Modern Mining April 2015

COUNTRY FOCUS – ZAMBIA

roughly 10 % being expatriates. Obviously we want to reduce the proportion of expatriates and we are therefore are putting a great deal of effort into training. We have set up an e-learn- ing centre and we also send trainees to our Bentley Park training facility in South Africa.” Nefdt says that with Murray & Roberts Cementation’s Lubambe contract about to finally finish (the company will be off-site shortly) and the Synclinorium having only months to run, the challenge now is to build up the order book. “This is not an easy task in the present market but we are currently tender- ing on projects in the DRC and Ghana,” he says. Commenting on the Synclinorium contract, he says that this could rank as the last shaft to be undertaken by Murray & Roberts Cementation using conventional, South African-style shaft- sinking methods. “The Group is moving towards adoption of the model pioneered by our Canadian company in which all activities in the shaft-sinking cycle are undertaken in- line, with no jobs taking place simultaneously, which we believe will make for greater safety and more efficiency,” he explains. “Having said this, the traditional methods have served us well on the Synclinorium, which has gen- erally progressed well after some initial delays relating to some problems with the civils and also poor ground conditions for the first 200 m, which proved tricky to negotiate and which required extra support.” The shaft sinking was completed at the end of September last year, with one of the suc- cesses along the way being a record 96 m of sinking and lining during the month of August 2013 and one of the challenges the very wet conditions, which required up to 24 000 litres of groundwater a day to be pumped out of the shaft. Nefdt’s colleague, Wyllie Pearson, who is Senior Project Manager, also mentions that the

company intersected a 28 m dyke at one point. “We sank through it without incident, a notable achievement given that the rock was very hard and susceptible to scaling. This necessitated support to within 1 m of the shaft bottom in order to increase worker safety.” Innovations in the field of safety on the Synclinorium contract by Murray & Roberts Cementation have included the introduction of a new system to replace the old system of hand

Above: The sinking headgear which is due to be dismantled shortly (photo: Arthur Tassell). Top left: Loading box installation during equipping phase. Top right: Mini-excavator working on the 1 231 m loading station level.

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April 2015  MODERN MINING  41