In-service trainingProgress report

Scope of report

I am now on a 5th month at Rasimone Tailings facility, within those couplemonths I managed to learn all the dam components. Was given a platform toplan, lead, control, manage and innovate. The report focus on the following;

Dam operations.

Occupational & Health and Safety

Time studies & productivity improvement.

Project management

• Buttress construction

• Installation of drains.

Innovations/improvements.

Future in Fraser Alexander.

Dam Operations

• Wall buildingI have learnt that there are different types of walls that are built, step-inwall, pool wall, wings wall and parameter wall. I have learnt that step-inwall is built after the dam elevation is about 7m height, reason to avoida vertically sloppy dam.

Parameter wall are built at a height of 1-1.5 meter based on the surveydone by the client surveyor. Wings walls are built at the same level, butdifference is that they are used as a beerier to block the slurry fromflowing directly to the decant towers & to control the pool not to shifttowards the pool wall.

There are different types of ways to built walls: Rasimone Tailings Facilitythey use Mobile machines to build the walls same as Impala tailingsfacility, but CMI and Rietvlei they use Hand packing method.

Dam Operations

• DepositionIn Fraser Alexander there are several deposition methods, namely; Spigot, Cyclone and open end deposition. The Site in which I was placed Rasimone Tailings uses Spigot deposition.

Operating a spigot need tools like; spanner, hammer, slurry density scaleand of course you must at all times wear the full required PPE. RasimoneTailings Dam consist of 10 depositing lines, they are renamedalphabetically from A-H, then the other two line to make them 10 arePool wall lines (HP and AP).

At Rasimone site the dam runs with two delivery lines, one is alwaysrunning full time the other one is for emergencies. Such emergencies likemechanical pump failure at process plant on a running line or any otherproblem that may force plant operators to change the line.

Dam Operations

• Deposition is scheduled by deposition plan which includes where youneed to deposit and where your emergency line should be. It is preparedby both site manager and operations supervisor. Every deposition line hascertain number of spigots, not all of them need to be opened, they areopened based on the pressure, space or area, a trend which the slimeflows with towards the penstock or where the pond is located; eg. You mayfind that a line has 40 spigots but only 18 will be operational due topressure. Deposition is operational 24 hours; it is guarded by twopersonnel (employees). They rotate on a shift schedule.

• Decanting is also part of deposition, but to decant there are several thingsthat needs to be taken into consideration. Before decanting mud-guardshave to take return water dam levels every morning, they also have to takepool level and depth. Decant operation only takes 8 hours a day. InRasimone Tailings dam there are two decanting towers (Penstock) that iswhere the pool is situated. To decant they use one tower if the pool level islow, but if it is high they use both of them.

Dam Operation• MonitoringAll the monitoring data (FAMIS) is captured daily, some the readings are taken monthlythereafter report is compiled (Monthly and mid-month report) then send to the Technicalengineer, after every 15 days. I have learnt that there are three measurements to be taken,we took the distance to the slime, then we took a deep meter and measured water level,lastly we measured to the tip. Mid-month readings were taken on the 12th September inassistance of the supervisor.

Measuring Piezometer E2.2 & measuring drains

*N.B: Cross-section & freeboard survey- I have not been exposed to, but have an idea ofwhat is all about and what need to be done.

Monitored data

• Rain-flow

• Drain flow

• Tonnage reading

• Slurry density

• Piezometer

• Quarterly Free-board

Dam Operations• Vertical drainThe drain is being maintained after deposition, the tailings to bedeposited should be at a maximum of 1 meter height. When maintainingit you need to excavate a 500m wide trench down till the base drain,make sure you do not damage the base drain. Backfill the trench withfilter sand and it should be placed with no compaction.

Excavated vertical drain

Dam Operations• Pipe connectionsSpigot pipes are connected & disconnected when the areais full and preparation of wall building. When performingthe task you should blank the current delivery line by usingblank flange or switch the lines through valves, rememberto use the required standard of operating valves.

Disconnecting of pipes.

Dam Operations• VegetationI have learnt that vegetation is very vital and important, itis used as one of ways to suppress dust and to reducechances of soil erosion.

Vegetation that was planted last year.

Dam Operations• Penstock OperationsWhen employees go to penstock, they must go in pairs. Penstock is where wedecant, when we decant we use penstock rings. We remove the top penstock ringsthat are painted in red and they are called night rings. When penstock is elevatedthey are removed and new rings are installed.

Slime level height reached 1.8 meters, sleeving operation has to take place. It is oneof operations that are critical and crucial, hence there are standards to operateeffectively.

Sleeving south decant tower.

What do I need when operating penstock ?

Life-jacket.

Accompanied by another employee.

Perform mini risk assessment

Dam Operations• Catwalk maintenanceI have learnt that catwalk has to be raised when water level rises. Theheight between water level and catwalk level should not be less a half ameter. But when raising the cat walk it should be a meter high.

I have spent several days at the penstock with the team (day shift), liftingthe cat walk. We removed the kickboards, and then we had to removethe nails on the walkway bars to make them loose. We measured thelevel that we should raise the catwalk with, with assistance andsupervision of Operations supervisor.

