Pilbara, Western Australia
Roy Hill is an iron ore mining project in the Chichester Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, located 115 kilometres north of Newman.
With indicated reserves of more than 2.4 billion tonnes, it is set to become one of the largest mining projects in Australia. Mining operations will produce 55 million tonnes of iron ore every year, with an operating life of more than 20 years.
Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting is the majority stakeholder in the project with a 70 per cent interest. Capital costs to develop the project are estimated to be at least A$7 billion. RMD Kwikform won the supply of the mine wall section of the project with construction specialists, Whittens Group.
As the previous contractor had gone into liquidation, the timeframe to construct this aspect of the project was extremely tight, so attention was focused on delivering a quick and straightforward formwork solution providing a high-quality finish.
This was achieved by using RMD Kwikform’s Superslim Soldiers and Alform Beam wales, which enabled large formwork shutters to be constructed.
The ROM walls are each over 90 metres long and 15.8 metres tall at the highest point. Due to the height of the walls they had to be constructed in two lifts, the conventional forms were jumped using anchor screws.
The initial requested concept was changed just before its commencement and on several occasions after that. Still, RMD Kwikform was able to deliver against an extremely tight program both on the design side and equipment procurement, particularly when the schedule was changed to deliver two walls simultaneously.
The Alshor Plus Shoring system was used for supporting the slabs. This was a complex structure constructed with a number of different pours over several levels with two thick slabs up to 2600 mm in depth. It also had a tunnel 92 metres long. SuperSlim Soldiers and Alform Beam shutters were used for the walls of both structures. RMD Kwikform’s Alshor Plus shoring system was used for supporting the slabs formed with Ply, Albeam and Alform Beam tables lifted into position after the erection of the shoring.
Location
Application
Wall formwork and shoring at the Roy Hill iron ore mine
Challenge
Timeframe for the project was extremely tight, meaning that formwork had to be simple, effective, and fast. A late change to design concrete density required a complete redesign at an advanced stage of the project.
Solution
Formwork and shoring
Products used
Our design team provided a supreme effort and in particular the yard staff to deliver high quality, serviced equipment to the site against this revised schedule.
RMD Kwikform also supplied formwork and shoring for the Car Dumper on Package 3, Port Landside, again with the Whittens Group. The same scenario evolved as they took over from the previous contractor, who had gone into liquidation.
The Alshor Plus shoring system is an innovative system, with integrated safety and productivity features.
The original idea was to roll the tables out on the Alshor Plus castor units after the first slab pour and lift them into position for the second slab pour. However, this was not possible due to the late inclusion of a myriad of plinths and pedestals on the base slab.
A late change to the design concrete density for the main Car Dumper slabs led to a complete redesign of the formwork system. This was completed successfully within a very short time frame.