Mining Weekly

A twinwall drainage system from Polypipe has been installed in the first phase of the infrastructure work at the Marampa Mine project in Sierra Leone.  The 150mm Rigidrain pipes and associated fittings were shipped from the UK, with the ability to meet an extremely tight logistics schedule being a key part of the supply arrangement. The mining operation at Marampa, which is a brownfield haematite iron ore mine located in Lunsar, 125km to the north east of Freetown, is being undertaken by Dawnus Construction, a UK-based international civil engineering and building company, on behalf of London Mining plc.  Appointed as the principal mining contractor for the first phase of the works, Dawnus commenced the £122m mining operations in December 2012.  Included in the infrastructure being created by Dawnus to support the mining operations there is an internationally acreditted training centre which will focus on the ongoing training and development of the local workforce.

Dawnus were subsequently awarded an additional package of work to drain and stabilise an existing tailings dam.The Polypipe Rigidrain High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) product was supplied for management of water decanting from the tailings, into a pipeline that will drain the water within the tailing dam wall to a local water treatment area.  HDPE is the material of choice in many mining applications, being ideally suited to rugged terrain, extreme climates and changing site environments.  In a competitive process, UK-based Polypipe won the order by demonstrating the ability to manufacture to extremely tight supply deadlines and to pull together products from its various manufacturing sites into one consignment. Jonathan Lewis of Dawnus, was responsible for the purchasing process and he says:  “Polypipe was the  supplier who could meet our needs in terms of speed of manufacture.  They were aware that we had a specific shipping date already booked and were able to work to our timescales, supplying pipes to lengths suitable for maximising container capacity.  The communications between our two teams were excellent and the flexibility that Polypipe were able to demonstrate meant that the whole supply process went very smoothly.”

The Polypipe Rigidrain twinwall system, which offers a complete solution for non-pressurised surface and sub-surface drainage applications is lightweight and offers exceptional compression strength with easy push-fit installation.  It delivers time and cost savings over traditional systems and requires no heavy lifting equipment on site.  Normally manufactured in 6m lengths, the consignment for Dawnus was made to 5.8m lengths, to allow for the internal dimensions of the shipping containers and maximise their capacity. Polypipe Export Sales Manager Philip Wood adds:  “When you are delivering a key component for major infrastructure work such as this, you have to be aware of how vital it is to work to the customer’s shipping requirements and schedules.  One of our major strengths is manufacturing to deadlines so we don’t adhere to rigid production schedules.  We believe in flexibility and will manufacture what the customer wants, when they want it.”