December 2013
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
66
Professional Services
C
Anglo American Thermal Coal’s New Denmark
Colliery Project
G
older Associates completed the overall design and construc-
tion of a brine pond for Anglo American Thermal Coal’s New
Denmark Colliery in the Mpumalanga Province.
The brine pond, which was necessitated as a direct result of a
directive received from the Department of Water Affairs, serves as an
alternative storagemethod for themine’s Reverse Osmosis (RO) reject
stream which was previously stored in an underground compart-
ment within the New Denmark Colliery mining area and on an ash
dump. The reasons for the directive was that the mine’s underground
compartment was almost at full capacity and there was concern that
the constant application of water to the ash dump was resulting in
increased seepage and contamination of the groundwater in the area.
Golder’s overall scope of the project included a detailed feasibility
study, an environmental impact assessment (EIA), engineering, design
and construction management of the brine pond.
The site that was eventually chosen for the development of the
brine pondwas borderedby theTutuka Power Station aviation runway.
In addition to the numerous onerous environmental approvals that
had to be obtained by Golder on behalf of the client for the develop-
ment of the pond, regulations as laid out by the Civil AviationAuthority
(CAA) had to be taken into account. CAA requirements include a 5%
obstruction plane from the centre of the runway as well as warning
lights to be placed on top of the pond walls – these aspects had to be
taken into consideration in the design of the pond.
Perhaps the greatest challenge posed toGolder during this project
was that of project timelines and the deadline for completion for the
first portion of the pond given by the client. Initially, Golder antici-
pated that construction of the first portion of the pond would take
approximately 12 months, but then these timelines were shortened
dramatically by the client in that Golder was given just seven months
to complete the pond.
Construction on the pond began inMay 2012 and was completed
by the end of September 2012, with the pond being ready to receive
brine by 1 November 2012. All in all, Golder successfully managed to
deliver the following aspects which made up the first portion of the
brine pond in just 7months (a project which would ordinarily take up
to 12 months to complete).
Project information
• Name of project: Anglo American Thermal Coal’s New
Denmark Colliery Project
• Company entering: Golder Associates
• Project start date: May 2012
• Project end date: End of September 2012
• Client: Anglo American Thermal Coal
• Project team: Golder Associates
• Main contractor: Golder Associates
• Consulting engineer: Golder Associates
• Contract value: Over R150-million
