Sundance Resources’ Mbalam Iron Ore Project is a new major mining project straddling the border of Cameroon and Congo. At Calibre’s request, Brown Consulting has provided hydraulic and structural details for the project’s railway alignment, which stretches over 500km. This significant alignment includes 13 bridge crossings and 15 culvert crossings, with both road and rail bridges considered at these locations. Both culvert and bridge solutions were developed at a number of locations for comparison purposes.
Mining & Resources Projects
During December 2010 and January 2011 significant rainfall events (>1 in 100 year) occurred in Central Queensland. These caused extensive damage to existing mine infrastructure at Curragh Mine.
The project involved assessment of mine related infrastructure that sustained damage resulting from the flooding and high rainfall events. The team designed new structures to manage significant rainfall events as well as modifications to existing structures improving their flood immunity. Flood damage reports were also prepared for inclusion for an insurance claim.
Brown Consulting was engaged by Calibre Projects (on behalf of their client, Rio Tinto) to undertake a comprehensive study on the alignment and drainage issues for a 30 kilometre new section of road and rail linking Brockman Stage 2 and 4.
Curtis Island will be the site of the largest LNG shipping terminal in Eastern Australia. By 2014, the Curtis LNG (QCLNG) Project will process up to 12m tonnes of LNG a year. Under John Holland’s contract to Bechtel, Brown has been commissioned to design key components of the new facility. These include buildings for operational staff, control facilities, maintenance workshop and warehouse facilities, security personnel stations and storage facilities and miscellaneous buildings.
The village was upgraded to cater for an increase in mine employees – from 697 beds to 1207 beds on site.
Brown Consulting has designed a 35m x 36m x 21m high extension to its heavy mining equipment servicing facility on Groote Eylandt. The extension caters for increased plant servicing requirements for a planned mine expansion. Because of the region’s cyclonic wind conditions, and the span and spacings of the frames required to suit the operation of the building, the normal range of rolled steel sizes are not large enough to provide the necessary strength and stiffness.