During the second week of October, Ohorongo Cement (PTY) Ltd received the kiln and two mill cylinders for the cement plant which is constructed on the Farm Sargberg 25 km north of Otavi. Due to the out of gauge dimensions of the shipment, the mills and kiln were moved under police escort and abnormal permits from Walvis Bay to the Ohorongo construction site.
The consignment required the deployment of nine trucks, with a combined load in excess of 470 weight tonnes. The kiln had to be transported in sections, with each section having an individual weight of 42 tonnes. The combined weight of the two mill cylinders exceeds 160 tonnes, and each mill is 15.5 meters long and has a diameter of 5 meters.
Mr Hans-Wilhelm Schütte, Managing Director of Ohorongo Cement (PTY) Ltd is excited about the shipment: ‘This is a critical stage in the construction of our plant. With the kiln and mill cylinders arriving, we are a significant step closer to the first bag of cement produced by Ohorongo Cement’.
To date, 1 925 tonnes of equipment and materials have been offloaded at the Walvis Bay Port. Besides the kiln and mill cylinders, most of the material was transported in containers to Sargberg via road, and 35 40’ containers are delivered to the construction site already.
It is estimated that by the time the plant is completed, a total of 35 000 freight tonnes were transported from Walvis Bay to Sargberg. The Ohorongo Cement project manager, Dr Andreas Hamm, had this to say: ‘Alone in terms of machinery and structural steel we will ship 13 000 weight tonnes. Then we are not even talking of the 550km of cables, the consignments of bulk cement and various other materials that are to be shipped to site.’
A significant part of the machinery to be installed in the plant is imported from Europe. On this Dr Hamm commented: ‘When we considered the various options of machinery to install in our plant, where it came to electronics and automation we mostly decided in favour of European suppliers. We simply want to have a plant with European technology and standards.’
The Ohorongo Cement plant will start production by end of 2010, beginning 2011. Employing about 300 people, the plant will have the capacity to produce 4 400 50kg bags of cement per hour.
