MechChem Africa March 2017

Balama Graphite Mine powered by SA-built

The remote operation to mine one of the world’s largest finds of high grade graphite – the Balama deposit in Mozambique – will be powered by a generator plant being constructed through South Africa-based Zest Energy, part of the Zest WEG Group.

A ccording to Alastair Gerrard, man- aging director of Zest Energy, the new generator being constructed inSouthAfrica for thenewgraphite mine in Balama will begin producing electric- ity during the first quarter of 2017, with an initial capacity of 12.5 MW from an instal- lation of seven 2 200 kWdiesel generators. “The isolated location of the Balamamine – over 250 km west of Pemba in northern Mozambique – means that while the opera- tion does have access to power from the na- tional grid this will need to be supplemented to ensure an adequate supply for full plant demand,” Gerrard says. “We are therefore required by the customer to ensure 100% availability, and have consequently designed the plant with substantial standby capacity to allow formaintenance and repairswithout affecting the continuous supply.”

He says the plant, which was the larg- est footprint project yet tackled by Zest Energy, would ini- tially run with seven 2 200 kW genera- tors; six running and one on standby, and would later be ex- panded to include eleven generators, of which two will be standby units.

One of the diesel generator sets for Syrah Resources’ Balama graphite project, custom engineered and constructed by Zest Energy.

and fuel and lube tanks. To cool the engines, a horizontal-type radiator system, rated for 50 °C ambient temperature, was manufac- tured in South Africa and each radiator in- cludes 10WEG3.0kWfanmotors positioned in two cooling banks of five fans each. “Oneofthechallengesofthemineenviron- ment is the presence of graphite dust, which

Equipment for the extensive scope of sup- ply has been sourced fromvarious companies within the Zest WEG Group, locally and worldwide. The containerised power genera- tors includeWEGalternatorswith automatic voltage regulation systems, as well as mo- torised louvres, generator auxiliary systems,

Mobile power for Kamoa-Kakula mine development in the DRC

Thedevelopment of theworld’s largest high- grade copper deposit – the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project in the Democratic Republic

of Congo (DRC) – is now running on power from the DRC’s national grid using a mobile substation recently commissioned by South

Africa’s Gauteng-based Zest Energy. The 120/11 kV mobile substation will serve the construction of the planned initial mine at Kamoa-Kakula, a project whose existing mineral resource has been inde- pendently verified as Africa’s largest copper find. Kamoa-Kakula’s principal owners are IvanhoeMines, ZijinMining and the govern- ment of the DRC. “Due to the high cost of running on diesel generators, the mine developers decided to purchase a mobile substation to interface with the network of the DRC power utility, SNEL, toprovidepower during the construc- tion phase of the project,” Alastair Gerrard, managing director at Zest Energy, says. Although the substation will not be moved frequently, Gerrardsaysbeingmobile allowed for quick and hassle-free construc- tion and commissioning, and gives the mine the addedflexibility of deploying the substa- tion to other areas of its operations when needed in the future. ZestEnergy–partoftheZestWEGGroup –undertook thedesign,manufacture, supply, testing, delivery, installation and commis- sioning of the complete mobile substation, including the trailer, transformer and related electrical equipment. It also provided a pro-

The Zest Energy mobile substation in position on site, connected to the SNEL electrical network. The photograph shows preparations for hot commissioning and energising in progress.

28 ¦ MechChem Africa • March 2017