Modern Mining September 2017

DIAMONDS

and in recent years has been the EPCM contrac- tor on the majority of the many shaft projects – most of them now complete – undertaken within the Southern African region, including Impala Platinum’s giant No 17 shaft. As Project Director, Hull is based at the WorleyParsons RSA offices in Melrose Arch in Johannesburg but visits the Venetia site as required. A mining engineering gradu- ate of the University of the Witwatersrand, he worked for De Beers earlier in his career before joining TWP (the predecessor com- pany of WorleyParsons RSA) in 2007. After a stint as director and partner of a small min- ing consultancy, he re-joined WorleyParsons RSA in 2016 to deliver the Venetia project. He has been associated in many senior roles with some notable projects, including Wesizwe’s Bakubung platinum mine and the Harmony Newcrest JV’s Wafi-Golpu copper-gold project in Papua New Guinea. According to Hull, WorleyParsons has a sub- stantial team committed to the VUP. “The size of the team will vary as the project progresses but generally will be increasing from now through to 2018,” he says. “We have a team in Johannesburg and, at the site itself, we currently have a construction manager and certain other positions already in place and the number of personnel permanently based at the mine site

contract is the result of the combined efforts from all parties who worked tirelessly for over a year to evolve the project into a different for- mat. During our negotiations De Beers’ holding company, Anglo American, was in the process of changing its project execution synopsis, and this is the first contract signed globally in line with Anglo American’s new model.” Explaining the scope of the contract, Robert Hull says that WorleyParsons’ respon- sibilities include project management, project accounting and project administration, project controls and document controls, engineering and design, procurement and materials man- agement, construction management and quality management, as well as commissioning and operational readiness support. “This is a flag- ship contract for WorleyParsons and the first on this scale within WorleyParsons RSA,” he says. He adds that the contract covers all surface and underground infrastructure although the devel- opment and shaft sinking – but not the shaft equipping – is excluded. WorleyParsons RSA is a ‘global centre of min- ing excellence’ within the wider WorleyParsons Group, which is a major international provider of project delivery, engineering and consulting services to the resources, infrastructure and energy sectors. The South African arm of the Group has huge experience of shaft projects

The two vertical shafts are each being sunk to a depth of 1 050 m. The VUP is thought to be the biggest mining project currently under development in South Africa.

28  MODERN MINING  September 2017