Sustaining Water Supplies While Responding to Operational Requirements at De Beers Venetia Mine
SUSTAINING WATER SUPPLIES WHILE RESPONDING TO OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS AT DE BEERS VENETIA MINE Gary Brown1 and Philip Erasmus2 1Golder Africa Associates, PO Box 6001, Halfway House, 1685. 2De Beers Venetia Mine, PO Box 668, Musina, 0900. ABSTRACT The intrepid novelist Rudyard Kipling’s portrayal of the Limpopo River as “the great, grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees …” does not reflect the real challenges De Beers Venetia Mine faces in abstracting raw water for their open cast kimberlite operation, located in the remote arid northern extremities of South Africa, approximately 80 km west of Musina and some 500 km north of Johannesburg, with the area presenting a mean annual precipitation value of 350 mm and annual evaporation rates in the order of 2 500 mm. Construction of Venetia Mine began in 1990, was officially opened in August 1992 and had reached full output in 1993. Venetia Mine is South Africa’s largest producer of diamonds. Production statistics for 2002 reflect total tonnages mined of 24,3 million of which 4,71 million tons of ore was processed and 5,08 million carats recovered. Despite the large catchment and many tributaries, the largest being the Shashe River, feeding the Limpopo River, the river is usually dry for most of the year. Ninety percent of the river’s runoff occurs from December to April. The Mine’s commitment to practising sound environmental management principles is reflected in its proud list of environmental orientated achievements. Despite these challenging conditions and strict statutory and self imposed restrictions to water abstraction for supply to the Mine, the Mine has since commissioning and with increased production not exceeded the overall water abstraction permit volumes and has demonstrated acute ability in integrating the supply of water for its operations between surface flow conditions in the Limpopo River and the ground water source within the Greefswald and Schroda aquifer.
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