South African quantity surveyor completes DRC project
South African quantity surveying company Professional Cost Consultants (PCC) in September completed a surveying contract for the construction of the Kibali gold project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), says MD Christo Fourie.
The Kibali gold mine, valued at $1.7-billion, is a joint venture between Africa-focused gold miner Randgold Resources (45%), gold mining major AngloGold Ashanti (45%) and DRC State-owned gold mining company Sokimo (10%).
“We were appointed as the project’s engineering, procurement and construction management contractor to provide pre- and post-contract quantity surveying services for Phase 1 of the project, for $250-million of the construction contract. Our contract scope included plant earthworks, infrastructure, civils and building, the Nzoro 2 hydropower plant, a tailings dam, structural steel supply and erection, and piping supply and erection,” says Fourie.
He says PCC used a team of eight quantity surveyors at the peak of the project, including two permanent site-based quantity surveyors. The company’s involvement at pre-contract stage started in March 2011.
The Kibali gold mine is located about 560 km from Kisangani, capital of the Orientale province, in the north-east region of the DRC. “It is considered to be the largest African gold mine outside South Africa,” says Fourie.
Phase 1 of the project saw the development of the mine’s openpit section, metallurgical plant and tailings storage facility, as well as the first of four hydropower plants on the Kibali river, designed to provide the mine’s power requirements, says Fourie. He adds that a backup system, comprising several diesel generators, will augment the hydroelectric power during the region’s dry season.
Unique Challenges
As Kibali is one of the largest gold mining projects that PCC has been involved in outside South Africa, the project presented a number of challenges from a quantity surveying perspective.
Several of the contracting parties hailed from different countries, which made the terms of the agreement challenging. The parties involved had to find common ground when agreeing to certain contractual conditions, as well as standard specifications, he says.
The remote location of the site also made meeting monthly deadlines – for the processing of payment certificates and financial reporting – difficult. Further, the claims submissions, which resulted from construction progress, were constantly affected by the region’s high rainfall as transportation was being affected. “This required innovative agreements to be reached among the contractors,” says Fourie. However, Fourie notes that PCC’s own cost management systems and standards were applied to meet the challenges presented by the project.
“With experience in African projects across a range of commodities, such as uranium, gold, iron-ore and copper, PCC is geared to provide quantity surveying and cost management services for projects across the African continent,” he says.
He adds that, since its establishment in 1995, PCC has maintained extensive knowledge and experience in quantity surveying, cost management and project services, in line with its position as a leading service provider in the mining, process and chemicals industries.
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