Hello all,
Welcome to the fifth edition of London Mining’s quarterly
newsletter which hopefully coincides with an easing off in the
rain. This year we have had more rain in every month since
May, making it very difficult for the operation- the August
rainfall alone was 665mm over a 40-year average of 559mm
for the same month. As the Interim Managing Director coming
into the business, it has been like walking into a whirlwind (or
more appropriately a thunderstorm) but I have been
impressed by how welcoming people have been, as well as
the determination and entrepreneurial spirit of many people I
have met. It is also a compliment to all of you who have been
working through a period of constant change associated with
the growth program which is closing in on completing the 1C
plant and boosting capacity to more than 5Mtpa.
Congratulations on the recent safety performance with no lost
time injuries since the 10 July and a year to date rolling lost
time injury rate of 0.25. Please continue to keep up the focus
and keep thinking “how do I keep myself safe?”
London Mining Safely Set For 5m Tonnes
Per Year Run-rate
Production volumes rose 129% during the half year with zero
fatalities and no lost time injury. The second magnetic separation
plant was successfully commissioned and the ramp-up to 3.6
million dry metric tonnes per annum capacity successfully
completed. The milling and crushing circuits, designed to feed the
new gravity separation (“spirals”) plant, are approaching
mechanical completion and the spirals plant will commence
commissioning later this year.
The iron ore market has also changed significantly since the
commencement of Marampa. During the commodities boom
“time to market” was king and the challenge was to get
projects going quickly so you could cash in on the high prices.
The boom is now part of history and in the last year we have
seen iron ore prices return to long term trends and the
challenge is to get to a “stable and in-control” position with the
projects that failed to get going like Simandou and Nimba in
Guinea destined to remain on the drawing board for some
time.
Marampa can be proud to have made it out the starting blocks
beating many rivals and now has the challenge to remain
competitive. The completion of 1C and expansions planned
for the future are aimed at further reducing our cost per tonne.
We also want to take advantage of the historically low interest
rates (due to the global recession) to pay down debt before
interest rates rise. In summary, Marampa and London Mining
have shown great astuteness in seeing major changes coming
and responding to them faster than our rivals.
So what does this mean to us here in Marampa? Over the
next few months, we have to recover from the wet season,
complete 1C and get our 580,000 tonnes of concentrate sitting
in stockpiles on to ships by the end of the year before entering
a steady state in Quarter 1 2014. We are also in the process
of developing our budgets for 2014 which includes
incorporating our learning’s from this year’s wet season and
setting ourselves up to run at a rate of 50% more than our
current run rate.
Working here at Marampa is definitely not for the faint hearted
and I have confidence that all of you will stick with the pace –
as you have done in the past and should feel proud of what
has been achieved.
I take this opportunity to encourage you to make it your
business to know your business.
Graeme King, Interim Managing Director.
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