Rosh Pinah is a small Namibian mining town located some 100 km inland from the Orange River mouth. After having been in operation for over 40 years, the zinc and lead floatation units of the mine were structurally beyond maintaining and needed to be replaced. Capital for the project was approved and the contracts were awarded at the end of 2008.
All the civil, mechanical, electrical instrumentation and automation equipment needed to be replaced. The work was to proceed in two phases: phase 1 was the upgrading of the zinc circuit which was due for completion by September 2009 and phase 2 was the replacement of the lead circuit which was due for completion later in November. Arandis Services and K Neumayer were contracted to perform all the civil and structural work. Metso was responsible for the flotation cells, piping and instrumentation supply. ABB Namibia supplied the motor control centres. All the electrical and automation installation was executed by Iritron, with overall site management carried out by the Rosh Pinah mine personnel.
Iritron’s operations director Andre Roeloffze and managing director Alwyn Rautenbach were the consulting engineers responsible for the project management of the electrical, instrumentation and control portion of the project. They formed the interface between Rosh Pinah mine, ABB Namibia, Iritron and Metso. Frits Stoop managed the Iritron engineering team. Hardus Strydom was responsible for the electrical and lighting design, and Danie Smit designed the PLC and scada system assisted with the HMI graphics by Jan van Niekerk.
Andre Roeloffze says he enjoys going back to Rosh Pinah because he and the team are always welcomed. He says one of the reasons is the successful execution of the Rosh Pinah flotation unit replacement project.
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