South32 Desalination Plant

JG Afrika

SAICE Award (Pietermaritzburg branch): 2017 Award for Technical Excellence
Client: South32 Hillside Aluminium Smelter
Contractors: NuWater (reverse osmosis), Leomat (civil works), NRB Piping (pipeline and pump installations)

JG Afrika’s role in in helping deliver a R74-million desalination plant in Richards Bay swiftly from inception received a prestigious award from the South African Institution of Civil Engineering’s (SAICE) Pietermaritzburg branch for Technical Excellence in 2017.

We were responsible for the overall conceptual solution development, as well as the detailed civil engineering works, raw water pipeline, pump selection and brine pipeline designs for the 2 Ml plant.

Conceptualisation commenced in February 2016 and the first industrial-process water was pumped by September of the same year. This allowed South32’s Hillside Aluminium smelter to continue operating despite the imminent introduction of severe water restrictions in Richards Bay.

The timeframe demanded that the team use existing infrastructure and innovative construction techniques to achieve completion in 32 weeks.