The safe decontamination and demolition of three redundant gold and uranium complexes earned local industrial demolition company Jet Demolition an international recycling and environmental award from construction information firm KHL Group and the European Demolition Association.
The project entered by Jet Demolition involved reducing the contaminant levels to within public-release limits. It was appointed to remove all contamination and redundant infrastructure to render the contaminated site usable by the general public, says Jet Demolition director Joe Brinkmann.
“The extensive contamination over all areas of the three complexes and product build-up within the infrastructure posed the greatest challenge. “The infrastructure was at its end-of-life and its structural stability had deteriorated, which necessitated its being demolished sensitively and safely.”
The fact that the bulk of the steel was contaminated also meant that extensive radiological decontamination had to be undertaken, while working with corroded and contaminated structures posed a major challenge, he adds.
The site work was managed by civil engineers Olaf Barnard and Leonard Zeelie, while Brinkmann and civil engineer Kate Bester undertook the project management, he says.
Most early metallurgical plants in South Africa had integrated cyanide leaching processes for precious-metal recovery and uranium processing.
These large complexes produce gold, uranium and sulphuric acid. Unforeseen spillages were common throughout the life cycle of these plants, resulting in highly contaminated infrastructure that typically degraded towards the end of the life-of-mine, he explains.
Brinkmann presented a snapshot of African projects and the challenges facing the demolition and construction industries for a technical presentation in October at the World Demolition Summit, held in Boston, in the US, during which the company also received the award.
“Each project that wins a world demolition award is considered to be the best in its class and carried out with due care and consideration. The shortlisted projects all had to showcase technical excellence, effective planning and innovation,” he adds.
In 2018, Jet Demolition won in the industrial demolition category for the demolition of a c oal-fired boiler and ancillary equipment at Duvha power station, in Mpumalanga, following an overpressurisation event that resulted in irreparable damage to the structure.