Safety Achievement for 2006
Bateman Engineering’s ongoing commitment to safety has yielded outstanding results over the past years. As of mid September 2006, approximately 2.5 million working hours had been achieved without a serious injury with the year end lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) being at 0.14 per 200,000 manhours worked. Bateman Engineering has also been recommended for OHSAS 18001 certification.
Three major projects in particular have achieved significant safety figures: the Uranium One project in South Africa, the Moma Mineral Sands in Mozambique and the Damtshaa double-up project in Botswana.
Uranium One (previously known as Aflease)
Bateman Engineering commenced the metallurgical process design for Uranium One Africa’s plant in the Klerksdorp area in South Africa in October 2004 and achieved its first safety milestone at the end of August 2006, reaching 500,000 manhours worked on site without serious injury. At the time of this milestone, 12 separate contractors were working on site with an average of 595 people on site per day. The excellent site safety statistics are evidence of keen safety awareness and an on site training programme offering safety education to the local labourers.
The Uranium One plant will process ore mined from the Rietkuil and Dominion uranium deposits, which represent about 6 % of the world’s reasonable assured uranium resource. The earthworks contractor began establishing the site in November 2005, with the first phase of the project to be completed by February 2007 followed by the second phase scheduled for completion by July 2007. On project completion the uranium oxide production rate will be 18,000 t/yr, giving an effective life of resource of 75 years.
Moma Minerals Sands
The Moma mineral sands-processing project, which began in August 2004 and is currently being commissioned, has achieved its fourth project safety milestone of 3.5 million hours worked without a lost-time injury. This safety record is outstanding considering the logistical and infrastructure challenges facing the Bateman Engineering / Multiplex joint venture team and that the Moma site has a large unskilled workforce. The current LTIFR is 0.09 per 200,000 manhours worked.
Kenmare Resources’ Moma project is located 450 km north of Beira, in the north-east of Mozambique, and, when complete, the plant will process an estimated 701,000 t/yr of ilminite, 60,000 t/yr of zircon and 17,000 t/yr of rutile.
Damtshaa Diamond Mine
The expansion at Damtshaa Mine situated near Orapa, Botswana, also met the client’s stringent environmental and safety standards with the project team achieving a commendable 169,330 manhours without serious injury and an LTIFR of 0. Bateman Engineering and the client, Debswana Diamond Company, paid special attention to the integration and maintenance of safety standards of the contracting and mine personnel as construction for the expansion took place while the plant maintained normal production. The upgrade has doubled the diamond-processing capacity from 200 t/h to 400 t/h.
At a recent safety meeting, the client’s safety representative paid tribute to Bateman Engineering’s commitment to safety and hoped that future projects would receive the same dedication.
For further information, please contact Mogen Naidu, SHE Manager, Bateman Engineering,
on +27-11-899-9111 or email mogen.naidu@batemanengineering.com.
