Dust control company Dust-A-Side is currently providing its Total Dust Management service to various players in the Namibian mining industry enabling them to reduce costs and improve productivity, reveals corporate marketing manager Lolly Chibi.

Chibi explains that Total Dust Management is a service provided by Dust-A-Side that reduces dust created by the mine’s plant; materials handling components, such as crushers, screens, transfer points and stock piles; haul roads and all other roads crucial to the mine’s operations.

The Dust-A-Side service also includes monitoring solutions to ensure the quality of a mine’s haul road. In maintaining the quality of the roads, cycle times of haul trucks are reduced and a significant improvement in the transport of ore is achieved.

“Commodity prices are a challenge for our clients and we need to ensure that we maximise the value added, while reducing the cost of rendering the services,” Chibi states.

Further, high-quality haul roads are also important as well-maintained roads impose less resistance on the tyres of equipment such as haul trucks, thus reducing wear-and-tear and increasing fuel savings.

Well-suited to Namibia
Charles Klasse, the director of Dust-A-Side Namibia highlights that  “Dust-A-Side is the ideal dust suppression solution for water-scarce Namibia, where its solutions achieve water-use reductions of between 90% and 95%, compared with conventional spraying methods. “

He adds that Dust-A-Side’s environmental-friendly products, which are all manufactured locally in Namibia, have been cleared so that they may be used on mines in protected areas such as national parks.

“Dust-A-Side’s products do not just happen to be so well suited to the Namibian industry, instead the company saw a clear need for its products in a country that must negotiate the tension of being reliant on mining but also water scarce,” says Klasse.

He adds that local empowerment is key for the success of any company in Namibia and, therefore, Dust-A-Side Namibia employs 100% Namibian citizens.

Dust-A-Side established its presence in Namibia in 2005 and have been involved with dust suppression for the mining industry since then and its methods have been extremely well received by its clients.

Dust-A-Side has vast experience in applying its trade in the mining sector, having successfully completed dust suppression projects in multiple commodity sectors including coal, iron-ore, copper, platinum, uranium, diamonds, phosphates and gold. This places Dust-A-Side in good stead to consistently and successfully undertake its projects in the Namibian commodities industry where it is currently performing dust control operations for uranium and gold companies.

Klasse highlights that one of Dust-A-Side’s primary operations in Namibia, is the giant Husab uranium mine which it provides with haul-road dust management as well as dust suppression on areas of the mine’s treatment plant.

In addition to the Husab mine, Dust-A-Side provides its services to uranium production company Paladin Energy’s Langer Heinrich uranium mine and gold miner QKR Corporation’s Navachab gold mine.

Klasse adds that the company has been shortlisted to run a dust suppression trial for the diversified metals company Vedanta Resources’ Skorpion zinc mine.

Dust-A-Side’s role in these projects is to supply full dust control management services which includes a total offering starting from product supply through to maintenance and providing technical back-up.

In the case of the full haul road management and maintenance service plan,
Dust-A-Side on a daily basis provides skilled personnel, equipment and its road monitoring system for the treating and maintenance of specified road networks.

Owing largely to its 2014 Namibian contracts, Dust-A-Side has grown significantly as a business in the last year and does not foresee any major challenges in the near future. 

“The Namibian mining industry itself has grown significantly and Dust-A-Side, given its portfolio, sees such growth as providing the company with more room for opportunity.”

Despite the loss of value caused by commodity downturns, which hit Namibia’s mining industry in the last two years, the mines are beginning to show green shoots in pocket, having adapted to a different climate.

Chibi strongly believes that suppliers and contractors must, too, adapt to support their clients in this changing environment.

Displaying their intentions as a company that is “here to stay” Chibi reveals that Dust-A-Side is developing products and service offerings which are fine-tuned to the Namibian market.

Chibi finally strongly adds “Dust-A-Side is optimistic about the future and committed to working together with the Namibian mining industry towards achieving a cleaner, healthier, and safer mining environment.