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Mine housing project successfully completed

29th March 2013

By: Yolandi Booyens

  

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Building solutions company Speedspace successfully completed the construction of prefabricated accommodation and mobile office buildings for the Life of Mine project at mining company Kumba Iron Ore’s Kathu site, in the Northern Cape.

The accommodation will house workers from the Sishen mine, where the bulk of Kumba’s iron-ore is produced.


The Sishen mine is near the mining town of Kathu and is one of the seven largest openpit mines in the world, operating 24/7.


Despite several challenges at Sishen, such as work stoppages, owing to labour unrest, strikes and bad weather conditions, the project was successfully com- pleted and handed over to the mining company on January 18 – well ahead of the contractual completion time and within budget.

Upon completion of the project, Speedspace supplied, delivered and installed 7 300 m2 of prefabricated and modular buildings, comprising Speed-space mobile homes, office products, park homes, mobile offices, containers, portable toilets and other prefabricated solutions.

The company’s turnkey service also included the electrical and plumbing connections to each building.

To be more environment friendly, Kumba Iron Ore aimed to reduce electricity use in all the park homes and mobile offices on site. Speedspace, there- fore, installed evaporative cooling units instead of air-conditioning units in each of the prefabricated facilities, which reduced normal power use sixfold, states Speedspace MD Hennie Wiggett.

“The company also replaced the conventional electrical geysers in the prefabricated houses with heat-pump geysers, further reducing power usage by four times,” he explains.

Meanwhile, Speedspace completed the project, having worked 59 000 lost-time incident-free hours on site. It also scored 95% for its management, safety and environment project audit.

Contractor Construction Village

Speedspace was also commissioned to construct prefabricated buildings at a new site at Kumba’s Sishen mine, which also formed part of the Life of Mine project.

The project comprised three phases, with the contractors’ construction village housing about 900 workers. It also consisted of a full spectrum of portable facilities, such as mobile homes, a site office and toilets.

The prefabricated facilities, modular office and accommodation units consist of 77 prefabricated Speedsleep units, each accommodating 12 people, measuring 18 m × 3 m and equipped with furniture, an evaporative air-cooling unit for each sleeper and a water point; ten Speedloo units, each accom- modating nine portable toilets and six mobile urinals with flush systems, and two porcelain hand wash basins with cold water only; and ten Speedloo units, which will serve as mobile shower units, each equipped with ten showers and nine hand wash basins, including mirrors, shower curtains and benching. This includes five prefabricated 300 ℓ heat-pump geysers and four single troughs fitted outside.

Further, the village also consists of a Speedplan modular unit to serve as a kitchen and dining hall, accommodating 924 people and measuring 60 m × 24 m × 2.7 m in ceiling height.


Two preowned containers were fully restored, painted and used as a freezer unit, complete with refrigeration equipment, isolation and electrical wiring.
In addition, a wheelie bin wash area was created, comprising one preowned 6 m container, used as a mobile tuck shop; a mobile tent structure for entertainment, with side flaps and two access points, measuring 45 m × 15 m to accommodate 200 people in one seating; as well as one prefabricated Speedoffice block, with ablution facilities and provision for four offices and a laundry unit.

Edited by Megan van Wyngaardt
Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

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