Gold Mine Shaft Extension

December 2019

• Area - Gold Mine, Gauteng, South Africa
• Scope of Work - This project involved cutting into the existing primary mine shaft to access a new seam of gold. The seam was over 1000m below the surface. The main shaft had 2 large lifts which counter balanced each other. The difficulty was to get these 2 lifts to roughly the same place in the shaft, one lift had the cutting equipment and the other a high pressure T3 Series . The idea was to cut a 2m x 1.5m hole in the existing reinforced main shaft. The shaft was made of concrete, reinforced with thick steel rebar.
• Equipment - T3 Series 2800 bar pump and a Cold Cutting nozzle, the team manage to cut the required hole in the wall. It was very complicated and extremely long hours deep under ground, say Mark van Heerden, the groups technical director.