History

In 1867, significant geological exploration took place in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. By 1876, John Mintern was surveying farms that Assmang Limited would later mine – Beeshoek, Doornfontein, Driehoekspan and Paling. But it was only in 1907 that the immense potential of South Africa’s manganese deposits was finally understood.

That year, Dr. A. W. Jones and the Geological Commission of the Cape Colony identified manganese at Black Rock. The lack of a rail link deterred investment. The deposits lay dormant until ‘Captain’ Thomas Shone persuaded officials and steel producers of the Northern Cape’s mining potential. 1926 saw Shone and his partners set up Union Manganese Mines and Minerals Limited, which bought seven properties, including Bruce and King and obtained mineral leases for others, such as Beeshoek and Bishop. Guido Sacco formed Gloucester Manganese Mines (Postmasburg) in July 1928. Meanwhile Shone’s new venture, the Manganese corporation (1929) Limited, was registered and the Koopmanfontein to Postmasburg railway line opened for freight business in 1930. Large scale production began at the Manganese Corporation’s Beeshoek property (Mancorp Mine) in 1929.

Anglo Transvaal Consolidated Investment Company Limited (Anglovaal) was established in 1934 by Bob Hersov and Slip Menell. Guido Sacco, who owned Gloucester Manganese, approached Bob Hersov with a view to restructure the industry and mine on both Manganese Corporation and Gloucester Manganese properties. Anglovaal and its partner enterprise, African Mining and Trust registered a new company on 2 November 1935 to mine the Gloucester Manganese and Manganese Corporation deposits. They named it the Associated Manganese Mines of South Africa Limited, AMMOSAL, now called Assmang Limited. The first ore from the re-opened mine sailed from Durban in March 1936.

Despite purchasing Black Rock in 1940 and opening a mine there, Assmang struggled to achieve its high grade ore quotas and began transporting ore by truck (road trains) to Gloucester railhead. The mine was closed in 1945 due to a shortage of railway trucks and shipping space. A second rush for ore-bearing properties occurred in the early 1950’s. Assmang had options in the Kalahari, on such properties as N’Chwaning, Belgravia, Santoy and Gloria. Other properties were now acquired as Assmang took ownership over vast deposits of manganese ore that would last the company for many years to come. Negotiations with Anglovaal, and African Mining and Trust resulted in the acquisition in 1956 of the entire share capital of Gloucester Manganese, which became Assmang’s first ever wholly owned subsidiary. Faced with continuing rail capacity shortages, Assmang decided to diversify into mineral beneficiation. The new company was Feralloys Limited, a venture by Anglovaal, Associated Ore and Metal Corporation, Assmang and African Mining and Trust, which would produce ferro-manganese and possibly pig iron. Assmang opened two new open pit mines - Devan and Adams- to supply Ferralloys’ furnaces with manganese ore. An off-take agreement for Ferralloys’ ferro-manganese was signed with the US Steel Corporation in 1959 and Ferralloys Limited became Assmang’s second wholly owned subsidiary the following year.

Assmang opened up its vast iron ore reserves from 1960 onwards. Assmang initially worked detrital ore in the old manganese pits at Beeshoek. When Eskom power reached Beeshoek and Gloucester in 1962 the old primitive mining methods gave way to industrial machinery. The first iron ore was exported in 1964 and soon 120 railway trucks were dispatched daily. Iron ore railings past the million ton per year mark in 1967. By 1970, Assmang had become the biggest individual exporter of iron ore in South Africa.

African Mining and Trust’s consulting engineer Wally Parker recommended that a new plant be located at Fairview near Machadodorp in the Eastern Transvaal, as plans were already in place to diversify into low carbon Ferro-chrome. Construction began in 1969 and the plant was completed in 1971.

The Gloucester, Bishop and Paling mines remained in operation, providing low grade ore, but by the end of the decade all the southern manganese mines except Gloucester were mothballed. In the north, Devon and Adams stayed open. The rail extension from Sishen to Hotazel was completed in 1961. Belgravia, near Blackrock, opened in 1970 as a new source of medium and high grade ore. World demand was increasing strongly, so Assmang began to plan a new mine at N’Chwaning, which was commissioned in 1975.

By the end of the 1970’s, mechanization had become the norm throughout Assmang’s operational portfolio. High capital investment included in the enlargement of the Beeshoek iron ore facilities, upgrading of Blackrock and Belgravia and the creation of two new manganese mines at N’Chwaning and Gloria, each with a capacity of a million tons of ore per year. By 1975 the combination of the new mines and the modernization of Black Rock and Belgravia almost doubled the company’s manganese output capacity.

