The Sierra Rutile Review 2 2013

SEPTEMBER 2013
CREATING A WORLD CLASS
WORKFORCE
June saw the launch of Sierra Rutile’s ground-breaking Localisation Plan -
an accelerated career development pathway for the company’s most
talented Sierra Leonean employees, which will prepare them for jobs as
supervisors, managers and top technicians within the organisation.
SIERRA RUTILE’S NEW DRY MINING
PLANT AT LANTI ACHIEVES
MAXIMUM OUTPUT
Sierra Rutile’s new dry mining plant at Lanti, has completed its performance
testing and is now operating at full capacity.
At a special briefing on the company’s Localisation Plan, CEO John Sisay
said: “At Sierra Rutile, we are proud to be able to say that 95% of our
employees are Sierra Leone nationals. Even so we have been able to
identify clear opportunities to increase the numbers of Sierra Leonean
employees in our organisation, particularly in our supervisory, technical
and managerial positions. Our Localisation Plan will ensure that we make
the most of these opportunities.”
The Localisation Plan also ensures that the company meets its obligations
under the 2009 Mines and Minerals Act and the recently introduced
Local Content Policy. Furthermore it contributes substantially towards
the pool of technical and managerial skills within the country as a whole.
Key to its success is the new Performance Management System
introduced within Sierra Rutile, which provides managers with a
structured and impartial method of assessing employees against Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to production, health and safety,
development and company values amongst others. Employees whose
performance and potential are rated highly against these KPIs are
described as ‘high potential’ or HiPos for short.
Tailored development plans are created, aimed at fast-tracking HiPos into
important technical, supervisory and management roles within the
company. These plans identify skills needs; supply learning opportunities
through formal study, short courses and on the job training; and provide
mentoring from Sierra Rutile’s senior management team.
John Sisay says: “Sierra Rutile’s Localisation Plan is challenging and will
require the hard work, support and commitment of many people within
our organisation, as well as externally. However, as an organisation with
a tradition of identifying and developing talented employees, we have
first-hand experience demonstrating that the time and effort invested in
training and development contributes towards the economic growth and
sustainable development of both Sierra Rutile and Sierra Leone.”
The performance testing, which was handled by contracting firm -
Consulmet, as well as Sierra Rutile’s Projects and Operations teams,
consisted of running feed continuously through both feed preparation
circuits and the rest of the plant for 168-hours. Throughout the process, the
team recorded and measured feed and product tonnages, and collected
samples to monitor metallurgical efficiency.
The objective of the test was to demonstrate the ability of the plant to
achieve the name plate design of 500 tonnes per operating hour (tpoh) of
run of mine (ROM) feed through the system. The system had to sustain this
throughput at 90% availability over a 168 hour period. In fact during the
performance testing process, the concentrator operated at an average feed
rate of 522 tph, exceeding the design specifications of 500 tph.
The mining operation and the concentrator plant are both currently
operating in excess of their design rate of 3.5 million tonnes per annum
and, so far, have not been significantly affected by the rains. The project is
forecast to contribute 30,000 - 35,000 tonnes of rutile out of Sierra Rutile’s
2013 expected total rutile production of 125,000 tonnes.
Commenting on the achievement of the dry mining concentrator’s
nameplate capacity, Desmond Williams, Sierra Rutile’s Operations Manager
said: “The ramp-up of the Lanti Dry Mining project to its full capacity and the
successful accomplishment of the performance testing process has required
the intensive and co-ordinated effort of the teams involved, and we are
delighted with the success of their hard work.”
SIERRA RUTILE’S MINING LAKES
TRANSFORMED INTO FISH FARMS
THE SIERRA RUTILE FOUNDATION
GETS NEW STEERING COMMITTEE
CLEARING LAND AND SUPPLYING
SAND FOR COMMUNITY PROJECTS
Communities around Sierra Rutile’s mining operations gathered together at
the end of July to help harvest and release 50,000 tilapia and cat fish into
man-made lakes once dredged for rutile. The young fish are part of Sierra
Rutile’s expanding fish farming initiative which aims to rehabilitate its
obsolete dredge ponds into alternative sources of revenue, employment
and food.
