Anglo American: Kumba Iron Ore required the services of a professional engineering consultancy for the upgrading of the existing scrapyard facilities at their Sishen Mine in Kathu, Northern Cape.

Delta BEC was appointed to provide the engineering design and compilation of all required engineering documentation for the successful construction of the new scrapyard at Sishen Mine. The Delta BEC team comprised civil, electrical, and structural engineers, as well as architects.

Sishen Mine is one of the largest open-pit mines in the world with sufficient reserves to sustain a 19-year mine life. Operations at the mine date back to the 1950s and produce iron ore which is mostly exported. The mine extracts lump ore from a large Haemite ore body hosted by a banded iron formation called the Kuruman formation, which measures 14 km long, 3.2 km wide, and 400 m deep.

The new scrapyard comprised an office building, new LMI weighbridge, access control, gas bottles and battery stores, a chemical shed, scrap metal shed, an oil filter press building, oil-water separator pit, 4 200 m² of 200 mm thick concrete slabs complete with a subsoil drainage detection system, rail reinforced slabs for heavy steel items, potable and dirty water lines, an 11 kV line, complete with 315 kVA mini-sub and internal reticulation.