Ghanaian gold mine stretches resources

LEONARD NEILL DEVELOPMENT OF Ghana’s Ahafo gold mine, which started last December, and has been contracted out to South African mining equipment manufacturers, calls for the transportation of 12 000 cu/m of cargo during the 18-month construction period. “It has given us a specially demanding task, and one on which the dedicated project division is working full out,” says SDV Transami project manager Caroline Brownson. The contract has called for the handling of all equipment as well as the planning of road construction in a country where roads are often little more than twin sand tracks through the veld. But while this in progress, the SDV projects team is busily engaged in a number of other projects, some of them closely linked with the company’s Australian operation. Chartering with its Australian headquarters, the South African division recently dispatched 1500 cu/m cargo for the Takoradi gold mine in Western Australia. An even more demanding project was that of dismantling a sagmill at a nickel plant in Blyvooruitzicht, and sending the components in 30 20ft containers from Durban to Fremantle. “Australian import regulations are extremely stringent regarding cleanliness,” says Brownson. “We had to have the equipment cleaned under high pressure hosing, and then fumigated and packed in containers in Durban under supervision of an Australian official.” Project demands have found the SDV Transami team handling seven large transformers, each weighing 92 tons, arriving in Durban and being dispatched to the Kafue Gorge power station in Zambia. With accessories accompanying them, it required 10 trucks to transport the load. Once at the power station, the transformers had to be driven along narrow passageways to the turbine hall, offloaded and placed in position. “That needed an experienced haulier and we had the best available operator to do it,” she says.