Sasol 'Underground'

It felt like I’d just put my head on the pillow when my alarm sounded.  It was 4:30.  In Joburg, getting light an hour before Cape Town, the birds were singing.  This and the trepidation of going underground in a coal mine later the day made getting out of bed easier.  At 5:15 we headed east into the morning sun towards Secunda.  

Sasol is the only facility in the world that can produce liquid fuel from coal.

Hans Jessen met us before we went to the border post between South Africa and Sasol synthetic fuel production plant.  After showing our ID’s (luckily most of us remembered to bring it along) and signing our legal rights away we received our entry permits and proceeded down the tree fringed Sasol main road to the medical facility.  Here we met the medical technologist Heinrich Lotz and got into the Sasol minibus.  The maximum speed in the synthetic fuel plant is 50km/h.  Our the minibus therefore had a maximum speed cut out of 50km and on the public roads on our way to the Brandspruit coal mine we were passed by massive trucks.  Slow is safe…

We loved being welcomed as VIPs at the Sasol's Brandspruit mine!

Before our heartly welcome at the mime we felt very special that big notice board outside the mine had a welcome message for us.

Johan Steyn at the head of the boardroom table...

In the board room we got introduced Johan Steyn who gave us an overview of the underground operations.  In short Sasol mines about 45000000 tonnes of coal per year, 20 000 tonnes per day.  There is more than 300km maintained underground roads.  The Brandspruit mine employs abuot 380 people who work underground.  They should have enough coal at the Brandspruit site to continue operations until 2018.  The farthest point of activity from the entry shaft is about 8.6km…

A mining map gives you an indication of the underground mining process.

Team Dombo and Bernhardt scrutinizing the mining monthly stat sheets...
Comparable to health care process and productivity indicators they report kilogram per coal, cost per kilogram and health and safety stats etc.

We also met Izaya Mubuza, Karmen Venter, Deon Annandale, Douglas Preston, Lesetja Raphatsha and Pierre Wolmerans.  We watched the essential safety video and then went to don our personal protective equipment.  The helmet, safety glasses, hearing protection, thermal underwear, overall, socks and safety shoes were put in a neat heap with each field tripper’s name on it.  Mining headlights and a portable oxygen mask was fitted to he purpose built waist belts and after a ‘before’ photo we were ready to ‘go underground’. 

Rosamund trying to get a headlamp before we go underground.
The South Africans was better at fending for themselves...

Neil Cameron getting some assistance with his belt fitted oxygen device.

Excited to go underground and still clean!
Julius and Ziyaad in the front row clearly at home in their field of Occupational Medicine.

The 150m to the bottom happened faster than expected and we all excitedly waited for the lift door to open so we could experience the new world.

Underground transport is on two rows of seats facing each other in the back of the diesel bakkie.  8 of us drove 8km underground to get from the shaft to site where active mining takes place.  The tunnel that took us there is a two lane underground highway that looks like an unfinished Huguenot tunnel.  All along it is dimly lit and every 100m in chessboard fashion there are other big tunnels going in either direction ending in complete darkness.  The sheer scale of the underground operation blew me away.  Monitoring devices flash green to prove that airflow is safe.  After the 11^th turn I completely lost all sense of direction and got an eerie sense of insignificance when thinking what I’d do if I got lost.

At the mining face a remote controlled Continuous Miner with its massive steel claws forge forward while mining the coal deposit of about 5m high.  With water sprinklers to reduce the dust and a conveyer belt that feeds the coal to commuter trucks the continuous miner can break coal at 16 tonnes per 35 seconds from the solid walls.  Commuter trucks are like big, low pickup trucks with massive wheels and they transport the coal from the mining site to a crusher where coal is put on a conveyor belt that takes it above ground and op to 20km further where it is used by in the Synfuels plant to produce oil.  

Continuos Miner at work...

Between the massive implements you find miners covered in black with their head torches lighting up parts of the process where they need to see.  The noise is extreme, black coal dust can be tasted in the nostrils and mouth, on the ground is a mixture of black soot, chunks of coal and water that is continuously dripping from the roof.  The roof is supported by 1.2 to 1.5m long steel bolts that are glued into the layers of rock to form a solid structure.  Protective equipment and careful planning and communication are essential.  We were shown every step of the process in great detail over 2.5 hours.  We all get our boots gloves and faces dirty.  Apart from the spot the headlight makes, everything else is pitch black.  All of us get to understand the mining process and the miner health and safety risks first hand.  We look at each other with big eyes, only able to utter: “Wow!” above the noise.  Douglas answers our questions in great detail end puts in extra effort to get us close as safely possible to the action.

After waiting some time we surfaced from the mine squinting, dirty and ready to enjoy the tasty lunch that was waiting.

After spending watching 2 hours underground we had the misperception
that we were dirty...
Please note what a real miner looks like:
back row, second from left.

Back at the main Sasol health facility we met Dries Burger who has been running the employee health of Sasol for 23 years.  He could see we are tired and swiftly directed us to Umuzi lodge where each of us got our own bungalow for the night.  We had time to splash in the pool and then enjoyed a magnificent braai with the Sasol health team overlooking a small lake.  Thanks to Sosol for the reception, accommodation and effort to make every second of out visit a learning experience.  The Sasol medical team really went out of their way to make sure that everything ran smoothly.  It was amazing to receive our uniforms in the right size with our names on it, the life saving lunch when we emerged hungry from the darkness underground and of course the wonderful braai and accommodation!  A day or two spent with Sasol is a valuable learning opportunity for anyone who wants to see health and safety at work in a big organization.

The sun from the Sasol empire never sets over Secunda...