Verlinde has been awarded a contract to installlifting equipmentat the maintenance facility of a new mine inMorocco.
The mine is operated by OCP, a phosphate producer and one of the world’s largest producers of fertilisers, and is based at El Halassa.
The investment comes as part of OCP’s industrial upgrade programme, planned to take place throughout 2008–2025 at a total cost of MAD145bn ($15.3bn). Within this strategy, OCP’s mines in the Ouled Abdoune basin at Khouribga, 205km south of Rabat, have an overall budget of around MAD18bn ($1.9bn). OCP also forecasts that the opening of three new mines will represent an increase of 20m additional tonnes of phosphate in 2020, as well as boosting its capacity of extraction from the current 18m tonnes per annum to 38m tonnes per annum.
Verlinde will supply all the lifting equipment for the UGM facilities complex where the machine fleet—including bulldozers, trucks, excavators and so forth—will be maintained.
AB Realisation, Verlinde’s integrator and distributor in Morocco, calculated a requirement for 21 single-beam and double-beam overhead cranes of 5t, 10t, 20t and 32t capacities, as well as six column-mounted jib cranes and two 0.5t monorails.
The Eurostyle jib cranes are fitted with Eurochain VL16 electric chain hoists, and the overhead cranes are fitted with Eurobloc VT2, VT3 and VT4 electric rope hoists. The travelling cranes are used to handle heavy components such as engines and gearboxes.
Verlinde has also supplied other facilities in the OCP group, including supplying 35 Eurobloc VT2, VT3 and VT4 monorail hoists with 13 TEC jib cranes to the phosphate conveyance line at the Jorf Lasfar facility in Morocco.
