Developed by local pump and dredging expert IPR, the SlurrySucker dredging system recently provided the ideal solution for getting the emergency water dams at a Gauteng wastewater treatment plant back to optimal condition.

Warren Spann, Business Development Manager at IPR, explains that the emergency dams had filled with sludge over time, and were presenting an operational risk to the plant. Dredging the dams with hydraulic excavators was not effective for a number of reasons, and the manual removal of sludge in trucks caused environmental challenges. The dams are vital sources of additional water for the treatment plant during times when insufficient volumes are flowing into the facility.

“IPR was contracted to conduct the dredging of these emergency water dams, and we put our new generation SlurrySucker Maxi onto the job,” says Spann. “This powerful dredging system is equipped with three Toyo K30 heavy-duty submersible slurry pumps, and was able to remove 50 dry tonnes per hour.”

Importantly, these specialised heavy duty 22kW Toyo pumps are capable of dealing with the wide variety of solids that accompany the wastewater to the plant including rags, nappies and even pillows. The pumps’ capacity allowed them to pump the sludge through 450 metres of pipeline on this contract, without the need for inline boosting.

Leading construction materials company, AfriSam, recently completed a significant upgrade to the Hillary Community Park in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, transforming it into a vibrant and family-friendly recreational space. This initiative is part of AfriSam’s ongoing commitment to corporate social responsibility and enhancing the quality of life in the communities in which it operates.

The upgraded park now boasts a range of new amenities and features that cater to the diverse needs of families and individuals alike. AfriSam installed a sturdy fence around the park, ensuring the safety and security of visitors. In addition, the company undertook extensive garden maintenance, revitalising the park’s green spaces and creating a serene environment for relaxation and leisure activities.

One of the highlights of the upgrade is the addition of picnic tables and chairs, providing families with a comfortable and inviting space to enjoy outdoor meals and gatherings. These new seating areas are strategically placed throughout the park, offering scenic views and fostering a sense of community engagement.

Recognising the importance of physical fitness, AfriSam also introduced a range of outdoor gym equipment to the park. These state-of-the-art facilities cater to individuals of all ages and fitness levels, encouraging active lifestyles and promoting overall wellbeing. The new equipment includes cardio machines, strength-training apparatus and stretching areas, enabling visitors to engage in a variety of exercises and workouts.

For over 60 years, Steinmüller Africa has been a leading steam and high-pressure piping expert. The company leverages its extensive experience and in-house design and engineering to provide customised industrial shell and tube heat exchangers for sub-Saharan Africa’s oil & gas industry. The industry uses industrial heat exchangers for preheating, heating, steam generation, crude oil cooling, oil refining, and heat transfer.

Steinmüller Africa offers a comprehensive range of thermal, heat, sizing, and mass transfer services tailored to the oil & gas industry. Its expertise includes pressure drop analysis and vibration design, ensuring that its heat exchanger solutions meet the stringent demands of oil & gas operations. Its commitment to specialised services, optimum performance, technological advancement, and sustainability make it the ideal partner for oil & gas plants.

Industrial heat exchangers play an important role in improving the operational efficiency and safety of oil & gas processing plants. Their primary function is to transfer heat from one medium to another without the fluids coming into contact with each other. This process is necessary to maintain optimal thermal conditions, improve energy efficiency, minimise operational costs, and decrease environmental impact by facilitating efficient heat transfer.

Steinmüller Africa designs and fabricates turnkey industrial shell and tube heaters at its state-of-the-art facilities in Pretoria West and Sasolburg. To deliver world-class services, the company designs, manufactures, and installs industrial heat exchangers that meet the Heat Exchange Institute (HEI) and the Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association (TEMA) stringent design codes. The company also meets various health and safety standards such as SANS, BS, ASE, EN, and API.

Andrada Mining has purchased TOMRA XRT sorters as part of its expansion plans at the flagship Uis Mine in Namibia. The sorters feature TOMRA’s latest innovation launched earlier this year at the Mining Indaba exhibition: the groundbreaking OBTAIN™ software that leverages Deep Learning to bring single-particle precision to high-throughput particle sorting.

