Company Announcement - Weba Chute Systems has supplied eight chutes to a copper mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This follows on from an initial successful order for four transfer towers for an overland conveyor system. “It is a major reference for us in a highly significant area of mining activity in Central Africa,” Ted Cruickshank, project manager at Weba Chute Systems, says.

Cruickshank says that the mine called upon Weba Chute Systems due to its expertise in chute design and layout. “Weba Chute Systems believes in accommodating the customer’s project schedule and will pull out all the stops to ensure that deadlines are met timeously, without compromising quality,” Cruickshank notes.

“We had to design for ore conditions that were extremely sticky,” he adds. The bulk density of the material was 1.7 and the maximum lump size was 375 mm. The belt width was 1 200 mm and the design capacity was 1 500 tph with a belt speed of 1.9 m/s. “Designing these particular chutes posed a major challenge in that the material has a 60:40 fines ratio. We had to design the transfer points to be able to absorb the impact of the larger sized material and also to alleviate any blockages,” Cruickshank says.

South African based Weba Chute Systems specialises in the custom design of transfer point solutions. Its systems are based on the principle of conveyed material impacting on surfaces that already contain material. These systems are configured precisely to control the direction, flow and velocity of the calculated volume and type of material being processed.

In addition, systems are custom designed for specific applications, taking into accounts factors such as belt width, belt speed, material sizes, shape and throughput. Today there are about 4 000 successful installations throughout the world handling a variety of different materials.

The company’s renowned Weba Chute System uses a ‘super tube’ effect in conjunction with a cascade lining system. This particular design innovation results in 95% of the material running on material at all times. The bottom layer of particles in the product stream moves in a tumbling motion as opposed to sliding down the chute. This means that wear is reduced significantly. In many instances the lips remain completely covered by material, thereby providing a longer lifespan.