Heavy-engineering company Steel Services & Allied Industries (SS&AI) is delivering the components to site for a 1 100 t steel headgear manufacturing project, which is expected to be erected at the end of the year at the Mopani copper mine, in Zambia.

SS&AI group MD Lawrence Bartlett tells Mining Weekly that the R45-million steelwork order was placed in 2013 by global mining group and commodities trader Glencore, the largest shareholder of the mine.

The headgear-manufacturing project forms part of a larger project being undertaken at the Mopani mine, which will result in the construction of a new shaft and associated infrastructure to boost production and expand operations.

SS&AI was tasked to undertake the detailed drawings of the headgear; the procurement and processing of the steel; the assembly and fabrication of the headgear components; the corrosion protection of the steelwork; the specialist submerged-arc welding; trial assembly at its manufacturing facility; and the supervision of the installation on site.

SS&AI outsourced the services of a large logistics company to facilitate the delivery of the steelwork for the 70-m-tall headgear from the manufacturing facility in Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, to site. The logistics company used 34 t trucks to transport the 45-odd loads of steelwork.

Bartlett says the company performed 60 km of automatic submerged-arc welding during the fabrication of the headgear. The longest abnormal piece of steelwork was more than 13 m long and weighed about 30 t.

SS&AI has also undertaken the manufacture of a surface conveyor project to link gold miner Gold Fields’ award-winning 87-m-high, 1 900 t headgear, which SS&AI also manufactured, to the plant stockpile at its South Deep Twin Shafts site.

This surface conveyor project has been entered into the South African Institute of Steel Construction’s 2014 Steel Awards, while the headgear won in the mining and industrial category of the 2011 Steel Awards.

SS&AI has also undertaken fabrication work for overseas companies and is undertaking two major contracts with LSE-listed miner Aquarius Platinum and platinum miner Impala Platinum. The main activities of these contracts include the underground fabrication and installation of the conveyor structures and the installation of permanent pipes and dams, as well as the refurbishment and reclamation of conveyor belts.

Meanwhile, Bartlett highlights that the company is undertaking a materials handing expansion project to increase its output of steel. “We can currently produce between 6 000 t and 8 000 t of fabricated steelwork a year and we would like to double this in the next three years. To do this, we are creating bigger factories, which will enable us to move material around the factories more easily,” he says.

The SS&AI group, which specialises in successful turnkey projects for the mining and construction industries, manages structural steel projects from conception to the finished product.