Since March 2026 MCP has been providing client-side project management support to Bravus on the construction of the Dump 5 Mine Affected Water (MAW) Dam at Carmichael Coal Mine in the Galilee Basin. Completion is expected at the end of November 2026. This is a short account of what the engagement involves and how it is being run.
What is being built
Dump 5 is a substantial piece of water infrastructure, and the works break down into a set of major civil and earthworks packages:
- Northern and southern dam bunds
- Spillway
- MAW drainage and levee systems
- Western Clean Water Drain and Levee
- Bulk earthworks, material conditioning and compaction
- Rock protection and associated temporary works
Each of those has its own sequence, its own quality records and its own interfaces with the packages around it and with the operating mine.
Why the owner needs someone on the ground
A construction contractor builds the works. The mine keeps producing around them. Between those two sit the project interfaces: access, haulage, clean-water and mine-affected-water separation, temporary works, and the programme that ties it together. If nobody holds that middle ground on the owner’s behalf, it gets resolved on the run, and on a MAW dam that is where compliance risk lives.
MCP’s role is to hold it. That covers coordination of the construction contractor, project interfaces and mine operations; programme and progress management; quality assurance and construction compliance; and risk management, all in support of safe and efficient delivery in a remote operating mine environment.
How it is being run
- Programme and progress are tracked against the plan and reported as they happen, not reconstructed at month end.
- Quality assurance is reviewed as lots are completed, while the work is still open to inspect, rather than at handover.
- Compliance is treated as part of construction. Mine-affected water containment, drainage paths and capacity all have to land to specification, and the consequences of missing are regulatory rather than merely commercial.
- Risk is managed with the mine, because the works share ground with production.
We will update the project page when the dam is handed over.