Despite the downward commodity pricing cycle making operating conditions increasingly challenging in the African mining sector, screen and vibrating equipment solutions supplier Aury Africa has sold a considerable amount of jaw and cone crushers to operations located across South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The company said in May that this showed that local operations still valued efficient, reliable and cost-effective crushing equipment.

“All mining applications need to crush rock and aggregates to a certain degree in order to ensure productive output. Our range of jaw and cone crushers have proven to be popular in local coal and chrome operations in particular,” states Aury Africa MD Mark Houchin.

Aury Africa stocks and distributes a range of PE jaw crushers that are available with feed size openings varying between 150 mm × 250 mm to 1 000 mm ×1 200 mm. The company’s cone crusher range is available in diameters ranging from 2 ft to 5 ft. All crushers are designed and produced by an approved third-party manufacturer based in China.

Houchin indicates that jaw crushers operate by feeding the material from the top, before crushing it to one specific bottom size, right down to dust. The jaws open from side-to-side directly onto the material. The advantage is that large amounts of rock can be effectively crushed down in a relatively short timeframe. The downside, however, is that there is no real control over the process.

Alternatively, a cone crusher offers better control. He adds, “The material is fed into a cone from the top. The cone operates within a decreasing space to ensure far greater control of the process, and ultimately a far better final product, with less dust emissions too. Our cone crushers have also proven to be popular in the aggregate industry, where the final stone size is important.”

Houchin believes that the Aury range of crushers has proven to be so popular in local industry, as it meets the same quality standards as top European brands, but is available at a considerably more cost-effective purchase price. “Manufacturing costs are considerably lower in China than in Europe and, with a range of quality control measures in place, quality is guaranteed,” he says.

In addition to crushers, Aury Africa also supplies hammer mills, which are used for crushing more friable materials such as coal. “A hammer mill is a series of hammers that spin on a rotating shaft. Friable materials are dropped down onto the hammers, which break it into smaller pieces. A hammer mill is less capital-intensive than a jaw crusher; however, it is less robust too,” adds Houchin.

Turnaround times are typically three months for all crushers and hammer mills. “Production and shipping each take a number of weeks to complete. Aury Africa endeavours to provide clients with the fastest possible turnaround times, by carrying stock on certain models, in addition to undertaking refurbishments where possible.”

Aury Africa’s goal is to provide the best innovative screening and vibrating equipment solutions and services to the African mining market.

The company takes advantage of the economies of scale provided by large-scale Chinese production from its ISO-9001-accredited sister company Aury (Tianjin), with the aid and assistance of technical know-how developed in Australia and South Africa.