The mining division specialises in surface contract mining.
Our approach is to ensure lasting benefits while minimising our impact on the natural environment.
Our primary focus is ensuring a safe and healthy workplace. Training is an integral part of this focus.
Basil Read is actively involved with South African transformation and broad-based black economic empowerment.
Our expanding footprint has presented challenges in managing our human resources
We strive to protect and sustain the environment, and to manage our impacts effectively, when these are unavoidable.
Basil Read strives to engage with meaningful initiatives that contribute to the transformation of people and communities.
Our reports scope, assurance process and standards used
The division offers complete mining services with decades of experience in hard and soft-rock mining, selective mining and material handling in remote and challenging locations. It owns and maintains a fleet of mobile mining equipment that can be deployed to meet clients’ requirements.
Completing a contract on time and within budget is an overriding aim for all Basil Read teams. Securing additional work from the same client sets us apart from our competitors, and has become a hallmark of the group over the years.
Basil Read has worked in Botswana since 1986 and operated in various mining sites including, Debswana Orapa, Jwaneng, Damtshaa, and Letlhakane, Mopane Gold, Discovery Metals Limited and Tati Nickel. Basil Read Roads also contributed to Botswana’s road development in projects like, Rakatso, Mokgodisane, Karowe etc.
Basil Read has an in-depth experience in managing projects often in remote sites. From the logistics of moving and scheduling teams and equipment, to the detail of managing employee health and safety, as well as environmental considerations, the group’s reputation for managing operations on behalf of some of the world’s most prestigious mining clients has made it a preferred partner on several sites.
Basil Read has been active on Debswana’s Jwaneng opencast diamond mine for over five years. Located in the southern parts of Botswana, Jwaneng has operated for over 30 years and is the pride of the country’s diamond sector. It is not only one of the largest producers, but also one of the richest diamond mines worldwide.
The pioneering Cut 8 mine expansion began in 2010, with Basil Read Mining working with Bothakga Burrow on Phase 1 to 3 of the project to mine and move 60 million tonnes of waste material over three years. In 2011, Basil Read Mining formed Majwe Mining a three-way joint venture with Thiess international and Bothakga Burrow Mining for Phase 3 of the Cut 8 expansion project mining 156 million cubic metres of material over a five-year contract period.
This expansion will extend Jwaneng’s life to at least 2025 and is expected to yield 100 million carats of diamonds worth some USD15 billion. This would make Jwaneng one of few super pits in the world.
Working closely with our clients, such as at Jwaneng, has helped secure small projects to keep the remaining plant busy for the year. As an example, our 310-tonne and 200-tonne excavators were used to help the client load its fleet while using our smaller fleet in difficult areas to enhance overall performance. Our successful and safe mining methods have elicited both professional comment and formal recognition from the client, given the sensitivity of the rock failure.
Basil Read also operates on various sites around Southern Africa and has an experience in copper, gold, platinum, chrome, uranium, manganese, iron ore and diamond mining.
Our Corporate Social Investment (CSI) strategy and initiatives are distinguished to better reflect our commitment in areas of community social and infrastructure development, sustainable environment commitment, youth development, academic development and sustainable job creation. CSI encompasses projects that are both internal and external to our main business stream, in order to uplift communities around our operating sites.
Respecting the environment is a crucial element of our approach to business. We strive to protect and sustain the environment, and to manage our impacts effectively, when the impacts are unavoidable. Equally, striving for accurate carbon footprint reporting, which helps us to reduce our natural scarce resource consumption.
BRM has an obligation to undertake the mandate of the 2016 UNAIDS gap report by focusing on the prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS in our operations and communities that we operate in. This is achieved by attracting and ensuring that a high proportion of the employees and communities around our operations undertake a Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) for the HIV/AIDS pandemic