The MWS Scalping screen is designed to handle a range of products from construction, demolition and industrial waste (C,D&I) heavy quarry outputs to finer soil applications.

The SCLPR range is fully compatible with the MWS product range allowing it to integrate seamlessly into any wet processing plant. The SCLPR can be used in a range of applications to screen off any oversize or heavy clay bound materials prior to the washing process. This helps improve the wash plant efficiency and increase life of the plant and its wear components.

As with all MWS products, these plants have been designed with the operator in mind. In addition to the highest level of quality and performance, significant benefits include high-capacity feed hopper, variable speed control, independent or integrated control panel & customizable conveyors to suit the individual application.

Ben Frettsome, Product Line Director, MWS Equipment commented:

“We have had a busy year of new product development. This new product range follows a stringent and strenuous development cycle, which has seen the machines tested and proven in challenging and diverse product applications across the globe. We will be adding additional products to this range in the new year”.

As user-friendliness is vital for enhanced use, the SCLPR 105 is fully electrical machine delivering maximum return on investment. The control system incorporates several features to improve both the operational effectiveness and machine safety.

The SCLPRR 105 features:

• 12 x 4.5m heavy duty high energy 2 bearing screen box
• Fully electric machine.
• Direct feed Hardox lined hopper
• Fixed access walkways
• 2 or 3 product configurations
• Variable speed control on feed conveyor
• Containerised transport

Based on inspection findings and agreed benchmarks, planning reports prioritize and summarize tire work that needs to be performed in the weeks ahead.

Gain visibility of:

• Required tire work according to priority of condition-based inspections
• Upcoming tire rotations
• Rim non-destructive tests

Download the planning report directly from TOMS or automate email distribution to your entire planning team.

Improve fleet inspection compliance & safety

Using agreed benchmarks and schedules, TOMS automates planned work orders such as fleet inspections and front tire rotations. Regular fleet inspections can catch critical issues that require immediate attention and reduce safety risks.

Kal Tire’s equipment-specific safe work procedures are also incorporated directly into the program.

Source: Kal Tire

There are several mines digging this commodity out of the ground, most of them opencast with a few more established mining groups operating underground. Manganese is mostly commonly used in steelmaking and in batteries.

One such mine is a smaller opencast operation called Sebilo Resources. It operates as a community mine and strives to be a low-cost metals producer through partnerships that empower people and offer growth in diversified mineral products. Skills development is a major focus point, and this the mine believes will lead to further empowerment of secondary and supply industries.

Sebilo Resources’ operations started in 2010 and, after a brief hiatus, continued in 2014. It is a typical opencast hard rock mine where tried and trusted methods of drilling, blasting, load, and haul bring the mined ore to a central stockpile from where it is processed further. 

“We had a contractor company doing the crushing and screening until recently when it was decided that the mine, through its partnership programme, would undertake the crushing and screening itself,” says Danie Fourie, a mechanical engineering consultant to Sebilo Resources. “We built a fixed screening and sorting plant that would be fed by a mobile crusher and should the latter option sound strange, allow me to explain the reasoning.

“The mine produces six grades or sizes of run of mine ore of 450mm and smaller and this creates six feedlines to the mobile crusher,” he adds. “The crusher, being mobile, can then be moved between the six lines to accommodate the choice of ore that will ultimately go to the screening plant.”

The final manganese product is exported in two main size categories namely lumpy, which measures between minus 65mm to plus 6mm, and fines, which is smaller than 6mm.

When it came to choosing a mobile crusher, Sebilo Resources chose a Finlay J-1175 Jaw Crusher that is supplied and maintained by Bell Equipment. We asked Danie Fourie how this decision was made.

“We took the mine’s management to see a Finlay J-1175 Jaw Crusher working on a nearby iron ore mine where it was tasked with crushing very hard quartzite rock and on the strength of that machine’s performance, and may I add an extremely competitive price from Bell Equipment, the decision was easy,” he says. “Other factors that influenced the decision were the Finlay J-1175 Jaw Crusher meeting technical criteria and quite importantly, a solid reference from the owner of the demonstration machine on Bell Equipment’s technical backup, service and parts holding.”

In the spirit of the partnership programme in which Sebilo Resources participates, the Finlay J-1175 Jaw Crusher is owned by a partner company, XCA Mining. Since its arrival on the mine in October 2019, the Finlay Crusher has been producing around 2 000 tonnes of material in two shifts spanning 16 hours. Fuel burn shows the machine uses 40 litres of diesel an hour.

“With us running a new plant we’re still in the process of ramping up slowly,” Danie says. “The Finlay Crusher is the important first step in our ore processing sequence and even though it is not yet working to its full design capacity, we’re assured that the screening plant never runs out of ore to process.”

“We are really impressed with the machine’s design and build and are confident that it will be operational throughout the mine’s planned eight-year life cycle,” he adds. “We have to date processed around 40 000 tonnes of ROM through it and still there is no obvious wear evident on any of the swing jaw liners, the fixed jaw liner or the cheek liners. These liners are corrugated which gives them a longer life and that life can be extended further by swinging the liners through 180 degrees.”

