Being close to customer operations is integral to ensuring optimum performance and uptime of equipment. And it is this driving ethos that has seen MBE Minerals South Africa establish a service centre in the heart of the Witbank/Middleburg coalfields. 

Johannes Kottmann, managing director of MBE Minerals South Africa, says the service centre, which is being opened in partnership with 3D Projects, will offer a comprehensive range of support services to customers in the region.

MBE Minerals South Africa has a large installed base of equipment operating at mines in the surrounding area, and the service centre will maintain a stockholding of parts that are commensurate with the equipment being used on mines. Kottmann says that this is an important aspect of after-market support as it will ensure that the correct parts are installed on machines keeping them in specification and ensuring they operate according to their engineered capabilities.

Skilled personnel at the service centre will be able to do full assessments on screens in the field, and through this can recommend modifications that will extend the machine life and optimise performance while reducing operating costs. The capability of the service centre will range from simple repairs and modifications right through to major reconditioning and refurbishment of screens.

Another market offering from the MBE Minerals service centre will be on-going condition monitoring of equipment. “This is an important preventative maintenance strategy that can assist mines in reducing unscheduled downtime, reducing costs and increasing productivity,” Kottmann says.

He adds that the selection of the location is strategic and in line with the company’s support philosophy of allocating its resources to where needed most by its customer base. Significantly, MBE Minerals opened a service centre in Kathu last year to support its customers in the Northern Cape.

MBE Minerals South Africa, with a legacy of over 40 years on the African continent, has a product offering that includes feasibility studies, raw material testing, financing concepts, erection and commissioning, personnel training and pre- and aftersales services. Available technologies include its Pneuflot® flotation, BATAC® jig, ROMJIG®, Jones® Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separator (WHIMS), PERMOS® (LIMS), the Palla Vibrating Mill®, TESKA® HMS Separator and a wide variety of screens and feeders and centrifuges.