Mining contracting company Murray & Roberts Cementation Zambia has reached the 700 m mark in its endeavour to sink and equip a synclinorium shaft for integrated copper and cobalt producer Mopani Copper Mines (MCM).
The Mopani synclinorium shaft project, which is due for completion in June 2015, will establish a hoisting and ventilation facility to extract ore from the Nkana synclinorium orebody, which is incorporated into the MCM complex in Kitwe, Zambia.
The new shaft will enable consistent ore production above four-million tons an hour by 2017 at the Nkana mines and will increase the life-of-mine by 25 years.
Murray & Roberts Cementation Zambia is 19 months into the contract, which was originally awarded in July 2011. The contract required the blind sinking, equipping and commissioning of a 7-m-diameter downcast rock hoist shaft to a depth of 1 277 m. This main shaft will be equipped as a rock-hoisting shaft on the brownfield project to service a new area under development.
The company has also been awarded the 50 m presink contract for an associated 6-m-diameter upcast ventilation shaft that will reach a depth of 1 166 m.
The synclinorium shaft is being sunk through drilling and blasting using mesh and bolts as support. Lining will be installed using the Canadian shutter method, which uses admixtures to self-level the concrete and ensure there is no honeycombing.
This method, which is considered to be a global trend in shaft sinking, was chosen by Murray & Roberts Cementation because of its safer approach. The company used the Canadian shutter method before for other recent shaft-sinking projects, while Murray & Roberts Cementation’s Canada-based branch has assisted local teams in transferring the skills to make this the shaft-sinking method of choice in the future.
Training & Safety
Moreover, the Mopani synclinorium shaft project is host to the first Murray & Roberts Cementation elearning computer training programme established outside South Africa.
The company’s pilot training academy is located at Bentley Park, near Carletonville, South Africa, and trains all expatriate site personnel before they are deployed to projects outside the country, explains Murray & Roberts Cementation project manager Neil Mackay.
“We identified the need for a satellite training centre in Zambia to instruct our local personnel and have installed ten personal computers, complete with headsets,” he says.
Mackay further explains that the elearning module comprises a full set of procedures for each job category. Each learner works through the relevant set of procedures and is required to complete a test at the end of each session. Those who do not achieve a 100% pass mark are required to retake the test until full marks are achieved.
Mackay highlights safety procedures as an important component of the company’s training programme.
“We’ve just rolled out the ‘Stop.Think.Act.24/7’ approach, which emphasises the importance of taking action to rectify unsafe conditions and behaviour, while recognising positive behaviour. The 24/7 approach highlights the need to be safety [conscious] at all times – at work and after hours.”
Mackay adds that all shifts on site begin with a safety talk and every person entering the site is required to pass a breathalyser test.
The senior Zambian supervisors in the sinking crew for MCM’s synclinorium shaft project were flown to South Africa prior to the main sink, which began in May 2012. These supervisors spent six weeks at Bentley Park, participating in simulated sinking procedures at mock-up shafts that would be applied on site at Mopani.
Mackay believes this transfer of practical and theoretical knowledge will benefit the Zambian mining community.
The MCM project team currently comprises 32 Murray & Roberts Cementation personnel and between 200 and 300 local recruits, including mine captains, shift supervisors, artisans and general labourers.
Moreover, Murray & Roberts Cementation Zambia is poised to establish an office in Kitwe to centralise project administration and provide a workshop, storage facility and permanent base for the elearning centre.