Mongolia: Project achievements and celebrations

We recently caught up with Project Manager Martin Mackay to discuss our progress in Mongolia. Here’s a quick update on the latest developments on site.  

Project overview 

Having reached a peak manpower of 665 personnel for the MHS2 C4 project, our team has consistently focused on safely completing the works. We have also been very active in promoting innovation on how we do our day-to-day construction work, this has resulted in us winning multiple Make A Difference (MAD) awards during our time on-site, with winning these awards we can share with the other teams what our craft employees and doing to support the Project and ensure we can always find ways to work safer. 

From these MAD alerts, our Monadelphous Managing Director, gave a special commendation to the team in Mongolia for embracing the Monadelphous culture of innovation with two impressive commendations.  

One being for a Remote Emergency Light system that can be seen in dusty conditions, this is supporting a faster and more effective emergency muster should the need arise, our second special commendation was for a clever engineering solution for Safety Handles that minimise hand and finger pinch points when lifting the strengthening beams onto the existing web of the columns in the COS building. These awards are significant, considering they are judged across the entire Monadelphous business, and we have a very young workforce on site. 

Project milestones and achievements to date. 

The MHS2 C4 project has so far completed: 

• steel structure totalling 1,580 tonnes. 

• pulled cable of more than 78,750 metres. 

• over 2,210 cable terminations. 

• 139 various pieces of equipment installations. 

• 1,107 various instrument installations. 

• 327 light fittings. 

• 165 various mechanical installations. 

• 1,035 metres of fire water piping. 

• 3,874 FICs to be completed with 81 completion handover packs being submitted. 

In recognition of our teams’ efforts, 23 National Monadelphous personnel have been awarded the prestigious Oyu Tolgoi Copper Coin for 2023/24, highlighting the excellent safety culture developed on-site, this award is of great pride to the crew and something they will treasure for many years. 

Oyu Tolgoi appreciation event held in May 

Monadelphous Mongolia LLC hosted our Appreciation Event organised by Oyu Tolgoi LLC in May 2024. Our management team expressed gratitude to the workforce and our partners Oyu Tolgoi and Worley for bringing the project safely to 90% completion to date. During the event, our employees were rewarded with their Copper Coins, while the recent safety initiative to Spot the Hazard campaign came to an end and all the champions received Apple products such as iPhones, iWatches, and iPads. The event was repeated to ensure all employees could attend and receive rewards from both rosters. 

Manpower and project completion 

The total manpower mobilised to the site has just surpassed 982 employees. Monadelphous Mongolia LLC mobilised 936 national workers and 46 expatriates to complete the works. With us now nearing completion, we have demobilised 759 national workers and 28 expatriates, with the project end forecasted to be in quarter 4 this year. Currently, the project has reached 98% completion, with only the tripper installation and belt pulling/splicing remaining to be completed in the coming weeks. 

Challenges and cultural experiences 

Working in the Gobi Desert has presented many challenges to the team, from extreme cold during winter to hot, windy summer days. Managing the well-being of our team amidst extreme cold, heat, and dust has been a huge challenge for our management and HSE team. In the cold at extremely negative temperatures, hot rooms and hot drinks are required, and then during the summer months, we have cool rooms and hydration testing ongoing to ensure our crew welfare is looked after. Then, to make it even more challenging, we must meet the site requirement for full respirators when working inside the Course Ore Stockpile (COS) building. 

However, it has been a privilege again to experience the Mongolian culture and festivals like the recent Naadam summer festival, which showcases ancient sports such as wrestling, archery, and horse riding, dating back to the Chinggis Khan era. During this week of celebration many events have taken place on site. 

For Martin, it has been rewarding to work with some of our team from the previous project and see their further development into more confident employees, who now also take on more responsible roles on site. With the project now ending, we will continue to upskill and train the remaining nationals on-site to assist with the Completion and operation readiness.  

We will also promote some of our long-term employees, offering them to the business for future opportunities to work in Australia next year.

Looking forward 

As we look forward to the project's completion, we remain committed to maintaining our high safety standards, innovation, and cultural respect. We are proud of the progress made and look forward to continuing this momentum in future projects here at OT. 

Below are some recent pictures of our SME Mark Edwards with one of our crane crews about to conduct a heavy lift.