Two contracts worth more than R135-million have been won by ACTOM MV Switchgear for surface and underground MV switchboards for the massive new Kamoa-Kakula copper mining project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The contracts, awarded by DRA Global of South Africa, the engineering consultants for Canada-based Ivanhoe Mines, one of the main stakeholders in the project, are for manufacture, supply, installation and commissioning of switchgear and associated equipment for 11kV substations at the new mine.
A total of 233 switchgear panels have been supplied and installed to date, with more due to be added as the contract for the underground substations is extended.
The Kamoa-Kakula mine, which commenced production in May last year and is projected to achieve an output rate of 7.6-million tonnes of ore per annum by the third quarter of this year, is estimated to have reserves containing high-quality copper lasting in excess of 40 years.
Kamoa-Kakula, which is being powered by clean renewable hydro-generated electricity, is a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines of Canada, Zijin Mining Group of China, each holding a 39.6% share, and the Government of the DRC, which holds around 20%.
The first contract awarded to MV Switchgear, covering the equipment for the surface substations, was awarded in October 2019 and was completed as scheduled at the end of 2020. It comprised a total of 140 switchgear panels housed in eight substations.
The second contract, for the bulk of the underground substation equipment, was awarded in the third quarter of 2020 and is currently in progress.
Okkie van Zyl, MV Switchgear’s Commercial Manager, said in early-June this year that the completion date for the underground substations contract had not yet been determined. “This contract is still open and is likely to be extended, so at this stage we aren’t able to say what the total number of switchgear panels incorporated in it will finally be,” he commented.
“To date, in early-June, we supplied 93 panels, which we have installed along with all the required associated equipment in five underground substations so far,” he added.
All the switchgear, for both the surface and underground substations, comprise MV Switchgear’s well-known and widely used SBV4E range of switchgear, with ratings up to 12kV, 31,5kA and 2500A.
The majority of the rest of the equipment forming part of these contracts is supplied by ACTOM divisions and business units, namely ACTOM Protection & Control for the protection & control panels and the protection schemes serving the transformer/automatic voltage regulator (AVR) panels, Static Power for the battery trip units and ACTOM Distribution Transformers for the NER/NEC’s.
