Special mention of SBM at Steel Awards 2005
SBM projects received special mention at Steel Awards 2005, the prestigious presentations made annually by the South African Institute of Steel Construction to recognise outstanding applications of steel in the industrial field. This year saw a record number of entries.
In making the award, the judges commented on SBM's submission that: "A big driver in the success of the SA steel-fabricating industry continues to be the needs of our mining industry. When an engineering concept is perfected that makes the contracting issues for our fabricators easier and at the same time has overall major benefits to our client body, our judges felt that they would be doing all the parties involved an injustice in not making a special mention of the modular design solution to mining plants conceived by (SBM) for the De Beers group." SBM entered two of its modular-plant projects for De Beers in the Industrial Mining and Engineering category: the modular plant for processing drill chip samples for Venetia Diamond Mine, near Musina, Limpopo Province, and a dense-media separation (DMS) plant being installed as an upgrade of the New Treatment Plant at Kimberley Mines, Northern Cape, both in South Africa.
Modular Plant for Venetia Diamond Mine
One of the main requirements of the plant was that it had to be possible to disassemble the plant at the end of a sampling campaign, load it into a transport aircraft with relative ease, and move it to other diamond mining areas in Africa.
The main structure of the plant for Venetia Diamond Mine
The main structure of the plant therefore comprises a fully-welded frame constructed from square, hollow-section, steel beams, sufficiently compact and light to be transported by air, yet strong enough to support the processing units in the plant. This design also provides for easy access for maintenance purposes. Vibration of the structure, induced by the vibrating screens, scrubbers and crushers, had to be minimised to ensure the required comfort level of the plant operators.
A steel sump at the bottom of the plant provides the frame with the required stability and removes the need for a concrete surface bed. All that will be needed to rehabilitate the site will thus be to restore the vegetation and return the crushed material to source. SBM provided all of the engineering expertise necessary for the project.