US Steel came on bought 354,821 shares in the company and agreed to purchase it iron ore for at least 15 years. This stimulus from US Steel enabled Assmang to enlarge Beeshoek. Beeshoek’s Loading facilities and the washing and screening plant were upgraded, two gyratory crusher units were installed and mechanical power shovels as well as bulk ore tipper trucks were brought in. The scattered quarries were consolidated into open cast pits. Railings increased to 1,113,000 tons in 1981. Production, however, at Beeshoek mine was discontinued in 1981 following recession and the political aftermath of the Soweto uprisings.

During the 1980’s Assmang reached an agreement with Iscor Ltd, the then owner of the Sishen Iron Ore Mine, whereby Iscor would be allowed to mine part of the Bruce property and provide the equivalent volumes of iron ore to Assmang at the port of Saldanha Bay. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s the second shaft system at N’Chwaning (N’Chwaning 2) was the crowning success of the company’s expansion programme, enabling production of more than three million tons of manganese ore per year.

Due to a severe recession in the steel industry production was brought to an end at Black Rock, Belgravia and Gloria in 1982-83, causing Assmang to move into a maintenance phase from 1983. Extensive surveying took place at Blackrock and Belgravia. A solid double layer of manganese seams were eventually outlined at N’Chwaning, running beneath the Blackrock and Belgravia deposits.

The company’s performance improved in 1988 with Iron ore railings increasing to 1,479,000 tons, and manganese ore railings rising to 1,519,000 tons.

Assmang obtained ISO 9002 accreditation in 1994 and became the first Southern Hemisphere miner to be audited and accredited for all its surface and underground operational functions.
By the late 1990’s, a separate subsidiary, Cato Ridge Alloys (Pty) Ltd (CRA), was incorporated by Assmang in 1996 and production commenced in 1998. In August that year Assmang acquired the chrome resource at Dwarsrivier, in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa, and approved finance in order to build a mine and expand capacity at Ferralloys. The second major project during this time was the development of N’Chwaning 3. The first ore from the new underground mining operation arrived on 26 May 2004.

In 1999 Assmang had commissioned a new southern extension at Beeshoek Mine (Beeshoek South) and constructed a new jig plant and iron recovery plant in June 2001. It had, however, become clear that Beeshoek was reaching the end of its productive life and that the projected production rate of 6 million tons of iron ore per year would result in remaining reserves not lasting far beyond 2010. As a result, Assmang started planning to build a new mine on Bruce, King and Mokaning (BKM) farms. A feasibility study was commissioned in 1999 for a 10 million ton per year mine.

On 30 May 2001 Assmang restructured its operations into three divisions: Manganese (N’Chwaning, Gloria and Cato Ridge Works); Chrome (Dwarsrivier and Machadodorp); and Iron Ore (BKM project (Khumani) and Beeshoek).

In 2004, one of Assmang’s main shareholders, Anglovaal mining, was restructured into the company now known as African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) – The first Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) mining giant in South Africa. Assore and ARM became the only shareholders, with a 50 % interest each, when the move became official on 28 February 2006.
Assmang was delisted from the JSE in 2006. Proceeds from the delisting would be injected into new projects. On the down side, market conditions for manganese ore, Ferro manganese and charge chrome had deteriorated in 2005, resulting in lower sales volumes and lower profits.

In December 2005, however, the board approved the first phase of the BKM project, to establish an 8.4 million ton per annum export mine, following a first commitment from national transport authority, Transnet, to expand the Sishen Orex export rail line. The BKM project entered a second development phase in parallel with the commissioning of the first phase in December 2007, to increase the export tonnage from 8.4 million tons to 10 million tons per annum, as of March 2009.

The financial year 2007 proved to be extremely successful; 2.33 million tons of manganese ore were exported, as was 6.86 million tons of iron ore, 251,000 tons of manganese alloys, 172,000 tons of chrome ore and 232,000 tons of charge chrome.

Assmang, now, bears little resemblance to the fledgling company that started work on the Northern Cape’s manganese fields in 1935. Today, the three operating divisions benefit from the modern mining infrastructure and technologies, while Assmang’s “we do it better” philosophy has helped to ensure low operating costs and high employee buy-in. The company has retained its flexibility, developed over decades of hardship in difficult operating conditions, which is helping Assmang to enter a new phase in its challenging but often distinguished history with confidence, even in the face of tough global market conditions and challenges.



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