M3 Construction Projects’ primary responsibility was the construction of ten motor control centre substations for the mine
Medium-sized civil, earthworks and construction company M3 Construction Projects is nearing completion of a R60-million contract with diversified miner Glencore to develop mine site infrastructure at the Tweefontein Optimisation Project (TOP), in Mpumalanga, M3 site agent Darren Joubert tells Mining Weekly.
M3 is working on the TOP as a subcontractor for mining project house DRA and has been working on the project since October 2012.
“Our primary responsibility was to construct ten motor control centre (MCC) substations varying in sizes of between 100 m2 to 220 m2, spanning about 8.4 km. The work entailed undertaking the ground, steel, concrete and building works for the MCC substations,” says Joubert.
M3 completed the construction of the MCC substations and handed them over to DRA in November. DRA is responsible for operating and maintaining the structures.
Joubert further notes that M3 was responsible for the installation of cable sleeves to protect the MCC’s electrical and fibre-optic cables.
The company has installed most of the cable sleeves, with about 10 m left to install.
M3 is also painting the floors of the substations and is scheduled to complete its full scope of work by year- end.
Meanwhile, he tells Mining Weekly that some of the challenges M3 had to overcome included adhering to Glencore’s and DRA’s high safety and work standards, and ensuring that deadlines were met, even when the site was congested, owing to the large number of contractors.