Modern Mining December 2021

COVER STORY

Flagship projects Two recent flagship projects undertaken by thys- senkrupp in South Africa, says Van Rooyen, are testimony to the company’s expertise and precision in executing large-scale revamp projects. At one of the projects, the company success- fully completed a mid-life refurbishment on two 10 000 t/hour shiploaders operating at Saldanha Bay. Owing to the extreme environmental conditions on the quay where the shiploaders are in opera- tion, explains Francois de Villiers: thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions area manager – Western Cape and Namibia, extensive structural repairs were done together with the application of a three-coat corro- sion protection. Unpacking the scope of work, De Villiers explains that all the mechanical drives on the shuttle inside the boom, on the slew system and the travel bogies were replaced, as well as the respective variable speed drives (VSDs) as these items were outdated, with limited support from the respective manufacturers. Latest-technology safety sensors were installed to ensure a safe working environment for both personnel and equipment. No limitations were put to the scope, from software upgrades and the machine control system, to replacing the hydraulic luffing cylinders on the main boom and the cool- ing systems for the main conveyor belt gearboxes. Consul tat ion wi th the Saldanha Bay mainte- nance team prior to the refurbishment resulted in improvements to the design of transfer chutes. Additionally, a cable festoon was also replaced with an energy chain. De Villiers explains that machines of this nature normally have a first life expectancy of 20 – 25 years, and the Saldanha Bay shiploaders had already

clocked 20 years of operation. “The refurbishment work that we did guaranteed 10 more years of operation. Additionally, the phased approach to our revamp project meant that the customer had minimal operational downtime,” he says. Reiterating the importance of uptime on a proj- ect of this nature, De Villiers explains that a new shiploader generally is double the cost of a refurbish- ment. However, the loss in revenue due to a major breakdown of the machine can easily be equivalent or even more than the cost of the refurbishment or revamp. A second project thyssenkrupp recently com- pleted was a run of mine (ROM) bridge reclaimer revamp project for Sasol’s Twistdraai Export Plant. The order was secured in January 2021 and the project commenced by mid-June 2021. Owing to thyssenkrupp’s experience and knowledge, expert capabilities, thorough planning skills and under- standing of mitigating downtime, the reclaimer was back in operation on time in September 2021. thyssenkrupp shares a longstanding relation- ship with Sasol, dating back to 1979 when the first stackers and drum reclaimers were supplied. The bridge reclaimer was first commissioned at Sasol’s Twistdraai Export Plant during the mid-1990s in response to a growing export demand for high qual- ity thermal coal. Costa Hormovas, account manager (Mpumalanga Province) at thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions South Africa, details the revamp project: “The scope of work was initially determined by our project engineers with the assistance of our field service technicians and finalised in collaboration with the customer. We supplied new parts including chain guides and lin- ers, chain link assembly, scraper blades and guide rollers. We also refurbished the travel guide bogies,

One of the key advantages of dealing with thyssenkrupp is the company’s modular approach to revamp projects.

10  MODERN MINING  December 2021