Sun rises for ASA Metals at Dilokong

Dilokong plant commissioned ASA Metals successfully commissioned its new 600 000 ton per annum pelletising and sintering plant during July 2009 with the first sintered pellets produced at 12:20 on Sunday the 12 July. The successful commissioning of the pelletising and sintering plant signifies the achievement of the first major milestone in ASA Metals’ expansion project. The plant will beneficiate chromite concentrate into pellets that will be supplied to ASA Metals’ new furnaces. The utilization of pellets in the new furnaces will boost overall charge chrome production capacity to around 400 000 tons per year.

Mr Herman Smit, COO of ASA Metals, says the construction and commissioning of the plant proceeded according to plan. “My expectations were definitely exceeded and I think the team involved in this project needs to be congratulated. I would also like to thank ASA Metals’ employees for the effort and input that went into ensuring that this project was successful. It is important to acknowledge that time spent with family was sacrificed during the last couple of months to ensure the in time completion of the project. The management at ASA Metals appreciates this and would like to thank employees’ families for their patience and support. I believe that we have achieved something special here which would not have been possible without a joint effort andcontinued good will.

It is somewhat unfair to single out individuals that played a major role during such a big project, but a special word of appreciation should go to Kleinjan du Toit (Expansion Manager), Juan du Preez (Senior Project Manager) and Lukas Pieterse (Raw Material Processing Manager) who managed this project on behalf of ASA Metals.” The pelletising and sintering plant is
scheduled to ramp up to full production by the end of the calendar year. ASA Metals has started during January 2008 with an
extensive development program to increase their ferrochrome production capacity with 300 percent. This development programme, called Project Sunrise, included the design and construction of a 600 000 ton per year pelletising and sintering Plant as well as two 66 MVA closed furnaces, each with its own pre-heaters.

It is envisaged that the first Furnace will be commissioned towards the middle of August 2009 and that the second furnace will be commissioned by the end of October 2009 well within the time schedule, budget and safety objectives. The Project Sunrise team is exceptionally proud of their safety achievements of which the most important one is the achievement of 3,5 million lost time injury free ((LTIF) hours and are still going strong to increase this to over 4 million. This is an excellent achievement if one considers that there were more than 2800 construction workers on site during the peak times of which more than 35 percent
came from the local communities. LTIF was 306 697 when the first and only lost time injury accurse. An employee were carrying a beam and walking backwards when he tripped over another piece of metal and broke his ankle. The total hours for project as on 26 July 2009 were 920 745. The total project sunrise LTIF is 3 484 910. During the project the management team attended a three week training course in Finland. They compiled their own training modules and provided training to all controllers as well as all the field attendants.