African Mining January 2023 | Page 60

• CRADLE TO GRAVE

Supplied by Neksol

Application of rubber pipes used in aggressive mining and chemical refining processes .

Although wet processing of minerals and aggregates during crushing and milling in mining has advantages such as greater control and automation , the abrasivness and reactivity of transported material can prove to be a challenge . Steel , HDPE or rubber pipes can be used to transport materials during these processes – depending on the challenges being faced within the process and the availibility of funds and support material . When designing a mill , process engineers must weigh up the options and manage the initial set-up costs , the cost to run the mill itself effectively and the future cost in maintaining the mill and its processes in order to avoid downtime right from the beginning .

Mauritz Pasano , director at Neksol Engineering , exclusive distributor for ImmuG , notes , “ While rubber , in particular high abrasion resistent immuG rubber , is more costly than steel or HDPE in initial outlay , the benefit lies in running the operation with much less downtime compared to conventional mills where steel or HDPE pipes are used in highly abrasive processes . The steel wears more quickly than immuG / rubber and must therefore be replaced more regularly . The lifespan of ImmuG piping has been proven to be up to 20 times longer than that of steel or HDPE pipes , depending on the process and material being transported .’’

He points out that it is never too late to replace steel pipes or HDPE pipes with rubber pipes in existing plants to increase availability and reliability . Unplanned downtime leads to escalating maintainance costs as well as delays in production and delivery of the end product , with resultant loss of revenue .

The same is true for leaching , washing and refining processes in platinum , gold , silver , copper and chrome refining . Here the same logic can be applied , but different rubber materials are needed . In chemical refining processes it is more the chemical reactivity which dictates what kind of material is optimal . In a lot of processes stainless steel or HDPE might be sufficient , but when it comes to strong acidity and alkaline environments only different types of rubber ( EPDM , PTFE etc .) or ceramics are sufficient to maintain consistent uptime .

Application of rubber pipes is used in aggressive Mining and chemical refining processes in the platinum , vanadium and metal industry to but name a few . For more information go to www . neksol . co . za

Type of rubber Abbreviation General properties Temperature Used as

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