Sierra Rutile’s approach to rehabilitating mined land, balances social and
community needs with environmental considerations so that rehabilitated
land can become equally, if not more, valuable to local communities.
The economic potential of aquaculture in Sierra Leone has already been
widely identified. A recent overview of Sierra Leone’s aquaculture sector,
by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, concluded that its potential
for food security, employment and household income generation still
remains to be properly exploited. Furthermore, the Government’s recently
launched Agenda for Prosperity aims to increase the supply of fish for the
domestic market by at least 15% annually, particularly from semi-industrial,
artisanal, inland and aquaculture fisheries activities.
Sierra Rutile’s aquaculture programme began in 1990. Ansumana Jabati,
Sierra Rutile’s Environment, Health and Safety Manager, explains that “it
was arrived at after a series of stakeholder consultations aimed at
identifying the needs of surrounding communities, and examining how
out-of-use dredge ponds could become significant and sustainable
economic opportunities.”
The project has been increasingly successful, with the number of young fish
released more than doubling from 73,953 in 2011 to an expected 180,000
in 2013. The company has also started to experiment with native fish such
as cutlass and electric fish, sourced from the nearby Mokaba
Fisherwomen’s Group.
Andy Taylor, Sierra Rutile’s Head of Operations says: “It is important that
our mining operations leave a lasting and positive legacy. In countries such
as Australia, Canada and Brazil, turning the man-made lakes caused by
mining into fish farms has become an acceptable method of land
rehabilitation. We hope that we can achieve similar success with Sierra
Rutile’s aquaculture programme.”
Sierra Rutile recently welcomed a new Steering Committee to the Sierra
Rutile Foundation, and thanked the Foundation’s outgoing committee for
its service.
The Sierra Rutile Foundation, a non-profit organisation funded by Sierra
Rutile, was set up over six years ago by the company to handle community
development in the areas surrounding its operations.
Its new Steering Committee is headed by Madam Rita N'gardi Savage,
Chair of Bonthe District Council. Also on the committee is Paramount
Chief Hon. Alhaji Alie Badara Sheriff III of Jong Chiefdom and Paramount
Chief John Jibao Russell-Nyaama III of Lower Banta Chiefdom, as well
Bagruwa Chiefdom’s youth leader and the women’s leader of Imperi
Chiefdom.
Commenting on her appointment to the position of Chair of the Sierra
Rutile Foundation Steering Committee, Madam Rita N’gardi Savage said:
“It is with great pleasure that I have accepted the position of Chair of the
Sierra Rutile Foundation. The Sierra Rutile Foundation offers a real
opportunity to significantly move socio-economic development forward in
the mining communities in this area and I look forward to working with my
colleagues on initiatives that will have a positive and sustainable impact.”
The new Committee has already agreed a programme of community
development, with initiatives including solar street lighting and community
water tanks.
When Sierra Rutile’s considerable haulage fleet is not being used for
rutile mining, some of its vehicles may be found doing double duty on
community projects.
Chief among them is the big D9, a 47- tonne dozer with a 410 HP engine
which makes light work of even the toughest jobs, as several villages,
who have witnessed the speed with which it clears land for roads,
playing fields and schools, can attest.
Clearing land is usually done by hand. It is back-breaking and often
dangerous work that can take weeks. The D9 however can clear an acre
in little over an hour and Sierra Rutile has used it to clear land for a
number of schools and playing fields including those at Torkpoi,
Madina, Matagelema and Mosanesi, as well as the Children of the
Nations orphanage at Ngolala.
Sierra Rutile’s tipper trucks can also be seen out and about providing
sand and mud for community building projects. This year alone the
company has delivered well over 35 trips. The most unusual request,
however, was for the use of a crane with an operator to unload a 40
foot shipping container of school equipment, which Sierra Rutile also
transported the 140 miles from Freetown to Madina.