Construction World September 2018

Second Namibian lab opened

Situated at Skorpion Zinc mine near Rosh Pinah, the new lab is strategically placed to answer a growing call for world class condition monitoring services in the region, particularly in the burgeoning mining and construction industries. The lab is open to any industry requiring used oil analysis and other reliability solutions services. It is fully equipped with the latest instruments and technology and is backed by its own uninterrupted power supply. To enable maintenance managers to make quick decisions, the lab offers 24-hour sample turnaround time. A second Namibian WearCheck laboratory has provided condition monitoring services to the Husab Uranium Project since 2016. Swakop Uranium, owners of the mining operation, awarded WearCheck a contract to supply and operate an on-site laboratory. WearCheck MD Neil Robinson is determined to make world class condition monitoring services as accessible as possible to industrial operations on the African continent. ‘The learning curve for equipping and operating a remote laboratory has been a steep one, however every project is a learning experience and with each new laboratory, the implementation process is bettered. ‘As industry needs evolve, we are constantly redesigning our labs to present reliability solutions in areas which previously seemed almost impossible to imagine having a world-class laboratory present.’ Offering a wide range of condition monitoring services for the mining sector - including used oil analysis - WearCheck Namibia is available for use by other industries, such as quarrying, industrial, transport and shipping operations. In addition to two in Namibia, WearCheck’s labs can be found in South Africa (six), Zambia (two) and one each in Zimbabwe, DRC, Mozambique, Ghana, Dubai and India. WearCheck’s newest laboratory is officially open in southern Namibia, bringing to 16 the number of laboratories that the company operates in nine countries around Africa and beyond. Laboratory manager Leandra Smith is standing by to process used oil samples and other condition monitoring services for industrial operations in the southern Namibia region.

Flying its green colours at Electra Mining Africa 2018 Water-mist fire-suppression systems from I-CAT are ideal for large transformers.

The company is excited to participate once again at the leading expo, where some 30 000 attendees gather to engage in solutions across the mining, industrial, electrical, and power industry sectors, I-CAT Environmental Solutions Head of the Fire division, Andro Gibhard comments. “It’s a great platform for I-CAT, as it showcases all roleplayers in Sub-Saharan Africa, and enables us not only to display our products and solutions, but to be exposed to new technology and methods from other participants. “The expo gives us access to the people we most want to reach, including engineers, safety personnel, and a number of other organisations that provide best-practice, top-end solutions in environmental management,” Gibhard highlights. Developments in the mining space include recent tests conducted by Sasol and I-CAT, proving conclusively that dry chemical powder extinguishers are ineffective against rubber, conveyor belt and tyre fires, both encountered in underground mining. This means that many underground mines have little or no fire protection, posing a major health and safety risk to mineworkers. In terms of its ongoing contribution to improved firefighting methodologies for the mining industry, the I-CAT Fire Division has compiled a totally new protection protocol for underground conveyor belt protection, including redundancy protection. The protocol has been tested against various test scenarios identified in a risk assessment. Products to be showcased at this year’s expo include I-CAT’s water- and foam-mist fire extinguishers, based on its innovative T-Rotor technology. This not only has SABS approval, but European and major international accreditation as well. In Africa’s highly-stressed freshwater resources environment, water-saving is another area of great concern, with I-CAT having developed an effective ‘green’ evaporation system that can be applied to reduce wastewater at mining operations. “Water-effluent management is vital, not to mention financially- viable. Legislation will enforce the recycling and re-use of effluent water in industries in future, and our solutions can put mining in particular ahead of the curve.” Gibhard adds that Electra Mining Africa 2018 will also allow I-CAT to generate leads for future projects, and to disseminate broader awareness about its solutions and technology. “With mining budgets in Africa increasingly under pressure, it is important for us to use the expo as a platform to showcase the value-add and cost-savings that we can offer the mining industry,” he concludes.  I-CAT will display its diverse range of dust and fire suppres- sion solutions at Electra Mining Africa 2018, from 14 to 16 September at Nasrec in Johannesburg.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD SEPTEMBER 2018