It takes a significant capital investment in heavy plant items and equipment to move
and extract the volumes of material that result from Finstone’s exensive Rustenburg
operations. To support and maintain current production levels in the Rustenburg area,
a total of 32 front end loaders, 19 ‘dump’ trucks and 12 excavators are currently
deployed with a total replacement value of approximately US$ 27 million. This
machinery is serviced and overhauled by fully equipped on-site workshops which are
also responsible for the maintenance and repair of all ancillary equipment.
In order to sustain the current combined production from the region of between 140 000m³
and 150 000m³ per annum, Finstone has led the development and application of new
technology and mining methods within the South African dimension stone industry. It was
the first company to apply formal mine planning to dimensional stone quarrying and then
to pioneer the growing application of diamond wire technology achieving the highest
performance levels in dimensional stone extraction - whilst at the same time continuing
to pioneer ‘blind cutting’ techniques in solid granite formations to facilitate overall
quarry development.
Similarly, Finstone has been leading the development of new explosive and non-explosive
splitting techniques, as well as recently developing new equipment capable of tipping
slabs measuring over 3m in thickness with weight in excess of 1 000 tons.