Industry intelligence
CONTRACT BOOST FOR ORDER BOOK Concor Infrastructure , previously known as Murray & Roberts Infrastructure , recently secured two significant contracts in the mining sector . According to Eric Wisse , managing director at Concor , the company is well positioned to take advantage of the recently increased optimism in the mining space . Concor Infrastructure is part of Concor Construction , which was acquired by a consortium led by the Southern Palace Group .
Concor Infrastructure was awarded the Belfast Implementation Project for Exxaro ’ s new coal operation in Mpumalanga . This 22-month contract comprises major bulk earthworks and civil infrastructure that will be the enabling works for the mining operation . It also includes the upgrading of a provincial gravel road to surfaced standard that will facilitate access to the mine .
“ We also secured the contract for the earthworks and civils for the box cut at Ivanhoe Mines ’ Platreef Mine in Limpopo ,” says Wisse . This is the first step of the Shaft 2 Project , and site mobilisation of Concor Infrastructure ’ s team has already begun .
Shaft 2 will become the main production shaft for Platreef . The company ’ s initial scope of work will require the excavation of a surface box cut to 29m below surface , and the construction of a concrete hitch for the head frame . This 103m-structure will house the shaft ’ s permanent hoisting facilities and support the shaft collar .
Advice for SA
Clem Sunter , futurologist and scenario specialist .
South Africa ’ s ‘ pockets of excellence ’ need to be carefully protected and nurtured if the country wants to remain a competitive player in the global economy . This is according to futurist and scenario specialist Clem Sunter .
Sunter was speaking at explosives company BME ’ s annual conference in Pretoria last year . “ South Africa has a number of pockets of excellence that can set us apart ,” said Sunter , “ but we need to replicate these .”
He was concerned about the state of the country ’ s universities and emphasised that they needed to continue providing not just relevant skills , but cutting edge technologies that could keep the economy competitive .
His observations meshed well with the earlier comments made by BME ’ s general manager for South Africa , Albie Visser , who had reflected on the pace of technological development in BME — which works closely with universities in its innovation efforts — in just the past five years . The continual upgrading of the AXXIS electronic detonation system , a market-leading technology regarded as the ‘ pride of BME ’, facilitated a record blast at Zambia ’ s Kansanshi Mine with 6 690 detonators .
BME
Bushveld unleashes its vanadium battery
Bushveld Energy , a subsidiary of Bushveld Minerals , has deployed its first vanadium redox flow battery ( VRFB ) in South Africa . According to Fortune Mojapelo , CEO of Bushveld Minerals , the system will be deployed together with Eskom , the South African national power utility , at its Research , Testing , and Development ( RT & D ) Centre in Rosherville , South Africa . This follows Eskom ’ s identification of the potential need for more than 2 000MW of additional balanced energy storage per day within the existing grid .
The project is co-developed by Bushveld Energy and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa ( IDC ), and will allow Eskom to test the VRFB and its performance and applications under numerous simulations . This will include minimum load shifting , wind generation smoothing , solar generation smoothing , power quality improvement , and self-black-start capability . The VRFB commissioning is expected in the first half of 2018 .
Mojapelo says that this deployment is a critical stepping stone for both Bushveld Energy and the energy storage market in South Africa . “ This project brings new technology to South Africa to make the local power system more efficient and , more importantly , create a new industry to not only supply South Africa , but offer significant export potential as well . We are pleased to bring all the key stakeholders together in this effort ,” says Mojapelo .
According to the International Renewable Energy Association ( IRENA ), VRFBs already offer some of the lowest system costs among battery technologies and are expected to decrease in cost by 66 % through to 2030 , which is faster than any other technology in energy storage .
With the stationary energy storage market rapidly growing and , according to Navigant Research , expected to exceed USD25-billion in annual revenues by 2025 , South Africa is extremely well positioned to participate in this market by virtue of holding the second-largest reserves of vanadium in the world in the Bushveld Complex .
A recent study of energy storage in South Africa commissioned by the IDC and the United States Trade and Development Agency ( USTDA ) confirmed “ the relative ease of vanadium electrolyte production and the availability of vanadium in South Africa further enhancing the attractiveness of this specific flow technology .” Based on a cooperation agreement signed in 2016 , Bushveld Energy and the IDC are working jointly to bring significant portions of the VRFB value chain to South Africa .
[ 4 ] MINING MIRROR FEBRUARY 2018