African Underground Mining Services


Hidden talents
A strategic decision to widen its operational scope has unearthed new mining opportunities for one company, as Jeff Daniels learns.
It takes a certain type of person to leave terra firma and choose a career in the navy. And the qualities suited for roaming the oceans of the world are as different again when it comes to choosing to go below the surface and become a submariner. 

ItÔÇÖs not dissimilar in mining. Knowing what youÔÇÖre doing on the surfaceÔÇöand feeling comfortable doing itÔÇödoesnÔÇÖt necessarily equip you for a life underground.Take African Mining Services (AMS) as an example. One of the largest contract mining companies in Africa, it has further operations in Australia and Europe. ItÔÇÖs also a wholly owned subsidiary of Ausdrill, a publicly listed company on the Australian stock exchange, and was set up in 1996 to provide contract surface mining and exploration drilling services to mining companies throughout Africa.
Until five years ago, AMS was owned and operated as a 50/50 joint venture company between Ausdrill and Henry Walker Eltin. Today, itÔÇÖs owned in its entirety by Ausdrill, providing earth moving, drilling and blasting, grade control and civil earthworks contracts for clients such as Ranger Minerals, Gold Fields of South Africa, AngloGold Ashanti and Newmont Ghana Gold. In addition it handles crusher feed, stock pile re-handle and wet and dry plant hire. It even has a fleet of reverse-circulation, diamond and rotary air blast/core drilling rigs that drill hundreds of exploratory holes.
But it does all of this on the surfaceÔÇömeaning that a considerable slice of the mining industry pie lies outside of its comfort zone. The solution to this was to create African Underground Mining Services (AUMS)ÔÇöanother 50/50 joint venture, this time with Barminco, AustraliaÔÇÖs largest underground hard rock mining contractor, with operations throughout Australia and more recently at Pharaoh GoldÔÇÖs Sukari Hill Project in Egypt.
The combination of AusdrillÔÇÖs African know-howÔÇöitÔÇÖs been operating in Africa from its base near the airport in Accra, Ghana since 1991ÔÇöand BarmincoÔÇÖs many years of underground experience has built up a ┬ú100 million business in just five years, offering clients a full range of underground mining services from consulting and feasibility, management and planning through to mine development and production. Operationally, it runs one of the most modern, mechanised fleets of self-maintained underground mining equipment in Africa.┬á
Currently, AUMS is working at two sites in Mali and another six in Ghana, the largest of which is Chirano Gold Mines, owned by Red Back Mining and located in south-western Ghana, 100 kilometres south-west of Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city. The nearest township is Bibiani, itself the site of an existing large gold mine. To give some indication of the difficult terrain, Bibiani is just 15 kilometres north-east of the project area but reaching it entails 37 kilometres of travel by road through dense vegetation and small agricultural plots of palm oil, cassava and cocoa.
When AMS first started work there in 2004, its first task was to construct the Akoti bypass road to provide access to the proposed plant site and to begin earth works for the facilities. Mining started in January 2005 with a gradual ramp-up, developing haul roads and pits to achieve 385,000 BCM per month volume target. At present, the call is 1.2 million BCM per month, with 700,000 BCM of material blasted each month. There are six active pits and construction is in progress on the haul road to additional areas, which will bring three more pits on line.
Naturally, such work requires continued adherence to rigorous health and safety policies. AUMS is very proud of its safety management system, which is supported by BarmincoÔÇÖs own system. Regular internal and external audits are conducted to ensure the company remains compliant with all of its health and safety obligations. Since AUMSÔÇÖs inception, it has not had a single lost-time injury.
To ensure this impressive safety record is upheld, employees are continually assessed on their training requirements, and processes and procedures are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that everyone receives the training necessary to complete their job safely. AUMS has also entered into a partnership with registered training organisations and is working towards training all personnel to the Australian national standards.
The company views its employees as its most important asset, recognising that facilitating employee development is crucial to the achievement of its goals. Consequently, it sees training as an investment in not only the performance of individuals, but the organisation as a whole.
Training is carried out through a variety of measures, which include apprenticeship programmes, statutory mining qualifications for supervisory personnel and a postgraduate programme for current employees. It also runs information-sharing programmes between local and Australian tertiary educational facilitiesÔÇöfor example, between the University of Mines and Technology at Tarkwa in Ghana and the West Australian School of Mines. The company also runs graduate mining engineering programmes in association with local tertiary institutions, whereby graduates are able to obtain valuable hands-on experience.
AUMS also takes the welfare of flora and fauna in the areas where it operates extremely seriously, designing, operating and decommissioning all sites in such a way as to avoid adverse environmental impact. Its ultimate objective is to return each site to a safe and stable condition with all environmental, heritage, wildlife, flora and fauna intact.
To achieve this, AUMS produces an environmental impact study for all sites, working closely with the individual client on environmental issues where required. It then develops, implements and monitors an environmental plan, setting relevant objectives along the way. To support this, training is also provided to enable employees to recognise the potential impact of their activities on the environment.
AUMS also ensures that the wider community is taken into consideration at all times, preferentially supporting local industry where possible, as well as working with clients to assist in the development of the local communities by providing practical support.
With its below-ground expertise, AUMS can now support the above-ground work of AMS, and vice versa. As well as its current commitments in Ghana and Mali, AUMS is actively assessing projects in Zambia, Egypt, Morocco, Mali, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo.