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October 2015
MODERN MINING
35
feature
T
he 62-month, R4,6 billion multi-
disciplinary greenfield project in
the Secunda area had an integrated
management team at its helm. The
Joint Venture’s multi-disciplinary
team had to interface with the Sasol project
team, the Sasol Mining team and the Sasol
Coal Supply team, which would ultimately
run the entire operation and therefore had to
be brought up to speed with the project’s tech-
nical scope.
“The constructed project demonstrates our
commitment to sustainable engineering solu-
tions,” comments Kevin Seyfried, Director
Mining AEM, Associate at Hatch Goba.
“Specialised package managers were respon-
sible for the total delivery within their areas of
responsibility.”
The basic engineering design packages
ensured suitability, functionality, constructabil-
ity, operability and maintainability of the new
mining infrastructure and associated materials
handling system. All the systems were designed
Night view of Impumelelo, a new 8,5 Mt/a replacement tonnage coal mine complex in the Secunda area.
The 15 000-tonne coal
bunker at Impumelelo under
construction.
Impumelelo
commended
for
engineering excellence
The Impumelelo shaft project at Sasol Mining’s Brandspruit mine received a commendation
at the CESA Aon Engineering Excellence Awards 2015 for the RSV ENCO Hatch Goba Coal
Joint Venture. Sasol Mining appointed the Joint Venture as the Engineering, Procurement and
Construction Management (EPCM) consultant in August 2009.
to be energy efficient and optimised within
strict coal degradation and spillage tolerances.
A techno-economic review of the project’s
feasibility was completed by the Joint Venture
in June 2009, followed by a detailed engineer-
ing design phase from July 2009 to December
2010. Construction began in earnest in June
2011. Phase 1 construction was completed
in June 2015, with Phase 2 scheduled for
completion in June 2019. Upon completion,
Impumelelo will have 13 production seams,
with a total shaft depth of 235 m.
Impumelelo is a new 8,5 Mt/a replacement
tonnage coal mine complex for Brandspruit in
the Secunda area of Mpumalanga. The project
scope entailed the design and development
of the complete greenfield mine complex.
Therefore special consideration had to be paid
to the build-up of the new operation, in con-
junction with the phasing out of the existing
coal-mining operation.
It included the entire shaft system of two
vertical shafts, a decline shaft and associated
COAL MINING