Master Drilling’s novel developments are set to move needle for South African mining

This audio is brought to you by Astec Industries, a Global Leader in manufacturing equipment for infrastructure, including asphalt production, construction, and material processing, driving innovation and sustainability. Three major developments, which are poised to move the needle for South African mining, were outlined to Mining Weekly by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed drilling and mechanised rock excavation technology company Master Drilling, when it reported 399%-higher half-year after-tax profit of $18.1-million on Tuesday, following a partial impairment reversal. The Proudly South African Far West Rand original-equipment manufacturer, with an order book of $306-million on a revenue pipeline of $515-million spread across 28 countries on five continents, highlighted the first of its three major developments as its ready-made new shaft boring system (SBS) that points to drilling a shaft to depth in half the time. The second is a mobile tunnel borer (MTB) machine that is paving the way for the third - a narrow-reef rock cutter that will maximise extraction and minimise waste from an orebody that is currently not economically viable using conventional mining methods. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The SBS eliminates the need for conventional blasting in hard rock material; the MTB is destined to tunnel for some distance at the Bokoni platinum mine of African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) in Limpopo; and the third is a narrow reef cutting advancer with the likely ability to halve the development of a mine, for example ensure that what would conventionally be a 600 000 t mine is a 300 000 t mine - but with the same number of ounces produced. Master Drilling CEO Danie Pretorius told Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview: "Quoting some of the ARM management, dilution in the industry is a cancer, so if we can reduce dilution and get the on-reef cutter on autopilot, I really think that's going to come with a lot of value such as transporting less through the mine, reduced plant size, less energy requirement for the plant, and the list goes on." (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.) The contract negotiations have been finalised and operations are expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2025, with hot pursuit to achieve key performance indicators (KPIs). Mining Weekly: How will you make it possible for the currently inaccessible narrow-reef upper group two - UG2 - reef to be extracted at Bokoni? We'll tunnel with the MTB for some distance, and then follow with on-reef cutting. No doubt, certain modifications will probably be done as we progress but we see this as our rock factory, and we're not using drilling and we're moving away from explosives, which obviously, for the miners, would mean continuous operation, which we're really excited about. If we can hit those KPIs with the client, it's going to really add a lot of value in the industry. PUT TO THE TEST The SBS, which is designed to bore shafts with diameters of 4 m to 11.5 m, depending on client requirements, has bored a 4.3 m shaft to depths of up to 100 m using a cutter head specifically developed to drill through extremely hard rock, such as 320 MPa norite. What was Master Drilling's top highlight of the six months to June 30? The successful commissioning of the SBS here at the site, close to our offices. I really think this could probably move the needle for the miners of the deeper orebodies that we need to get to quicker. We need to take the next step here to increase the size from 4.2 m to larger than six metres, which is work in progress. But I think this was probably, in our business, top of mind for the last six months. So, what we're busy with are the SBS, the MTB and the on-reef cutter, that's what the industry needs today. What was the reversal of the impairment all about? It's more of an IFRS accounting entry that happened last year. We cleared site at Mogalakwena early last year and unfortunately had no committed mid-year work for the machine....