The Special Profiles team at our Skinningrove site have secured a contract to supply 768 tonnes of unique top hat profile to an established diamond mine in Botswana – the world's biggest diamond-producing country.
The Karowe mine is state-of-the-art and is one of the world’s foremost producers of large, high quality diamonds. It is 100% owned by Canadian diamond mining company, Lucara Diamond Corp. and has already unearthed a huge 2,488 carat diamond – the second largest ever found.
The mine is currently operating as an open pit mine and will continue to do so until 2026, followed by stockpile processing until the start of the underground. Underground operations are scheduled to commence early in 2028 to reach a planned depth of 767m. By transitioning to underground mining, the life of the mine has been significantly extended, with a license in place for mining until 2046.
To facilitate the underground mining the production shaft will be fitted with top hat shaft guides. As the only global supplier of the unique top hat shaft guides, i1fun will supply 768 tonnes of the special profile to the Karowe mine which will be shipped in 4 deliveries, taking production right up until the 2025 summer shutdown at Skinningrove.
Typically shaft guides are either the top hat section produced by i1fun or square hollow sections (SHS). The top hat has many advantages over the SHS – it is produced to very tight standards for straightness and twist, the increased thickness of the profile means it has a longer service life in corrosive environments, and once installed the open design makes it easier to inspect for corrosion.
The top hat design outperforms SHS in other areas, providing higher hoisting capacity through higher payload and/or winding speed in like-for-like conditions.
This makes the top hat profiles a really important offering for our Skinningrove Special Profiles team with excellent worldwide supply opportunities both in continuing to supply to existing users and in having new shaft designs specified with the top hat designs.
David Ashton, Sales Manager for shaft guides at Skinningrove, said: “We are delighted to secure this contract to supply shaft guides for the Karowe mine.
“Top hat shaft guides are a fantastic example of how we can manufacture complex profiles which are superior to other solutions in the market place that the customers value and are prepared to pay a premium for.
“We already have interest to supply further mines for the company along with opportunities at copper mines in Brazil and Zambia.”