Top Australian Engineering Excellence Award won by KDG.
1 December, 2005
The Khanong Development Group Joint Venture was announced as winner of the Australian Engineering Excellence Award, ahead of other major and innovative Australian engineering projects, at a special function held at the Great Hall in Parliament House, Canberra.
Special guest Ambassador for the Embassy of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, His Excellency Mr Khenthong, thoroughly enjoyed the evening as a prelude to today’s celebrations for Laos National Day.
The Khanong Development Group Joint Venture, comprising of Ausenco and Bateman Engineering, was last night awarded the 2005 Australian Engineering Excellence Award for its work on Oxiana Resources Sepon Copper/Gold Project located in the remote jungle of Laos, 42 kilometers up the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The Sepon Copper/Gold Project challenge was to engineer, procure, construct and commission a world’s finest copper processing facility to produce 60,000 tonnes a year of LME “A” grade copper cathode and to double the capacity of the existing gold plant to 2.5 million tonnes a year of ore throughput.
The copper facility is a patented copper leaching process developed in Queensland. The project was delivered 2 weeks ahead of schedule on a 2½ year program and well under budget.
Key aspects of the execution of this project include the following:
- Engineering innovation in the design of a specialised flow sheet from metallurgical test work.
- Engineering innovation in the materials of construction due to the low Ph of the circuit.
- Acid Milling, Acid Flotation, Atmospheric Copper Leaching, Patented Pressure Autoclave process.
- Procurement from around the globe - 1,365 loads of materials and an average of 40 sea containers per month were transported during peak via Bangkok along a 967km supply route.
- Construction workforce peak of 3,000 personnel with over 85% local labour.
- Innovative construction strategy due to high level of unskilled labour, high rainfall, remote location and difficult logistics.
Oxiana’s Managing Director Mr Owen Hegarty said he and all at Oxiana were extremely proud of the award which is testament to the hard work and ingenuity of the engineers in a remote location and to the great relationships they fostered with the Oxiana Sepon workforce in Laos.
The Khanong Development Group Joint Venture is proud to have been associated with the execution of this world class facility and looks forward to continuing this winning relationship for future projects with Sepon.
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Ausenco Limited, provides multi-disciplined engineering, procurement, project and construction management services to the mining, minerals and metal processing industry. The company participates in all phases of a project’s progression, from project scoping studies, process option/technical review assessments, feasibility studies utilised for project financing, through to project design, construction and commissioning. Ausenco’s group of companies also services companies through their operation and maintenance division, supplying key asset management and operational support. These services are applied to projects in a broad range of processing areas, both nationally and internationally.
