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Many expected platinum miner Lonmin to slip quietly into the night—its assets bro- ken up and sold off—but the century-old company is not done yet as it commences the fight for its life. A sign that the South African platinum producer's wide turnaround strategy may succeed is the ebullient mood at its Saffy shaft, which lies at the heart of the platinum belt in the country's North West province. E&MJ; was invited to tour the facility. Ever since its inception in 2000, Saffy has been the troubled child of the group, consistently failing to meet production tar- gets. Designed to produce 200,000 metric tons (mt) of ore a month, for much of the 15 years of its life, it has produced a little more than half that. Now, this past November, Saffy delivered 204,000 mt, up from bare- ly 130,000 tons in November 2014. "It's a great moment for all of us—the workers and management. We are very excited about this achievement and what it means for the company," said Rodney Opperman, general manager at Saffy Shaft, as senior staff filed around a table in the Saffy briefing room to be told the news. "If we can reposition Saffy, we can reposi- tion Lonmin itself." For management, workers and long-suf- fering shareholders, achieving the produc- tion target is a huge step forward. For labor, it means retained jobs and performance bonuses and, for Lonmin's stockholders, the promise of some day seeing that return in value is more than an illusion. "We had a hard look at our business plan and saw we were not opening up our ore reserves," said Opperman. "Over the past year, we've worked on this and now the stoping crews can move about freely." The workforce, too, played its part: "The maturity of the crews is making itself felt as these teams have been together for as long as two years." Opperman added that Saffy had achieved this while maintaining an excel- lent safety record. "Productivity without safety is not worth counting," he said. Good news has been scarce for Lonmin and the 35,000 men and women in its employ. The past few years, it has survived in the shadow of what has become known as the "Marikana Massacre" after panicked police officers gunned down a charge of striking mine workers, killing 34 in front of television cameras. In the 24 months since, Lonmin has also endured an industry-wide strike that shut down production for half a year—all against a backdrop of a declining platinum price as international demand crumbled on the back of a softer global economy. The world's third largest producer of platinum, Lonmin is a resource institution. It was founded in 1909 in order to acquire mining rights in Northern and Southern Rhodesia, now Zambia and Zimbabwe, and for the next century continued to build its mining presence in the region. The events of the past few years, how- ever, threatened to end its existence, com- ing at a time when larger rivals are selling off assets and reducing the number of mines they operate. Lonmin has also paid a heavy price for its fateful decision in 2004 to embark on a mechanization program. The results were financially disastrous. "One of the problems with mechaniza- tion here at Saffy is the high angle of the dip and the narrow width of the orebody," said Evert Coetzer, mine manager at Saffy. "When the orebody is narrow, it means more rock has to be removed to get at it. We have a dip angle of about 10°–12°, which makes it difficult for an articulated vehicle to navigate. They depend on the angle being close to flat." In 2008, the decision was made to begin phasing out mechanization and to return to conventional methods: rock drill crews working at the face. "We are thankful for the people who took the decision to return to conventional mining," Coetzer said. "It couldn't have been easy." Mechanization is something of a holy grail for the South African mining industry, which remains one of the most labor intensive in the world. Labor accounts for more than half of the operating expenses on most shafts, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. More workers also means more injuries and fatalities, especially as mines go deeper. However, although there's a wealth of expert- ise and original equipment to draw on, full 16 E&MJ; • JANUARY 2016 www.e-mj.com LO N M I N Lonmin Optimistic About Future The company's strategy is to rebuild and prepare for better times By Gavin du Venage, South African Editor Mine Manager Evert Coetzer and a crew of rock drillers at the face in Lonmin's Saffy shaft, located in the North West province of South Africa. The mine recently met its monthly production target after falling short of that objec- tive for most of its 15 years of operation. (All photos: Gavin du Venage)