Abandoned mine sites can be used for pumped-storage power schemes, says renewable-energy generation and storage provider Genex Power’s Simon Kidston on page 19 of this edition of Mining Weekly. Kidston spoke at the Science Business Society Dialogue conference on linking science, society, business and policy for the sustainable use of abandoned mines in the Southern African Development Community region. He suggests targeting abandoned mines that have stable conditions and are close to electricity transmission infrastructure. Interestingly, the development of an integrated solar/pumped hydro project is under way at a closed gold mine in Queensland, Australia, which has the required water and electricity infrastructure to connect to the grid through an existing transmission network. The gold mine was placed under care and maintenance in 2011.

Although the relationship between mines and communities is generally perceived as being characterised by growing levels of mistrust, South Africa has seen breakthroughs brought about by mining companies establishing partnerships with communities. Read the comments of SRK Consulting’s corporate social development consultant, Tim Hart, on page 36 of this edition of Mining Weekly on how treating communities as partners rather than beneficiaries has found its way steadily into the mining sector’s approach. Hart highlights the lack of effective platforms for mines to talk to communities as vital stakeholders, and that even the definition of a community is often in dispute.

The decision of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) to approve 16 prospecting licence applications submitted by De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) is pleasing. The licences are all in the Kimberley area of the Northern Cape, where DBCM began mining diamonds 130 years ago. Read on page 7 of this edition of Mining Weekly of an elated DBCM CEO Phillip Barton, who is now keeping fingers crossed that the remaining 38 prospecting licence applications will also be approved. Click on the barcode at the foot of the story to access a video report on the new ‘wind of change’ that is perceived to be blowing through the DMR. It will be wonderful if DBCM is able to discover and develop new diamond mines around the city of Kimberley, where diamond operations were, ironically, expected to come to an end this year. DBCM’s advantage of having access to a vast databank of geological information, coupled with the availability of new technology, increases the chances of success. In the meantime, the Kimberley Ekapa Mining Joint Venture (KEM-JV) is holding the operational fort after triumphantly erasing 2018 as the scheduled shutdown year for Kimberley’s diamond operations. Provided the operations are not further negatively impacted on by the current immensity of illegal mining activities experienced in the area, KEM-JV intends keeping diamond operations going for at least another ten years, with a 20-year target. A mix of low-grade fine material from surface dumps and virgin kimberlite material from underground is being processed in the rejigged and upgraded Combined Treatment Plant, now boosted by a fully automated, ultramodern rotary pan plant.