Andrada Mining, the African technology metals mining company, owns the open-pit Uis tin mine, which represents one of the largest tin reserves in Namibia. It is in the course of implementing expansion plans at the mine, which include introducing a pre-concentrating circuit of ore sorters with the aim of increasing tin concentrate from 1,500 to 2,600 tpa. It has purchased TOMRA COM Tertiary XRT sorters for the ore sorting pre-concentration circuit in the dry process section of the plant, expecting to increase the tin content of the feed to the wet processing plant by 50%.

A COM Tertiary XRT 1200 will be dedicated to the coarse size fraction. For the small particle sizes, two COM Tertiary XRT Fines sorters are equipped with the high-resolution TS100C ejection module, which delivers high precision in high-capacity applications. The module uses 90% less compressed air to eject the particles, reducing energy consumption dramatically and consequently significantly cutting operating costs while delivering a high-quality product.

These XRT sorters feature TOMRA’s groundbreaking AI-powered OBTAIN™ software which leverages Deep Learning to deliver single-particle precision in high-throughput ore sorting – an industry first. It uses a Neuronal Network to identify the properties of each particle accurately and independently of the sorter’s capacity, achieving unparalleled precision and reliability in detection and ejection. In addition to enhancing the sorters’ performance, taking capacity, quality and recovery to a new level, OBTAIN™ will provide Andrada Mining with a wealth of detailed and accurate data, which will help them optimize the process with better-informed decision-making.

With South Africa’s winter season on its way, many concrete users will know that slower curing times could derail their contract or production schedules, but accelerating admixtures – or accelerators – are available to solve this challenge.

With the country’s generally temperate climate, it is easy to forget that many provinces and neighbouring Lesotho regularly experience sub-zero temperatures, points out Hannes Engelbrecht, Concrete Business Unit Director for Domestic and Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) at CHRYSO Southern Africa. Temperatures do not even need to reach freezing point; the concrete hydration process slows down steadily as temperature drops and actually stops when it goes below about 5 degrees Celsius.

A significant amount of current concrete construction – especially for wind turbine bases and foundations for solar photovoltaic infrastructure – is, in fact, taking place in provinces like the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape where temperatures fluctuate widely. Efficient stripping time of formwork is crucial in allowing these projects to meet their stringent deadlines to complete construction and start delivering renewable energy.

Precast products

“Low temperatures create a range of problems for contractors and concrete product manufacturers,” says Engelbrecht. “Most projects in today’s world need to be delivered on a fast track basis, so there is no room for slow concrete curing to hold up the schedule. Similar constraints apply in the manufacture of precast products, where production must simply keep up with customer orders and delivery deadlines.”

Highlights

• Copper 360 has delivered the first copper concentrate from the Northern Cape Province in 21 years marking the start of a new era in copper production in South Africa.
• The achievement is remarkable in light of the fact that the record concentrate grades in excess of 30% were produced during the commissioning of the MFP 2 (the Nama Copper plant) that was recently acquired.
• The plant produced 136 tonnes of concentrate over a commissioning period of 3 weeks achieving our plan.
• The plant is forecast to produce in excess of 1,000 tonnes of concentrate per month within 3 months – 2 months ahead of planned production.
• The Company’s second concentrate plant MFP 1 is planned to start production at the end of July 2024, with a target capacity of 1,400 concentrate tonnes per month.
• The SX/EW plant that produces copper cathode, also delivered record performance in March 2024 producing some 60 tonnes of pure copper metal and is well on track to ramp up to 100 tonnes of copper per month within the next quarter.

Jan Nelson, CEO of Copper 360 commented: “Copper 360 is extremely proud of this achievement heralding not only the first copper concentrate production from the area in 21 years but also because it marks the start of a new era of copper production in South Africa. We have delivered on plan and at copper concentrate grades that are world-class. Copper 360 is also the only producer of copper cathode from the area.

