Local screening and vibrating-equipment solutions supplier Aury Africa was on track to achieve a R50-million turnover this year, Aury Africa MD Mark Houchin told Mining Weekly at the company’s Jet Park factory launch earlier this month.

Aury Africa is a subsidiary of Chinese screening and vibrating- equipment manufacturer Aury Tianjin, which has set a R100-million turnover target for the African branch in the next two years.

“We therefore have to double our sales in the next two years and we are aiming to achieve this by increasing capital equipment sales,” Houchin noted, adding that consumable sales would keep the local company operational, especially since the company added woven wire screen manufacturing capabilities to its offering after moving to its new 5 000 m2 facility in July.

Previously, the company imported all its capital and consumable equipment from Aury Tianjin, which has the manufacturing capabilities.

However, lead times were a challenge for the local supplier. “A typical lead time for products from China is about three months. The range of products we had to keep was significant and we ended up sitting with an R18-million stockholding,” Houchin recounted, adding that some products might take up to a year to sell.

He added that the long lead times prompted Aury Africa to import two weaving rooms from China to manufacture woven wire screens, which are extensively used in mining and quarrying operations. The weaving rooms arrived on site in July.

Aury Africa aims to manufacture 1 000 woven wire screens a month which, Houchin suggested, would cover the running costs of the facility.

“I do not think making 1 000 screens a month will be a great challenge for us and we are close to achieving this target,” he added.

Aury Africa aims to further increase its manufacturing capabilities by importing a polyurethane injection-moulding machine next year. The machine will be used to make small and large polyurethane screening panels.

“Currently, the polyurethane panels are being supplied from China and have to be imported in batches comprising about 2 000 units each for an import to be feasible,” said Houchin.

Manufacturing
Aury Africa imports all its capital screening equipment from China and claims to be cost competitive on screens wider than 2.4 m or narrower than 1.8 m.

Houchin explained during the launch that screening equipment smaller than 1.8 m was fabricated and assembled in China and could fit into the containers that were shipped to South Africa.

“Screens wider than 2 m cannot fit into a container and need to be assembled in South Africa. Therefore, they are transported in flat-pack kits and assembled at local engineering factories,” he added.

Aury Tianjin manufactures a range of screening machines, including flip-flo screens, used for processing wet or lumpy material. “The largest flip-flo screen manufactured in China is a triple- deck slide, which is 3 m wide and 9 m long,” noted Houchin.

The company also manufactures banana or multi-slope screens, commonly used at China and Australia’s coal mines. South African coal mines, however, prefer using sieve-bend and horizontal screens, which Aury Tianjin also manufactures.

The China-based company also manufactures coal centrifuges, including the VM 1300, 1400 and 1500 series, for course-coal applications, and the 1200 and 1000 series, which Houchin said matched the industry standards of South Africa.

“The difference between Aury screens and the ones commonly used in South Africa is that Aury screens are all horizontal baskets, whereas, locally, the fine-coal centrifuges are all vertical baskets. The Chinese prefer horizontal baskets, as they are easier to access and more user-friendly. South African companies prefer not to use them, as other suppliers’ products have not worked very well in the past. We are anxious to get our fine-coal centrifuges to the local market, which have been tried and tested in China,” he enthused.

Aury Tianjin also manufactures lined pipes and valves of varying sizes, lined in polyurethane, ceramic and asphalt. Houchin said Aury Africa had supplied calcined bauxite ceramic-lined and asphalt-lined pipes to midtier platinum group metals producer Royal Bafokeng Platinum’s Bafokeng Rasimone platinum mine, in the North West, ranging from 18 nominal small-bore pipes to 150 nominal bore pipes.

Further, Aury Tianjin manufactured screen consumables in China, including coal centrifuge baskets and polywedge panels, which Aury Africa had been supplying to Brazilian mining major Vale’s Moatize mine, in Mozambique’s Tete province, for the past three years, said Houchin.