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Plant engineering specialist supplies third mill to Angolan diamond mine

3rd October 2014

By: David Oliveira

Creamer Media Staff Writer

  

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Plant engineering specialist ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions South Africa will deliver another mill to a diamond mine, in Angola’s Luanda Sul province, next month.

Catoca is owned and operated by a joint venture company comprising State-owned Angolan mining company Endiama, Russian diamond mining company Alrosa, Brazilian diversified conglomerate Odebrecht and multinational group China Sonangol.

ThyssenKrupp tells Mining Weekly that it supplied two of the same mills to the mine in 2004.

Following a contract signed in June, the company is also supplying a high-pressure grind roll (HPGR), or high-pressure rolls crusher, as it is known in the diamond industry, to a diamond mine in Botswana, which will arrive on site in March 2015.

Meanwhile, in the crushing sector, ThyssenKrupp minerals processing manager Wilfred Barkhuizen says the company is focused on providing equipment for three different areas within the crushing and grinding field.

“The first area we classify as single equipment for crushing and grinding applications, which could take two forms: either we customise the solution to clients’ specifications or we supply a standard product that is available in models that can crush between 100 t/h and 14 000 t/h,” he says.

The company also focuses on the supply of semi-mobile and fully mobile systems. Barkhuizen adds that semi-mobile systems have the benefit of saving between 20% and 25% on civil construction work costs.

As a result of these cost savings and because the plants are designed to remain on site, Barkhuizen says the popularity of semi-mobile systems has increased in recent years.

“In the past seven years we have sold 51 primary gyratories, of which 29 were sold in a semi-mobile arrangement, indicating that the market is moving towards using more economic solutions,” he notes.

The final focus area is the company’s offering of a complete comminution system with crushing and milling.

Barkhuizen further highlights that ThyssenKrupp supplies a 63" to 114" primary gyratory crusher, the largest available to the market.

“We are also the only suppliers of jaw-gyratories, which have been used with great success in underground blockcaving applications, owing to the gyratories’ small physical footprint, large feed opening and crushing capabilities. The top of a jaw-gyratory operates like a jaw crusher and, as the material progresses through the machine, the bottom acts as a gyratory crusher, giving it the benefit of being able to significantly reduce large material,” Barkhuizen points out, adding that the jaw-gyratory is ideal for hard-rock mining operations, such as copper and diamond mining.

ThyssenKrupp also supplies mills and HPGR technology to the mining market, the latter of which has also established itself in hard-rock applications.

“We are the market leaders in this sphere, with about 80% of the market share of HPGRs in hard-rock applications,” maintains Barkhuizen, adding that ThyssenKrupp is noting an influx of competitors entering this market.

“Hopefully, our experience and product developments over the past 28 years in HPGRs for hard-rock applications will ensure that we maintain this product share,” he says.

ThyssenKrupp installed its first HPGR at diamond mining group Petra Diamonds’ Cullinan mine in 1986. This HPGR is still in operation.

“There is a lot of research and development going into HPGR applications and how this technology can benefit different processing circuits. There are many hybrid circuits to which HPGR can be applied to save energy and improve metallurgical yields,” says Barkhuizen.

Challenges
Barkhuizen notes that orebodies are becoming more complicated to crush and grind, owing to mines becoming deeper, grades dropping and orebodies becoming more complex.

“Because orebodies are becoming more complicated to mine, clients have to crush larger volumes of material to secure the valuable material. This makes defining an efficient process more complicated, as you have to ensure that the correct equipment is incorporated in the correct arrangement, which involves experienced process design,” he explains.

Barkhuizen tells Mining Weekly that ThyssenKrupp acknowledges its clients’ need to assist with the process design during the prefeasibility and feasibility stages of a project, and have therefore focused on providing the necessary test facilities and process know-how.

“It is no longer a case of just supplying equipment – we help our clients define the entire process, as we do not want to supply a piece of equipment that is not going to perform efficiently.”

Barkhuizen identifies security of energy supply as another challenge currently facing the crushing and milling sector, particularly since comminution – the crushing and grinding portion of processing plants – is the most energy-intensive process in a plant.

“In collaboration with ThyssenKrupp India, we have developed captive power plants of up to 150 MW to deal with this issue. ThyssenKrupp India has been supplying boiler technology since 1976 and we identified the need for captive power plants in South Africa and the rest of Africa,” he states.

The captive power plant boilers operate on circular fluidised-bed combustion boiler technology, with its multi-fuel firing capabilities, including low-quality coal and low emissions, making it an ideal solution for Africa.

The boiler technology also extends to waste heat recovery and biomass applications.

Another key focus area for ThyssenKrupp is the company’s ability to provide its customers with after-sales support. Our aim is to move closer to our clients to ensure they have original-equipment-manufacturer support on their doorstep.

“In 2008, we established a service centre in Chloorkop, Kempton Park, Johannesburg, which can provide all ThyssenKrupp’s service requirements.

“We have about 100 employees at this facility who service the African market. The service centre has grown exponentially in the past five years, owing to the service needs of our clients,” he concludes.

Edited by Samantha Herbst
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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