HIGH-ALTITUDE, REMOTELY LOCATED MINING SHELTER
INTRODUCTION
SA Dynamic Air Shelters client is currently developing one of the newest mines in South America. The client enlisted Dynamic’s services to develop a shelter solution for a remote location with many distinct challenges.
On completion, the gold mine will be one of the newest mines in the client’s portfolio, it is the largest undeveloped gold heap leach project in the Americas. A local entity is managing location operations for the project.
Challenge
The client faced a series of unique challenges surrounding the protection of its people and assets at the mining location. The site of the mine is very remote and at an extremely high altitude of approximately 14,000ft above sea level. Due to its high position in the region, the site is exposed to consistently high winds of more than 50 mph. The associated challenges at the job site meant that any structure was required to be extremely resilient.
Conventionally, the required resilience would be achieved through the construction of permanent, brick-and-mortar buildings. This requirement was further reinforced by local building codes which also recommended traditional, permanent buildings to service the site. Due to the extreme wind speeds, there was concern that alternative framed structures may not have been able to provide the protection needed.
Access restrictions and the remote nature of the site as well as challenges regarding mobilization of manpower and the volume of materials required for a brick-and-mortar facility would have made this a very costly and labor-intensive endeavor.
Planning
Dynamic Air Shelter’s team of specialist engineers and SME’s met with the client’s management and engineering teams to ascertain an in depth understanding of the issues facing the project. Some of the points to consider in addition to site conditions were local legislation, supply chain, and the client’s overall business objective.
After ensuring a thorough understanding of local legislation had been achieved to ensure all design loads were fully considered and satisfied, a gap analysis was conducted to determine the fit of Dynamic’s standard product offering. Following an in-depth engineering review, the standard shelter design was modified and enhanced to meet regulatory compliance and site conditions.
The design process was conducted with an extensive needs analysis process and developed with the continuous input, review, and approval from the end user at all stages of the process.
Solution
Ultimately, two bespoke 78’x 138’ x 26’ shelters were designed as a solution for the shelter needs at the site. One would be used as a warehouse and the other would be utilized as a workshop. Both shelters were to be fitted with 14’ motorized garage doors to ensure ease of entry and exit for heavy lifting and mining equipment.
The shelters were manufactured at the Dynamic Air Shelters Grand Bank facility in Newfoundland, Canada. When the client confirms they are ready for installation, the shelters will be packaged into 40’ and 20’ containers before sailing to Chile where they will then be loaded onto two standard service rig trucks and driven to the site in only one trip.
Trained DAS install supervisors will also travel to the site where they will work alongside local crew to install both shelters. Both shelters are to be outfitted with remote monitoring systems that will provide the client the ability to monitor shelter status, temperature, site wind speeds, and electrical location from their offices in Peru.