Multidisciplinary civil engineering and construction company Stefanutti Stocks has started construction on the foundation works for two contracts at diversified mining group Exxaro's Grootegeluk Medupi expansion project.
The first contract, awarded in June, includes the construction of the run-of-mine (ROM) bunker and discard bunker, the haul road tunnel, and the conveyor foundations, as well as general infrastructure, such as roads and storm watmini heavy duty crusherer drains. Currently, the foundation for the ROM bunker is in progress. The expected completion date for this project is December 2011.
"The two bunkers, wchrome ore beneficiaiton planthen constructed, should have a storage capacity of about 45 000 t of coal each. Once completed, they will represent some of the largest constructed bunkers in can crusher for saleSouthern Africa," says Stefanutti Stocks director Peter Watt.
The second contract, awarded in July, involves the construction of the civil foundations for the beneficiation plant, which include three ROM feed silos, a screening building, a cyclone plant, a large coal dense-media separator (larcodems) plant, a cyclone feed silo, a larcodems feedbin, a product bin and the conveyor foundations and paving.
Currently, Stefanutti Stocks is constructing the screening building, the cyclone feed silo, the cyclone plant, the larcodems feedbin and some of the conveyor foundations. The expected completion date is August 2011.The combined contracts are worth about R600-million.
Meanwhile, Watt notes that the company has experienced some difficulty with the foundations, on both projects, as the substrata (a layer of earth beneath the surface soil) was not suitable for founding purposes. This required deeper excavations than was originally anticipated at the concept stage and the company had to substantially increase the mass concrete foundations. Even with these challenges, Stefanutti Stocks expects to make the forecast completion dates on both projects.