The Sishen South project is a greenfield iron ore mine situated in the Northern Cape area of South Africa. The mine has recently been renamed to Kolomela Mine. Kumba has an existing large iron ore mine, Sishen Mine, approximately 80 km north of the new project.
The Sishen South Project (Kolomela Mine) is to produce an initial 9 million tons per annum (Mtpa) of iron ore from the mining operation, which is defined as Direct Iron Ore Shipping, since it is simply processed via the crushing and sizing plant, to stockpiles and a rail truck loading station, without any further upgrading due to the high grade.
Kumba is managing the overall project, plus the construction of other consultants/contractors for the infrastructure and bulk earthworks, inclusive of the open-pit development.
To date the project has included pouring 30,000 m3 of concrete, 1,450 tons of plate work, 1,300 tons of structural steel, 1,100 tons of conveyors, 335 mechanical equipment items, 205 km of electric and instrument cables and 26 km of piping.
Hatch is supplying the engineering, procurement, project and construction management (EPCM) for the plant and stockyard area. Hatch’s areas of responsibility in the plant begins at the primary crusher feed-point and runs through the entire plant, including primary, secondary and tertiary crushing of material with scalping, and product screening in between through to stacking and reclaiming in the stockyard, into the load out station and finally into the rail chase.
Hatch began work on the project in March 2008. The project is being carried out in South Africa with detail engineering in the Hatch São Paulo office in Brazil, which is now completed. Hatch Procurement in China assisted with quality control of vendor-supplied stackers and bucket wheel reclaimer that were manufactured in China.
Engineering was 100% in March 2010, procurement and delivery of free issue equipment completed in June 2010 and construction at 80% complete in September 2010. Commissioning will commence early 2011 and plant handover on schedule for May 2011.
The project is expected to be completed ahead of schedule and below budget. Construction is expected to be 95% complete by the end of 2010.
The project has achieved 2,750,000 work-hours without any lost-time incidents.
