The African subsidiary of Australian minerals processing equipment manufacturer Ludowici has demon- strated the success of its products on a number of projects in Southern Africa, which bodes well for its growth strategy in Africa.

The key to this future growth rests with the compilation of a passionate and talented team of product managers who are steadily building a solid record for the group’s wide range of products.

Ludowici has been involved in considerable orders for the Benga and Moatize projects in Mozambique.

Ludowici capital equipment manager Shawn Faba tells Mining Weekly that the company supplied FL Smidth (Moatize) with two BRU360/850 screens for its crushing station project. In addition, Ludowici has supplied 32 screens and feeders to its coal handling preparation plants.

Also in Mozambique, two RC2020 reflux classifiers (RCs) were supplied to engineering company Sedgman Africa, for installation at the Benga coal handling preparation plant.

In addition, wear-resistant lined piping was supplied to Sedgman Africa for installation at Benga.

Wear products, pipe and engineered consumable products (ECPs) manager Ricky du Plessis says that Ludowici is able to provide high-quality wear products, predominantly manufactured with or using a combination of materials, such as ceramics, elastomers (such as poly- urethane and rubber), epoxy, ultrahigh-density plastic and thermoplastic, in contract with many competitors that tend to focus on only one or perhaps two materials.

He adds that there is growing demand for its wear products, pipe and ECPs and that, once the market becomes more aware of what it has to offer, the potential for further growth is significant.

To add to its continued growth and to support its intention to create a larger footprint in the African market, the company has recently tendered on a large potable water contract to provide and install thermoplastic and steel pipe for Swakop Uranium, in Namibia.

Sales manager for the Witbank area, Mpumalanga, Leon Toerien believes there is significant potential for Ludowici’s products to gain a strong foothold in the African coal mining arena.

“The majority of the centrifuges operating in the South African coalfields are from Ludowici, but were supplied indirectly through business partner Malvern Engineering. With regard to our RCs, we are still in the early stages in Africa, although we have supplied to Benga Colliery, in Mozambique, and are conducting trial work at a colliery in Mpumalanga,” says Toerien.

“This will provide local reference points for the RC and should ensure a growing demand for the unit, which features a dramatically reduced footprint in comparison with spiral concentrators.”

Ludowici’s innovative coal valves are in use at Xstrata’s Goedgevonden operation and it has tendered to supply further units to Xstrata’s Tweefontein mine, in addition to centrifuges.

Tebogo Kale, who looks after sales in the hard rock and heavy minerals envi- ronment, explains that a key focus with regard to the RC unit is to demonstrate its success in other minerals, beyond coal.

“The RC has been proven in the coal processing field, particularly in Australian ores, and our strategy as Ludowici Africa is to broaden the use of this technology, both in terms of geography and the minerals sectors which make use of it,” says Kale.

“We believe this technology has application in other minerals, such as chrome, mineral sands, manganese, ferrometals and copper. We already have two 80 t/h units installed at Xstrata’s Rustenburg and Steelpoort operations. The unit at Rustenburg was commissioned in June and the return on investment has been substantial, with the unit already having paid for itself due to higher efficiencies resulting in increased saleable product,” says Kale.

“We are conducting testwork at other chrome producers and we believe that the benefits demonstrated by this work will put us in a position to diversify into different applications. In addition, we will encourage further growth by offering sustained support to our customers, which will stand us in good stead when it comes to references,” Kale concludes.

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