Danie goes on to say that at full production, the mine should produce between 50 000 and 70 000 tonnes of manganese a month so meeting annual targets of between 700 000 and 800 000 tonnes.

“Sebilo Resources’ management and its partners are very pleased with the decision to build their own plant and the Finlay J-1175 Jaw Crusher is an integral part of that plant,” Danie says. “Having total control over ore processing is expected to have a positive effect on the bottom line and that turns this exercise into a winning one.”

Revolutionizing the way that drilling is traditionally carried out in the mining industry, the new exploration drill rigs from Rosond of Midrand combine automation, software and data analytics, and machine learning. This, in turn, is part of the company’s own transition into a fully-fledged drilling technology provider, comments Md Ricardo Ribeiro.

“When we developed the new drill rigs initially, we had to understand the broader context of FutureSmart Mining, which is essentially Anglo American’s overarching project to modernize all of its mining operations. Ensuring that our drill rigs conform to this vision also allowed us as a company to tap into the concept of ‘smart’ mining,” explains Ribeiro.

The development process commenced in 2012 with a decision to partner with Comacchio, which had the capability to manufacture according to Rosond’s own specifications. A family business too, Comacchio’s values and vision aligned closely with that of Rosond, resulting in the extremely successful partnership that it is today.

“It also resonated with our understanding of how a business needs to be conducted. The partnership commenced with a single drill rig in 2012. This was in the field for a good five years before we decided to embark on the development process for what we have currently. It is not an off-the-shelf solution, which is very different from the rest of the market. What differentiates us as well is our keen insight into the operational difficulties imposed by the mining environment. Our choice of partner at the end of the day had to take all of this into account,” elaborates Ribeiro.

Thanks to this philosophy, Kumba now has a technically advanced and innovative drill-rig fleet. “It is a combination of the number of drill rigs and the technology behind them. I honestly do not think that any mining operation in the world currently has the level of technology that has been deployed at Kumba,” asserts Ribeiro.

Telemetry will be used to obtain data from the 28-strong drill-rig fleet at the iron ore operation, which will be crucial to underpin the improvement in efficiency and productivity that Anglo American will achieve in the long term with the new technology. This also represents the next step in the evolution of Rosond itself, which will strive to offer various geological solutions based on interpreting the data itself.

The final batch of 28 drill rigs was dispatched to Anglo American’s Kumba Iron Ore operation in the Northern Cape in December last year to be rolled out at the Kolomela and Sishen mines. It forms part of an R2 billion, five-year tender won by Rosond to supply Anglo American with the latest drilling technology as it modernizes its geoscience operations.

In recent decades, Liebherr has demonstrated the quality and reliability of its electric technology with the success of its dedicated product ranges for mining, dredging, and materials handling applications.

The electric system in the new Liebherr R 976-E 400 kW crawler excavator is supplied with 6000 V power via a cable connection, with the cable inlet in the center of the undercarriage, or on the sides if requested. A motor cable drum is also available as an option. The machine is powered by a high voltage 6000 V/50 Hz current collector. A switch cabinet transformer (high voltage/low voltage) and a low voltage cabinet for power distribution and control of 690 V, 230 V, and 24 V networks are located on the upper carriage.

The technology used in the R 976-E and R 980 SME-E offers a lot of advantages. Thanks to its constant speed whatever the load, an excavator with an electric engine has a longer service life. Also, the high availability of transient power for complex machine movements enables very high productivity. The R 976-E’s low-voltage electric squirrel-cage engine drives the hydraulic system. The engine features heat shielding on bearings and motor windings. Integrated into a frame with a reinforced flange, it enables safe, soft starting. The two robust electrical cabinets are assembled by welding into a structure specifically designed to withstand extreme working conditions. The lockable watertight (IP 65) doors are fitted with safety switches and an emergency stop. The high voltage cabinet is a dedicated contact for power connection and voltage transformer, while the low voltage cabinet is used for power connection monitoring.

Robustness, reliability, and cost-effectiveness

Liebherr excavators stand out on the market for their high performance. They are the end-product of robust design based on experience gained in mining applications. Their reliability has been tested in extreme conditions. In line with its commitment to ecology and sustainability, Liebherr guarantees zero pollutant gas emissions. In addition, to ensure quality, the electric power system was designed and produced entirely by Liebherr-France SAS itself.

Reduced maintenance and lower operating costs make an electric excavator more cost-effective than a diesel-engine machine. For greater comfort, the R 976-E and R 980 SME-E are extremely quiet. The robustness, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of the R 976-E and R 980 SME-E make them products of choice for environmentally friendly extraction applications.

A working environment up to the highest standards

The R 976-E and R 980 SME-E offer users comfort and safety. They feature a spacious cab equipped with an automatic permanent air-conditioning and heating system while the exterior has a 270° camera system plus an armored windscreen and roof window. The operator’s platform features a large number of additional monitoring functions and a standard large 9” screen.

