Murray & Roberts Cementation Zambia has been awarded the shaft sinking and equipping of the synclinorium shaft for Mopani Copper Mines in Kitwe, Zambia
The new shaft is expected to add about 25 years to the life of the Nkana copper and cobalt mine near Kitwe.
The main shaft, which will be sunk to 1,200 metres with a seven metre diameter, will be equipped as a rock hoisting shaft on this brownfields mine to service a new area under development. A six metre diameter raisebored ventilation shaft will form part of the full project. By 2018 the new shaft will boost Nkana’s ore production from 3.4mn tons per year to 5.1mn tons per year.
Mopani Copper Mine, owned by majority shareholder, Glencore is an integrated copper and cobalt producer located in the Zambian Copperbelt. Mopani's operations comprise four underground mines, a concentrator and a cobalt plant in the town of Kitwe and an underground mine, concentrator, smelter and refinery in the town of Mufulira.
Safe business outcomes
The organisation’s Business Management System actively drives safe business outcomes and Murray & Roberts Cementation’s 1st Choice Programme promotes the correct behaviours, values and principles that will ensure that this safety culture is grown from within.
The company’s Bentley Park training facility near Carletonville provides a training service that produces skilled operators who can apply what they have learnt to ensure a safe outcome on site. The facility harnesses a highly successful combination of knowledge and hands-on skilling at a shaft mock-up on the campus, where real-life working conditions are simulated in as much detail as possible. This approach comprehensively supplements the facility’s computerised operation simulators.