Copper 360 is South Africa’s only listed pure copper producer and has made history in terms of being the first major copper producer in the Namaqualand region. We salute the tenacity and spirit of the people of Namaqualand who support us tremendously and the drive and passion of our team. We remain humble but we celebrate this historic success which marks South Africa’s return to being a major copper player. Our focus is now to bring our second concentrate plant into production and ramp up copper output. We look forward to reporting further production results in due course.”

Any forward-looking statements contained in this announcement have not been reviewed nor reported on by the Company’s auditors.

In line with the company’s stated intention of expanding its roots and ‘Vision 2028’ – offering all forms of training and skills development, and making a sustainable difference in reducing unemployment – Dekra Institute of Learning (IOL) has opened a branch in Lephalale, a busy town in Limpopo province.

There is an urgent need for an accredited provider of skills programmes and industry-related full qualifications and occupational adult-based education in Lephalale (formerly Ellisras), to serve the local coal mining, agricultural, power generation and commercial sectors.

Accredited training provider

DEKRA IOL Head of Training and Consulting, Christopher Mörsner explains: “We are filling this void by offering much-needed and QCTO-accredited safety, First Aid and other occupational and skills training.

Our vision is to stand out from other training service providers in the area as – over and above our QCTO-accredited courses, occupational health and safety training – DEKRA IOL is the only training provider offering business and operational training with a strongly client-centric approach. This is definitely the right time and place for us to collaborate with and support the local training industry!” Mörsner adds: “The strategic decision to open this branch stems from our strong commitment to localising our services – and thereby addressing the specific safety and occupational training requirements of the businesses and sectors present in the town, and in the greater region. These include the mining, power generation, renewable energy, agriculture and petrochemical sectors.

Starting out 1994 to serve the metropolitan area with a range of low voltage electric motors, WEG Africa’s Cape Town branch has grown in its size and its offerings, according to Branch Manager Marthinus Greeff.

Testament to this is the fact that it has again outgrown its premises, and last year relocated to larger, well-equipped facilities in Richmond Business Park – enhancing its service capability while making life easier for its customers.

“The branch had humble beginnings 30 years ago, with three staff members – the manager, an administrative assistant and a storeman,” says Greeff. “Our dedication and commitment to customers soon put us on a growth path which has continued to this day; the experienced staff complement at Richmond Park now stands at 35 people.”

Another sign of success is the geographical area that the branch now covers – from Cape Town upwards to the north as far as Upington and east to the town of George. Similarly, a wider range of industrial sectors reach out for solutions from WEG Africa’s Cape Town branch. These include mining, cement, petrochemical, water and wastewater as well as building, food processing, materials handling and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). He notes that a particularly exciting recent development has been in agriculture, where the branch serves farmers who want to use more renewable energy.

The international event of reference for industrial valves and flow control solutions continues to grow, attracting the whole supply chain to Bergamo in a month’s time

The exhibition programme increases, offering a private preview opening

A new record number of exhibitors is expected with over 310 registrations, thanks to a parterre of fast-growing foreign companies, now accounting for 20% of the total

The 2024 update of the IVS-Prometeia Observatory “The Oil&Gas Valve Industry in Italy” has been launched

Weba Chute Systems, a South African original equipment manufacturer specialising in custom- engineered chute systems, was honoured at the Exporter of the Year Awards hosted by the South African Capital Equipment Export Council (SACEEC) on 21 November 2023. This event recognised the significant contributions of industry players, highlighting 18 companies that exported over R8.4 billion to 67 countries last year.

The companies were evaluated based on several criteria, including marketing strategy, export turnover, local content, and participation in export promotion activities. The process involved strict confidentiality and expert judgment, including site visits to finalists’ premises.

Weba Chute Systems

Weba Chute Systems, celebrating its 40th year of operation in 2024, has established itself as a leader in transfer point design and manufacture, boasting over 5000 chutes successfully operating worldwide. The company’s focus on quality has been a cornerstone of its success, leading to its recognition as the Allied Services Exporter of the Year 2023 for companies with a turnover between R100 million and R150 million a year.

Commenting on the significance of the award, Ted Cruickshank, Africa Business Development Manager, says that this accolade underlines Weba Chute Systems’ significant role in the industry and its contribution to South African exports.