Construction Manager Magazine July/August 2021

Page 24

TECHNICAL

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Technical

GOING FOR GOLD UP IN THE WILDS OF SCOTLAND, A CIOB MEMBER HAS BEEN OVERSEEING THE CONSTRUCTION OF A GOLD MINE. KRISTINA SMITH MET HIM

Construction managers often claim that their projects are unique. In Jason Saint’s case, that would be hard to argue with. Because CIOB member Saint managed the construction of Scotland’s very first commercial gold mine, where he continues to work on the operations side. With experience on mining sites worldwide – and on major construction

projects – the gold mine has been an experience like no other for Saint. The mine is in a National Park, which means that the list of planning constraints and conditions is a long one. “The biggest challenge has been the variability,” says Saint, who is employed by Scotgold Resources, the company set up to extract gold at the site. “Here, you have to cover

Above: Scotland’s first commercial gold mine at Cononish

all the disciplines – legal, planning, environment, health and safety, civil structural, electrical, comms, IT, metallurgy, mining. Usually you would have at least one person for each of those disciplines.” Other factors which made the construction process difficult included planning struggles, extremely wet weather and larger depths of peat than predicted. And all was documented by a BBC film crew, leading to a three-episode series called Gold Town. Saint, who has been based at Tyndrum, a village in the Grampian Highlands on the northern edge of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, has taken it all in his stride.

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