This customer-centric approach will be show-cased at Electra Mining Africa 2026, where visitors can experience live demonstrations, explore interactive displays and engage with specialists from across Multotec’s various divisions, gaining insight into how its technologies help to optimise plant performance, improve recovery and reduce costs.

Multotec South African Region MD Bheka Majola states that Electra Mining Africa provides an opportunity for the broader mining industry to come together and share knowledge.

“For Multotec, it also creates valuable opportunities to engage directly with customers, better understand their operational challenges and explore how our technologies and expertise can support their success.”

Majola adds that the exhibition will provide a platform to showcase the company’s solutions and technologies through several interactive displays and live demonstrations. These include a live spiral demonstration showcasing Multotec’s gravity separation product range; a glass cyclone illustrating the operating principles of a cyclone; and a working Vezin sampler demonstrating the role of metallurgical accounting sampling.

Visitors will also see a Vibramech screen deck fitted with Multotec screening media and accessories, as well as the MATO range of conveyor maintenance solutions, rubber wear technologies, wear-monitoring software and other process optimisation solutions.

Partnering to Solve Challenges

Multotec’s approach is built on a long-standing commitment to solve the most pressing mineral processing challenges by creating solutions aligned to operational realities.

“We do this by developing practical, customised solutions alongside our customers,” says Majola, adding that the combination of Multotec’s manufacturing capability and engineering expertise facilitates innovate solutions that deliver measurable improvements in plant performance, availability, yield, efficiency and reliability.

Digital Aspirations

Multotec is focused on advancing its digital capabilities to help shape the future of minerals processing innovation.

For Majola, the “future of minerals processing innovation lies in digital technologies”. He believes machine learning will play an increasingly important role in supporting metallurgical practices by streamlining data analysis, enhancing decision-making and reducing the administrative burden on plant personnel.

“By equipping technical teams with better insights and more time to focus on optimisation, these technologies have the potential to improve plant performance while helping mining operations produce more efficiently and cost-effectively.”

He adds that Multotec’s local manufacturing capability and research and development facilities enable the company to work closely with customers to test, refine and implement solutions.

Key Focus

Meanwhile, Multotec notes that, owing to cyclone’s “deceptively simple” design, many companies and operators underestimate the significant financial losses that can result from poor separation efficiency.

“Cyclones play a fundamental role in determining particle size distribution and separation efficiency, influencing downstream recovery, equipment performance, and overall plant productivity,” Multotec cyclones process specialist Ernst Bekker explains.

He cites mill circuits as an example, where cyclones ensure that material is appropriately sized for downstream recovery, preventing over-grinding within the mill, thereby averting unnecessary energy consumption.

“Providing suboptimal feed conditions to the mill, in close circuit with a hydrocyclone, also influences the mill efficiency, preventing the mill from performing at optimal conditions. If the cyclone presents too coarse material, [through] misplacement, to processes such as leaching, the minerals cannot be effectively liberated, leading to suboptimal recovery,” Bekker states.

He warns against the misconception that cyclones are simply a classification tool. “Many operators assume that a cyclone is functioning correctly simply because material is discharging from both the overflow and underflow. In reality, this can mask poor classification efficiency, which negatively affects plant performance.”

He adds that effective cyclone design starts with determining the required cut-point for the application – that is the particle

Effective wear management is important to maintaining classification performance because cyclone efficiency begins to deteriorate before visible wear appears. Bekker therefore recommends quarterly or biannual internal inspections to identify early signs of component degradation.

Sensors and instrumentation that measure flow, pressure, vibration and discharge conditions can also support performance monitoring, however Bekker notes that sampling remains one of the most reliable methods of verifying cyclone performance.

“By analysing representative samples from the feed, overflow and underflow, operators can calculate separation efficiency and gain a clear understanding of what is happening inside the cyclone.”

He asserts that, by understanding how classification inefficiency influences mineral recovery and energy use, operators can prioritise stable feed conditions, correct cut-point control, effective wear management, and performance monitoring to reduce losses and improve overall plant efficiency.

To help operators better understand why cyclone efficiency matters, Multotec will showcase its Glass Cyclone at Electra Mining Africa. This transparent cyclone will allow visitors to see the classification process in real time, including internal flow patterns, particle behaviour, and discharge patterns.

Hall 5

Stand A18