Wade Walker, a wholly owned Murray & Roberts subsidiary company, has been awarded a contract for an electrical and instrumentation installation at a mineral sands operation in West Africa. The installation is focused on two sections of the operation — the mineral separation plant located inland and at the wet concentration plant located on a dredge. This is the first time that Wade Walker has implemented electrical and instrumentation work on a floating dredge system. The team began work in April this year and is on track to begin the commissioning phase in November, as part of a commissioning team.

Wade Walker’s scope of work includes about 1 800 lights, 28 000 metres of cable racking 256 000 metres of electrical and instrumentation cabling, with 10 000 terminations ranging from 33 kV to 220 volts. The installation includes all junction boxes, stop/start stations and control devices. The scope also includes about 1 000 metres of instrument tubing, as well as the assembly of all Motor Control Centres and MV switchgear. There are presently about 25 Wade Walker management personnel on site and approximately 150 general workers, of which a percentage has been recruited locally and are being trained by Wade Walker on an on-the-job basis. Wade Walker has served the African mining and industrial markets since its inception in 1981 delivering solutions safely, to best in class levels of fitness for purpose, and frequently to accelerated project programmes. The company provides major individual customers with a broad range of services in the electrical control and instrumentation construction fields, serving the mining, water treatment, petrochemical, iron and steel, sustainable energy and power markets.

Today Wade Walker is part of the Murray & Roberts EAP (Engineering Africa Platform), giving the company ready access to a wider range of services allows that its team to participate more fully in projects. The companies in this business platform are primarily focused on the group’s core competence in industrial engineering which, if properly applied in the early design and feasibility phases of projects, offers significant value to customers. Working within this platform, Wade Walker is able to provide a more holistic offering, particularly on the structural, mechanical and piping disciplines.