He refers to the hunters he really admires, who gave their name to the mine, the Khomani San Bushmen. Assmang decided to honour the Khomanis when naming the mine, but to be able to register the brand name they replaced the letter “o” with a “u”.

Assmang has been supporting the Khomani San Bushmen, donating almost 2 million rand (200,000 euros) over a couple of years. The company has built a community hall and a nursery school, and it is also assisting with the preservation of the Khomani San’s indigenous language.

“We have a close relationship with the Khomani San,” Becker says. “That is where the mine’s name originates. They are the first people that roamed this area.”