Cosira undertakes steelwork for construction of the new shaft at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Zambia
05 March 2010
Cosira, one of South Africa's largest fabricators of structural steel, has recently been awarded the contract for partially constructing the total structural steelwork for the new shaft at Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Zambia.
This is according to John da Silva, Chief Executive Officer of the Cosira Group.
Konkola Copper Mines is located 150km north of Ndola International Airport, and 15km from the Kasabulesa border point, which leads to the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the Copperbelt province of Zambia.
According to Richard de Arruda, Commercial and Risk Director of the Cosira Group, this contract involves the supply of prefabricated galvanized steel as per drawing underground steelwork mostly for shaft stations and head gear skip travel relarted steel fixtures for the new No.4 shaft which is currently under equipping phase for mid shaft., Cosira work includes the full fabrication requirements of , cutting to length, drilling, fabrication, galvanising, workshop jigging, quality assurance, storage, stringent full trail assembly and delivery.
“The steelwork that Cosira is involved in, which requires a 500 tonne steel capacity, makes up only a portion of the overall project - as we are not doing any of the site construction,” says de Arruda. “However, the challenge lies in the detailed fabrication and engineering service that we are providing to the client. We manage the trial assembly and sequential-delivery.”
De Arruda comments further: “The KCM contract requires us to work closely with the construction company, Grinaker LTA, as well as closely liaising with the TWP Engineering team. With a very tight schedule, we need to get the steel on site as fast as possible in the correct erection sequence.”
This requires the Cosira Group to do ongoing detailed pre-planning. In addition, the group has a special agreement with the galvaniser to pre-assembly the steel work. This ensures total accuracy of individual steelwork components and ensures the speed of site construction for the the client, through a high-quality product produced in time and within budget . The site delivery involves a 2000km journey, and through accurate planning and co-ordination, the correct product is supplied in time to maintain the planned erection sequences.
“The success of this project depends on highly accurate planning and our strong working relationship with the KCM and construction and engineering teams on site. To date, we are about 40 % into the contract, and we are very pleased about how the work is progressing,” De Arruda adds.
“The fact that we have offered the client a reliable product, with a quick delivery period will work well in our favour for securing future work, including work in other disciplines of our SMEIPP product offering” concludes the Cosira Group’s John da Silva.