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Material needed Equipment

SA pine bar- 76mm by 228 mm(3m) Correct PPE

Treated poles Generator & Generator safety harness

Clear PVC coated wire Drill & Saw

Eye bolts Safety harness

Nails Hammer

Threated wire Measuring tape

Clamps Fish-lane

Occupational Health and SafetyI am fortunate that I got the chance of doing MQA Skillsprogramme in my 1st week at Rasimone. I did Occupational health& safety activities: Part time/workplace representative & shopstewards in the mining & minerals.

These programme made me understand deeply the importance of safety in workplace. I was able to preform risk assessment. I spent couple weeks with the Site SHEQ assistant reviewing the issue-based risk assessments, and we updated safe work procedures.

I manage to perform PTO’s with the help of the operations supervisor. I was also involved with tool box talk every morning, was conducting monthly talk topics: Safety talks, Health talks, Quality matters & legal wise.

Time studies & productivity improvement.

I have spent weeks conducting time studies & productivity improvement. Objective was tominimize the costs & find standard time for tasks that were studied.

Time studiesSummary on the studyTotal catwalk length = 217.5 mDivided into three side.• North- 97.5 m• South- 105.5m• E-pan- 14.5mThe study was based on 8.5 meterIt took 83.5 minutes to complete 8.5m.

North side- 97.5/8.5= 11.47 parts11.47x83.5= 9978.44/60= 16 hours16/9 hours= 1.81 days to complete north side.north + South + E-pan ( 1.81+ 1.96+ 0.27)= 4,05 days to raise 217.5, that means it takes less than aweek to raise Rasimone catwalk.

Time studies & productivity improvement.

Productivity improvementSummary

Input factors

Operator R28.27

Machine R154.64

Diesel R12.67

Filter sand R175

Excavated area R20.04

Output

August September October

R138 959.77 R113 266.23 R138 328.66

Excavated area 460m Excavated area 420m Excavated area 420

Back fill 304cubes Back fill 264cubes Back fill 306cubes

Time studies & productivity improvement

Productivity improvement continues.

Productivity changes in %

August September October

Machine Up- 22.88 Down- 18.49 Up- 22.13

Filter Sand Down- 1.56 Down- 41.79 Up- 70.77

Excavated area Down- 22.88 Down- 10.73 Up- 22.13

Operator Up- 5.10 Down- 18.49 Up- 22.13

Diesel Up- 5.10 Down- 18.49 Up- 22.13

Aggregate Up- 4.84 Down- 37.34 Up- 42.04

Time studies & productivity improvement

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160

May July August September October

Trend

Time studies & productivity improvement

Productivity improvement continues.• It is found that productivity mostly decreases on excavated area

and supply and installed filter sand. It is found that on filter sand,the supplier is the one causing the productivity to decreasedecimally, in that essence FAT (Rasimone Dam) they have to workwith what they have on-hand

• It is recommended that the Operations supervisor or Sitemanager evaluate or reconsider ordering the sand before thescheduled area is excavated for the following month.

• It is also recommended the schedule for the drain be in place,which should include the monthly objective (Area to beexcavated) and (Area to be filled), therefore this will determinethe “Cubes to be used to back-fill”.

Project ManagementThis month my focus is on project management. I have been givena task to work in hand with the Operations Supervisor, tosupervise the two projects that we have so far which areConstruction of Buttress and Installations of drains above thestarter wall. My focus will be on these two projects, to make surethe operations runs smoothly, minimize costs, and applycontinuous productivity improvement.

DocumentationThe projects need to be documented for future reference and fortracking record of data. So far I have created a file that documentsthe two projects simultaneous, with a help of the Site manager byproviding the index. I had to create traffic management plan,Complete Responsibility assignment, Project Gantt and Flowprocess charts for both projects.

Documentation

Buttress ConstructionProgress report

For the 1st time being involved with construction work, with the help from theoperations supervisor we managed to find ways to construct a buttress. Therewas reasons making the project not to run smoothly, rain and machinery we areusing.

We are now constructing buttress on reverse mode, meaning Tipper trucks driveover the buttress and tip. Because it not easy for them to make U-turn onpaddocks due to the soft and wetness of the area.

I managed to learn how to use a dumpy level in one day, I had to do qualitycontrol for the project which includes the elevation level and that we complywith the required specifications. I have designed a “Quality control plan” thatgoverns both Buttress construction and Installation of drains.

We have completed Section A, we are busy with Section B.

Elevation studies

Pictures

Completion of Section A- North-east flank

Innovation & Improvements

I was given a platform to improve were needed. Innovations and improvements were done were they were needed.

• Form design

• Quality control Plan

Form DesignObjective: To utilize the papers, cut cost on papers, put everything in one page.

On this task, I redesigned two forms; Rasimone shift hand-over.

Rasimone shift hand-over was printed on 2 pages, it does notinclude a daily toolbox talk and it has to be printed per shift, andwe have 3 shifts per day. With redesigned form both shift handover and tool box talk will be printed on one page (Front to back).Instead of using 7 papers a day, which is 35 pages in a week? In amonth we have been using 140 papers only for shift handoverand tool box talk. With a new method only 1 page per day andonly 20 pages per month, which we saved 120 pages.

Thank you for the Opportunity.

Any questions ?