Volume 50 Issue 7 - July 2012 : Business

 

Years after folklore artiste, Ratsie Setlhako, enthralled his audience with his message that people should embrace change in the all-time hit, A re Chencheng, copper and nickel miner, BCL Limited, is singing the tune. No, the mine has even adopted the title to describe its long-term strategy - A re Chencheng.

Launched in 2007, A re Chencheng redefines the mine’s vision, purpose, brand promise and corporate values. It is a fitting name for, loosely translated, it means “let us change the way we have been doing business”. It is an exhortation to redefine and regenerate focus. Thus, A re Chencheng defines the BCL dream to transform into a multi-business entity of international repute. And mine management does not have the luxury of time if it is to save the mine and ultimately save Selebi Phikwe. But mention BCL and the first thing that comes to mind to many residents of the slum locations of Botshabelo, a stone throw away from the mine, and the Selebi Phikwe community in general, is the ghostly chimney that emits tons of deadly sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere.

Conversely, as the infamous “Chomela”, the smelter chimney looks down at, and bellows white and black smoke into Selebi-Phikwe, the mine management sits in conference beneath its shadow. Only one agenda is on the table – save the mine and save Selebi-Phikwe.  The mine is the lifeblood of Selebi-Phikwe and its demise will inevitably result in the death of the town and its environs. Therefore, the mine’s management is now set on a mission to create a new BCL under a new strategy. The strategy, simply dubbed Polaris II, will breathe new life into the mine, once its rich nickel and copper ores are depleted.

And Polaris it is indeed, as the name is a derivative from the brightest star in constellation Ursa Minor. The star is sometimes called the guiding star and has been used by travellers because of its allure. Consequently, Polaris II will see the company becoming an enterprise that will diversify its product offering but mindful of the environment, as the company’s senior manager (strategy alignment), Mack William, ambitiously observes. Under Polaris II, BCL will intensify exploration, copper smelting, base metal refinery and many other initiatives intended to take the mine’s life from the initial 2014 to beyond 2022. Thus, Polaris II is the revised strategy of the 2007 A re Chencheng plan. The aim is to see the company turning into an enterprise that offers a wide range of businesses in resources and chemical industry. As such, the new strategy is expected to help BCL exploit related diversification and partners opportunities to significantly improve efficiency across the entire value chain. The strategy is a grand idea indeed. William says management formulated the strategy after realising that despite all work undertaken to turn around BCL prior to 2007, costs were rising while production was going down. Undoubtedly, this is a breath of fresh life into BCL, and a herald of good things for the workers and the communities in the BCL concession.

Meanwhile, the BCL concession encompasses the town of Selibe Phikwe and is accessible via a highway that branches east from the A1 Highway at the village of Serule, some 57Km from the town. Over 4 500 locals are employed at the mine in various professions. The mine’s four shafts at Phikwe Central, South East Extension, Selebi North and the Selebi South have enough ore to last 15 years. The main shareholder at BCL is government, owning 94 per cent of the company with the remaining six percent belonging to a Russian company - Norilsk Nickel.

A peep into the shafts

Selebi South lies about 14Km from the town centre and a vertical creator retreat mining method is used to reach ore bodies on very steep inclinations. Selebi North, a fully mechanized operation uses the conventional mining method and the ore bodies are rich in nickel. The shaft commenced with the box cut method at least 10 years after the number one shaft was opened in 1972. Box cut is an unsupported mining method where voids are created and later filled with waste rock using advanced remote controlled machinery. The shaft goes down 872 metres and a single shift comprises 50 men. Once the ore has been mined and hoisted from various shafts and delivered at the receiving point, an interesting process follows. The ore is transported to the crushers and reduced to a desirable size before being taken to the milling point. A remotely controlled set of rail bin pan feeders supply the ore into a series of conveyor belts that deliver the ore to a primary crusher.

According to the Development Superintendent’s Sefhako Tlhowe, BCL takes pride in its world-class hanging conveyor belts which transport ore at a speed of three metres per second. The crushed ore is transported to the smelter – the bellowing hot furnace where it is dissolved into matte. Matte produced from the smelter is classed into two specifications, granulated and shipped to Rio-Tinto in Zimbabwe and to Norway. ENDS

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