2. Geological and Mining Services for Coal Deposits
Compile Competent Person’s Reports
Compile, report and sign off on mineral resource and reserve estimates
Review and audit mineral resource and reserve estimates
Professional geological and mining advice
Evaluation of coal deposits
Compile desktop studies
Apply mining expertise in feasibility studies
Conduct due diligence studies
Inputs into strategic mining decision making
Exploration Services
Project management for exploration projects including drill rig management
Core logging and sampling
Geological Data Management Services
Geological data collection
Data validation
Database solutions in Geobank / Access / Excel
Geological Modelling Services
Modelling geological data from first principles
Resource modeling and reporting
Geovia Minex models
Mine design, mine layout and scheduling services
Scenario development
Reserve modeling and reporting
XPAC / Deswik
3. The Sugar Bush Team : Geological Services
Karin van Deventer
Karin has 20 years’ coal geology experience covering exploration, project management,
operational geology and geological information management.
Studying at the University of Stellenbosch, she completed her BA, BSc Honours and later her
MSc in Geochemistry. She then started her career in 1994 with the Council for Geoscience as
a geoscientist conducting XRF and wet chemical sample analyses.
Karin joined Sasol Mining in 1997 as an exploration geologist where she was coached and
mentored until she later managed the Geological Function for the Mining Complex. She was
then headhunted to join Shanduka Coal (now Izimbiwa Coal) as the Mineral Resource
Manager. Her role was to establish and develop the geological service and to assist in the
company’s growth plans by evaluating numerous coal deposits and resources that was on
the market. She also managed and lead the exploration programmes for several brown
fields and green fields prospecting rights.
From here she was pulled over to the Glencore team when Glencore and Xstrata merged.
Karin then managed the geological functions of both the Mid Tier Operations as well as the
Complexes. Her focus was then on operational geology and team development.
Karin serves on several external committees, including the SAMREC and the SANS working
groups. She has also been invited to talk and lecture at the Fossil Fuel Foundation
Conferences and Courses. Karin chaired the Minerals Education Trust Fund Geology
subcommittee, guiding and assisting the mining industry to support academia.
Karin’s brainchild has been SugarBush Consultancy, identifying a niche for consultancy work
specializing in delivering a service to the smaller company requiring geological and mining
services. Her experience and background ideally suits this role. She has worked on many of
the South African Coal Fields, and different coal deposit types including the Waterberg Coal
Field, Kwa-Zulu Natal Coal Field, the Freestate Coal Field and extensively the Highveld and
Witbank Coal Fields.
4. The Sugar Bush Team : Mining Services
Fanie van Deventer
Fanie has 20 years’ coal mining and project management experience, having worked as a
miner, a financial officer and mine planner.
He started his career with Sasol Mining in the Learner Miner Programme, developing his
knowledge of specifically underground coal mining. He then moved to the Financial
Department, where he could apply this knowledge in managing cost accounting. When SAP
was rolled out at Sasol, he was identified as one of the key personnel that understood the
processes at both mining level and financial level to develop the required sub-routines for
SAP. On completion of the SAP project, he was drafted back to Sasol Mining where he then
became a Specialist Mine Planner. Fanie worked on both underground and opencast
projects as well as both the Synfuels and Export Mines at Sasol Mining.
Seeing a need to further develop his skills in the opencast mining industry, he moved to BHP
Billiton (now South 32) during 2008, where he became an integral part of the team
developing Life of Mine plans. He worked both in the operations as a Lead Mine Planner, as
well as in the Project Teams.
Fanie is a focused individual that can develop a mine design and deliver a mine schedule
based on first principles, taking costing into account to create an optimal mine plan.
