Good progress has been made by Wade Walker with the installation of electrical equipment including a motor control centre and instrumentation as part of the new full plant tailings (FPT) backfill plant at Gold Fields’ South Deep gold mine.

Michael Spear, project manager at Wade Walker, one of the largest electrical, control and instrumentation contractors in the mining industry, and part of the Engineering Africa Platform of Murray & Roberts for multi-discipline construction services, says the contract was awarded to the company at the end of July 2011 and work is forecast for completion in the first quarter of 2012.

The project forms part of the mine’s extensive capital development and construction programme being undertaken with the objective of achieving a production run rate of between 750 000 and 800 000 ounces of gold per annum by the end of 2014.

Working closely with the client and Murray & Roberts Cementation, backfill process and plant engineer Spear reports “Our scope of work with the electrical portion of the contract includes the supply and installation of mild steel galvanised cable racking and installation of free issue low voltage power and lighting cabling. The contract will take up about 15km of LV cabling. A value add with this portion of our contract was our involvement in assisting with the detail design of the cable rack and the specific routing of the cabling.”

Spear says in terms of the contract, Wade Walker is also responsible for the installation, including bus trunking, of a 30-tier MMC manufactured locally and procured by Murray & Roberts on behalf of Gold Fields .

“We are providing power from the MCC to 50 electric motors ranging from 0.55 kW to 132 kW installed along with variable speed drives at various points around the plant.”

Turning to the instrumentation portion of the contract, he says Wade Walker is responsible for the SCADA system design and specification and supplying air manifolds with fittings and dekabon piping for use with air-based instruments. The company is also fitting 150 inline instruments which include flow, pressure and level transmitters as well as pressure and flow switches.

“‘The installation of 245 remote controlled valves and 16 field remote I/O panels throughout the plant is our responsibility. The I/O panels, PLCs and network panels were free issue, and procured from, the company sub-contracted to programme the SCADA system that will control the plant. We are also responsible for installing the variable speed drive panels,” says Spear.

The Wade Walker contract team of 56 on site has to date logged 45 025 LTIF (Lost Time Injury Free) hours. The team buy-in to the Gold Fields’ safety harness pledge encouraged personal commitment and a greater degree of discussion and understanding whereby everyone on site was required to sign without reluctance and commit to a pledge to wear a harness, hook up and secure themselves when they work at heights.

Earlier this year Wade Walker successfully completed an incident free contract for the supply and installation of power lines, electrical equipment and instrumentation for the associated new tailings facility at South Deep gold mine.