Hard issue
Trekkopje under care and maintenance
Trekkopje construction nearing completion in 2010.
French company Orano Mining Namibia, previously Areva
Resources Namibia (the company changed its name in January
2018), acquired a mining license to develop the Trekkopje uranium
mine in 2008. The mine was poised to become the tenth-largest
uranium mine in the world. The estimated life of mine was 12 years.
Construction got under way and the mine was nearing completion,
on target to start production in 2011, when disaster struck at the
Fukushima nuclear power station in Japan (the mine and plant
actually completed a test run in 2011). Production was planned for
that same year. Fukushima pulled the rug from the uranium market’s
feet, and Trekkopje postponed production until the jitters settled
down. The uranium price, however, tanked and continued its slide to
rock bottom. Since then, it has recovered somewhat, but not enough
to ensure Trekkopje’s profitability. More than eight years later, this
promising project is still on care and maintenance.
Trekkopje was going to use a heap leach method to extract
uranium, which requires a lot of water that is not readily available
in the desert. The desalination plant was built for one specific
reason: to ensure a continuous supply of good quality water to
the mine. The water produced by the plant would be carried
across the desert to Trekkopje by a 48-km pipeline measuring
800mm in diameter and equipped with three pumping stations.
A 132kV power line was also built along the pipeline to supply
electricity to the plant.
At peak activity, the mine was expected to use about 12
million cubic metres of water, so there was always going to
be approximately eight million cubic metres surplus, which
would have been available to industrial and domestic users in
the Erongo region. So, when Trekkopje never actually started
producing uranium, the town of Swakopmund, various mega
uranium mining operations, and, most of all NamWater,
were presented with a very welcome surprise. At any time, 20
million cubic metres is available for other users, and mines
like Husab and Rössing are major beneficiaries. In fact,
Husab’s fortunes are totally dependent on the water provided
by the desalination plant. The mine started operating about
four years ago and has been using water produced at the
Erongo plant since day one of operation.
www.africanmining.co.za
Mining in extreme environments like on the Namibian
west coast, which experiences four seasons in one day,
requires constant maintenance to preserve plant and
equipment. This is the case when actively mining, but
even more so when a mine has been placed on care and
maintenance, like Trekkopje was in 2013. Although
Trekkopje has never produced saleable product, the mine
and plant are fully functional, and it has to remain in
working condition. All structures built on the mine are
protected and can be commissioned when required and at
minimal cost.
The C & M team of 20 people work according to
maintenance schedules that have been captured on the
Pragma software program. The Pragma database contains
all structures and equipment with the manufacturers’
specifications and maintenance requirements. The system
generates job cards, schedules work in progress, and
produces monthly reports, for example on maintenance
statistics, labour hour distribution or completion of
schedules. General C & M tasks include proper storage,
lubrication, corrosion protection, and functionality checks.
In addition to the scheduled work, some special
projects were carried out in 2015. In October 2015, the
engineering team successfully optimised overhead line
insulator cleaning operations by adding linseed oil to
Tectyl 506, a product already used to combat the corrosion
of this equipment. The cleaning and protection of over
60 000 conveyor idlers is a major task that will be repeated
annually.
Cleaning and protection of dust collector ducts at the
crushers were completed. Protection of pumps, valves, and
gauges is achieved by cleaning them with a mixture of
soluble oil and water under high pressure, followed by a
spray-on coat of Tectyl soon after drying.
The Maxi Stock Integration Project was completed in July
2015. All equipment and parts stored in the logistics yard
were catalogued by data classification and stock coding
and stored in containers for protection from the elements.
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