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Phalaborwa Mining Company - Excellent Quality Products
The Phalaborwa Mining Company is located in the town of Phalaborwa, and was incorporated in August 1956. Being the only producer of refined copper in South Africa, the company’s copper ore-body started in 1956, and the open pit copper mine and associated plants commenced during the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. The Phalaborwa Mining Company’s processing plants produced over 2.7 million tons of copper, making this Phalaborwa mine very significant to the copper production in South Africa. In 1996, the Phalaborwa Mining Company announced the development of an underground caving mine, supported and motivated by feasibility studies done in 1990. This site has the production rate of 30 000 tons a day.
To understand the mine, you need to look at how the minerals came to be, and where these minerals originated from. Approximately two million years ago, violent volcanic eruptions took place over a period of millions of years. These eruptions gave rise to rich area of minerals, known as the Palabora Igneous Complex. The ore body contains a unique collection of minerals, namely phosphates, uranium, nickel, magnetite, silver, gold, palladium, platinum, zirconium and of course, copper. These minerals are situated at a small hill called Loolekop.
Prior to this discovery, it is evident through various artifacts found, that smelting of copper ore and the production of a remarkably pure copper, was produced in the Phalaborwa area, in the early 8th century. Several geologists realized the occurrence of apatite, a phosphate bearing mineral, in the Loolekop area, at the beginning of the century. Due to this discovery, the development of modern mining started.
Although the Phalaborwa area is rich in a variety of minerals, the primary production product of the Phalaborwa Mining Company is copper. By-products such as anode slimes, sulphuric acid, magnetite, nickel sulphate and vermiculite are mined, but the marketing and production of vermiculite, falls under the Industrial Minerals division. The marketing of vermiculite is performed by subsidiaries in the USA, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The operation to extract vermiculite comprises of a recovery plant and open pit mining. Copper on the other hand, is mined by way of an underground mine, a copper smelter with anode casting facilities, a concentrator, arod casting plant, by-product recovery plants and an electrolytic refinery tank house.
The Phalaborwa Mining Company believes and strives to achieve excellence in all its activities. To deliver a high quality product, and to provide maximum benefits to its shareholders, employees, customers and community. But most importantly, the Phalaborwa Mining Company also recognizes its responsibility not only to the health and safety of communities, but its vital responsibility to environmental programmes.