Project Overview
To give a sense of scale of the Project, the Treatment Plant is on board the central section of the MV Benguela Gem Vessel which is Debmarine Namibia’s brand-new purpose-built ship that is 177m long and 27m wide.
Project born out of the need to deliver greater safer and sustainable value for the shareholders of Debmarine Namibia and the people of Namibia, which is home to some of the most sought-after diamonds in the world.
Project size and cost:
“The ~US$420 million custom-built vessel will add an additional 500,000 carats of high value diamonds to Debmarine Namibia’s annual production, an increase of around 35 per cent, while creating 160 high-skilled jobs for Namibians.
Debmarine Namibia is a 50/50 joint venture between the Government of the Republic of Namibia and the De Beers Group. The MV Benguela Gem joins the world-class Debmarine Namibia fleet, which responsibly recovers some of the world’s highest quality diamonds.
The MV Benguela Gem was designed in Norway and Poland, built in Romania and fitted out with its proprietary mission equipment by De Beers Marine South Africa. Taking two years to construct, it is the most technically advanced diamond recovery vessel in the world, underpinned by high standards of sustainability and safety performance.
”-18 March 2022 debeersgroup.com
PBA Projects was required to design a Treatment Plant to process recovered diamonds mined within the stated bottom and top cut-off figures.
Treatment Plant design to be such that overall vibration in the plant and vessel structures is kept to a level as low as in reasonably possible
Treatment Plant design footprint & weight to fit within vessel defined limits
Project phases/involvement was from conceptualisation to detailed design, implementation, and commissioning.
3C Metal Belmet was required to perform the fabrication, supply, delivery, site assembly and disassembly of the structural, mechanical platework and piping as well as the installation of all free issued mechanical equipment for the Treatment Plant.
The mass of the overall treatment plant components, combined, weighed in at just under 3000 tons with the vast majority of the components all being made from Steel-all of these components were modelled in detail in the 3D environment
PBA Projects Created a fully integrated (live) 3D model:
In-house integration was for all disciplines with everything modelled right down to the nuts and bolts, lights, cameras, instruments, cable racks etc-refreshed in real time
Interfacing with De Beers for their equipment integration
Interfacing with the vessel as direct interface with structures & equipment
From a design perspective, PBA Projects had two main types of structures to design. The first of which was a beam-column braced structure with vertical and horizontal braces. The second of which was a plated structure with stiffeners, that were designed as composite members
The Structures were designed to withstand ships motions, vibratory equipment and reverse loading for rigging
End Connections were generally considered as pinned, but moment connections were considered where required
Structures were welded onto the steel ship