South Africa-based materials handling services provider DemcoTech Engineering has completed a four-year contract for the multimillion-dollar iron-ore import/export facility in Lumut, Perak, Malaysia, for Brazilian major mining group Vale. The complex includes an ore storage yard and a marine terminal with a 60-million-tonnes-a-year capability.

Work started on the facility in 2010 and the first two vessels – with a deadweight tonnage of 400 000 t – carrying ore to the Malaysian Terminal, were offloaded earlier this year.

The scope of DemcoTech’s work on the project covered materials handling engineering and support services for the establishment of the facility, says company GM Paul van de Vyver. The company also pro- vided operational readiness services, including the preparation of operational and maintenance manuals and training modules.

The regional distribution centre comprises a deep-water jetty and an onshore stockyard that receives iron-ore from Vale’s mines in Brazil and distributes it to customers across the Asia-Pacific region, he explains.

Van de Vyver tells Mining Weekly that the project is one of many based outside South Africa that the Johannesburg-headquartered company has been working on, following a decline in local projects.

“With the current depressed mining industry in South Africa, our focus has been outside the borders of the country – in Africa and South-East Asia – where we provide mine-to-port materials handling solutions.”

Van de Vyver says the success of the Malaysia project has added to DemcoTech’s extensive record in port and materials handling. “We have completed projects in Lesotho, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Mali,” he adds.

Van de Vyver further highlights that the company’s recent work illustrates DemcoTech’s capability to undertake small- and large-scale projects ranging from a turnkey contract for a shuttle conveyor for a miner in South Africa, to the overall design of the multibillion- dollar iron-ore import/export facility in Malaysia.

“The latter project was fabricated, shop-assembled and installed under rigorous working conditions within an extremely tight shutdown window. Further, the new 10 000 t/h shuttle conveyor, together with in situ thermite- welded rails and the associated civil work, was installed in its final position in a building at a height of about 43 m above ground, in extremely limited space,” he details.

Van de Vyver mentions that DemcoTech’s ambition is to further extend its reach into South-East Asia and to build on past and existing bulk materials handling work in that region.

Further, DemcoTech is re-estab- lishing its presence in India following the recent signing of a cooperation agreement with a large and reputable Indian engineering company.

Assmang Project
In 2013, DemcoTech completed the expansion of a manganese export facility for local manganese miner Assmang at its Cato Ridge Alloys plant, in KwaZulu-Natal.

“The 80 000 t stockpile expansion project, which included stacking and reclaim facilities, was carried out jointly with local engineering group Kantey and Templer, based in Durban. DemcoTech provided the bulk materials handling equipment and expertise, while Kantey and Templer provided the civil and structural elements of this successful project,” says Van de Vyver.

He adds that the scope of the turnkey project comprised three parts, namely the refurbishment of the two existing rail tipplers, the associated positioners and the conveyors. This was followed by the establishment of a greenfield ore stockyard, reclaim tunnel and automated road truck loading facility.

“The truck loading facility caters for the variation in truck sizes and configurations arriving at the plant; it automatically loads each vehicle to the correct capacity. DemcoTech also provided a new elevated tripper car to feed the 80 000 t ore stockpile, and designed and supplied a new sidearm charger as part of the upgrade to the rail tipplers,” Van de Vyver explains.

About DemcoTech
DemcoTech is a leading specialist in the bulk materials handling field, offering its clients a range of services from conveyor design to turnkey niche process plants, from concept to full turnkey project completion.

“Our services include concept design, feasibility studies, detail design, engineering, procurement, expediting, construction and commissioning. Our clients are represented in a wide range of industries, including the power generation, cement, pulp and paper, mining, metallurgy and manufacturing industries, as well as port facilities,” states the company.

DemcoTech’s project portfolio includes the provision of a conveyor system for gold miner Resolute Mining’s Syama gold mine, in Mali, West Africa, and a tailings disposal system for the Lesotho-based Letseng diamond mine.

Other products offered by DemcoTech include troughed conveyors, pipe conveyors, air-assisted AeroConveyors, rail-mounted slewing stackers, pivot-boom conveyors and mobile conveyors. These systems include all structural, mechanical, electrical and control systems.

“We specialise in pipe conveyors and supply these systems using a triangular tubular gantry fitted with a mobile maintenance trolley,” concludes Van de Vyver.