
Phalaborwa – a Limpopo town located near the confluence of the Ga-Selati and the Olifants river – is close enough to the Kruger National Park that elephants sometimes cause traffic jams in the town. It is also home to Palabora Copper, an enormous open-cast mine – at almost 2 000m wide, it is Africa’s widest man-made hole.
Opencast mining has been replaced by a large-scale underground operation that will extend the life of mine considerably. Most of South Africa’s copper is mined in Phalaborwa.
Palabora Mining Company (PMC) is one of the operating mines in the area and has numerous operations including a concentrator, smelter, refinery and vermiculite operations. The underground operation produces about 80 000t of copper a year. The mine is shaped in a block-cave, with the cave reaching 450m. Ore extracted from the mine is conveyed to a converter where crushing, milling and flotation takes place. The ore then goes through additional processing in the form smelting and refining. PMC has also made significant investment in the Lift II project, which is expected to expand the life of mine to ensure that it continues until 2033.
Visitors:
Name of operation | Type of Operation | Owner of Operation | Commodity |
Palabora Copper Mine | Underground | Palabora Mining Company | Copper, magnetite, vermiculite |
Phalaborwa Smelter and Refinery | Processing | Palabora Mining Company | Copper, magnetite, vermiculite |
Foskor Mine | Opencast | Foskor Mining Division | Phosphate |
Foskor Processing | Processing | Foskor | Phosphate |
Idwala Magnetite | Processing | Idwala | Magnetite |
Rob 5 Mining | Mining | Rob 5 | Feldspar, mice and silica |
Foskor Zirconia | Processing | Foskor | Zirconia, silica |
Stibium Mopani Mine | Processing | Stibium | Antimony |
Exhibitors we would like to see:
Exhibitors we would like to see at the Phalaborwa expo include those involved with underground fire detection and sensors, dust suppression, corrosion control, high pressure washers, fans, conveyor rip detection systems, electrical instrumentation and water treatment systems and pumps.
Contact us if you need more information