Source: Liebherr 

On the back of the excellent results achieved with the rental unit, Gem Diamonds purchased a Tomra COM XRT 2.0 sorter to replace the rental unit at the end of the contract. Featuring a bigger ejection chamber, higher belt speed and throughput, this unit was perfectly suited to the large diamond recovery set up the company was looking for, and they didn’t have to wait for it to deliver:

“In January 2018, we had pretty much just finished commissioning this unit and we recovered the biggest stone Letseng had ever seen, the 910-carat Lesotho Legend. There was no question about performance after that,” says Jaco Houman. “Since 2017, we have recovered 6 diamonds that were sold for more than 1 million US$ with the two Tomra XRT sorters.”

Since installing the Tomra COM XRT 2.0, the mine’s +5mm historic material has been depleted and the company is now focusing on scavenging and auditing the existent tailings. Jaco Houman explains: “About 10 tonnes a day of coarse fractions are stockpiled per export period, and we do roughly 8 exports a year. Over an average of about 45 days, we accumulate 450 to 500 tonnes, which we process at the end of the export period. We are seeking confirmation that all economical value has been recovered and  that nothing has been missed in our recovery process. By having this unit in place, we are now able to recover all the diamonds that are present in our concentrate, either through a first or a second pass.”

With its performance, the Tomra COM XRT 2.0 sorter has more than paid for itself, as Jaco Houman points out: “To date, we have recovered about 15 times the investment value over the 4 years it has been in operation.”

Gem Diamonds purchases the first Tomra XRT Final Recovery sorter in the world

Gem Diamonds has been so impressed with Tomra’s XRT technology that they have become early adopters of its ground-breaking Final Recovery solution, purchasing a Tomra COM XRT 300 /FR sorter before it was even launched, so that the Letšeng mine is home to the first unit to be installed in the world.

Having found an effective solution for Coarse Recovery with the Tomra COM XRT 2.0 sorter, Gem Diamonds turned their attention to the Fines Recovery Circuit. “We sent some samples for testing to an independent facility and our assumptions of under-recovery in certain size fractions were confirmed,” says Jaco Houman.

“We wanted to find a solution to increase our revenue from the treatment of historic material. We were looking for a compact machine we could use as a final recovery sorter, and the Tomra COM XRT 300 /FR performs very well in that duty, or even as a single particle sorter. Also, it is a sorter that will treat a super-concentrate and work very well as a scavenging unit.”

“The diamond industry had been waiting for 20 years for a way to introduce XRT directly into the Diamond Final Recovery instead of the bulk concentration stages where the DMS modules exist,”

explains Ryan Szabo, Sales and Project Manager Diamonds at Tomra Mining. “The Tomra COM XRT 300 /FR is a compact sorter that can function within the diamond recovery and sort house environment, and it is the first to accurately sort diamonds based on their properties and not their proxies, achieving market leading recovery with the highest recovery factor to date. This made it ideal for Gem Diamonds’ requirements at the Letšeng mine.”

Tomra’s Final Recovery sorter is now in the commissioning stage, and performing well, as Jaco Houman states: “We are getting consistent recovery from the Tomra COM XRT 300 /FR, which is performing to our expectations from this perspective. The overall throughput has not been attained due to deficiencies in the drying system upstream, which are making feeding the sorter at higher throughput rates difficult. However, design corrections are in the process of being implemented and I am confident that we will be able to demonstrate performance of the Final Recovery sorter at the higher capacities.”

“The Final Recovery sorter has functioned exceptionally well,” adds Ryan Szabo. “To date the sorter has never failed a performance test at the Letšeng Diamond Mine. It has already had successful results in the commissioning stage. In fact, it’s the most successful first implementation of a new solution that TOMRA has ever had.”

The installation of the Tomra COM XRT 300 /FR is the first in a series of three projects that Gem Diamonds is planning in order to upgrade its Recovery Plant with the addition of further Tomra XRT sorters. The company is also working on a project for the construction of a second recovery circuit that would combine the Tomra COM XRT 2.0 sorter currently on site, a new Tomra COM Tertiary sorter and a COM XRT 300 /FR sorter to create an off-line scavenging facility. This will be followed by a third project, which will look at implementing Tomra XRT technology through the remainder of the Final Recovery.

The last four years have seen the successful introduction of Tomra’s XRT technology at the Letšeng Diamond Mine, where it has provided effective solutions in different stages of the process, improving the operation’s profitability and efficiency. For Jaco Houman, this success stems not only from the advanced technology, but also from Tomra’s approach to serving its customers: “What I like about TOMRA, is that for them it’s not just about selling you a piece of equipment. If the equipment doesn’t work in the solution or the system that you want, they’d walk away from the sale. For me, this testifies to the fact that they have a vested interest in the success of your business.”

The support that Tomra has provided throughout the projects also stands out: “My experience has only been positive. We’re dealing with an organisation with experienced, professional people. I can see that they love what they do, they’re very diligent in their work. The technical people on site have spent hours and hours not just setting up the equipment, but also imparting knowledge and getting the operational staff up to the required levels, so that when they walk away, we know that there’s going to be continuity. I believe that when Tomra makes a commitment , you can bank on the fact that they will deliver on that.”