Twistdraai West signs service contract with CDC
Dust Buster News

Sasol Coal’s Twistdraai West Shaft at Secunda has signed a service contract with Colliery Dust Control to maintain the dust suppression systems on all five of its continuous miners.

The contract, which took effect on January 1, follows the R2,6-million contract awarded by Sasol Coal to CDC towards the end of last year to upgrade the dust suppression systems on continuous miners operating at all of the group’s Secunda mines.

The award of the service contract by Twistdraai West coincides with the completion by CDC of the bulk of the work on the dust suppression installation contact, in which it is installing its unique integrated dust suppression system on all continuous miners at the Secunda mines that were not already equipped with it.

The integrated system developed and fine-tuned in collaboration with the industry comprises a CDC wet fan scrubber box operating in conjunction with water-powered air movers and a spray fan system to achieve dust counts within the limit prescribed by the Department of Mineral & Energy Affairs of not more than 5 mg/cu m.

Under the service contract CDC provides service and maintenance backup five days a week – a day for each continuous miner. The service procedures include maintaining, cleaning and monitoring the performance of all the dust suppression equipment and replacing parts where required.

Bob Johnstone, CDC’s general manager, said regular and efficient maintenance plays a key role in ensuring that high levels of dust suppression are consistently achieved. "This level of efficiency is assured through use of our dedicated service team, as clearly demonstrated at the various mines that are on service contracts with us."