Original-equipment manufacturers in the mining and minerals processing sectors have to be more responsive to customer needs and ensure that their service offerings are tailored to the requirements of the market, says MBE Minerals South Africa (SA) MD Johannes Kottmann.

The minerals beneficiation technology supplier, which is celebrating 40 years of successful operation in Africa, will have technical personnel on hand at Electra Mining Africa 2016 to discuss the various technologies available from the company.

These include Pneuflot flotation technology which continues to attract global attention as a flotation technology of the future. Kottmann says there are 82 installations in coal globally and in magnetite and haematite (itabirite) flotation in South Africa.

The Pneuflot flotation cell improves product quality and recovery, delivering lower capital and operating costs, as well as significantly lower wear costs and higher efficiencies. It features a design with no rotating parts, and achieves low energy consumption and less wear-and-tear than conventional agitator cells.

The company’s Batac jig technology has been field-proven through extensive and diverse testwork to deliver higher efficiency, huge economic benefits, better product quality, enhanced machine availability and improved throughput rates. The main advantages are its separation accuracy, its relatively small footprint and comparatively low capital cost.

Kottmann says the company’s Romjig has proved particularly suitable as a reliable and economical solution in destoning raw coal. “The lower percentage of refuse in the washery feed means reduced wear on machinery and transporting equipment, less grain degradation, less dust and slurry and reduced consumption of flocculation and flotation agents in downstream fines recovery circuits,” he explains.

The robust Jones wet high-intensity magnetic separator (Whims), operated at up to 14 500 Gaus, offers a high throughput capability, coupled with simple maintenance and lower energy consumption. The Whims is ideally suited to treating feebly magnetic minerals with a particle range from 20 microns up to 1.5 mm and with unit throughput capacities from 500 kg/h up to 250 t/h.

Significantly, MBE Minerals SA installed the largest Whims plant in the world outside Brazil in the Northern Cape.

The Permos medium-intensity magnetic separator drum-type unit from MBE Minerals SA is suitable for materials that can be attracted by a field strength of between 2 000 Gaus and 5 000 Gaus. Kottmann says there are designs for dry and wet feeding available.

The Palla mill offers the flexibility of being suitable for wet and dry applications in primary and secondary grinding and for pulverising materials of any hardness. This technology has an advantage over other machines as it is capable of grinding more than 100 different materials, including a range of minerals and commodities previously considered unviable due to the costs involved.

MBE Minerals SA also manufactures a variety of vibrating screens, available up to 3.6 m in width and 6.75 m in length, in single- or double-deck configuration and in either circular or linear motion. The company’s screens have been operating in the African mining industry for the past 40 years, mainly in the coal, diamond and iron-ore sectors.

With products for sizing, scalping, dewatering and media recovery, the company’s screens feature a side plate-mounted drive, making them lighter than those using vibrator motors. MBE Minerals SA also supplies screens with vibrator motors where required, while its resonance screens offer the benefit of low power consumption. Each screen is designed with sound mechanical features, including vibration damping, side plates, cross members and the appropriate feed and discharge chutes. All types of screening surfaces can be accommodated.

MBE Minerals SA receives expertise and technical support from its worldwide network, including the MBE Coal and Minerals Technology’s research and development (R&D) centre in Cologne, Germany. The R&D centre consults with customers from all parts of the world with regard to optimum processing and this service is backed up by an in-house laboratory facility and pilot testwork capabilities. The centre is also used as a training facility for customers, either on general minerals processing or on the operation and maintenance of specific MBE equipment.

Hall 6 Stand A03