MINING IN FOCUS
wet processing plants in the sand and aggregrates, mining,
construction and demolition waste recycling, industrial sands and
environmental sectors.
Patented as the CDE Combo, it is an all-in-one wet processing
and water recycling system meant to support the Ground
Breakers quarry by enhancing the quality of its materials and
simultaneously lowering operating costs. It further ensures greater
return on investment.
Prior to opting for the Combo, Ground Breakers experienced
various challenges surrounding their bucket technology. “We
had limited water sources and limited space to put up a proper
wash plant. Any silt dams we dug were taking away valuable
mining area,” says van Vuuren. Meintjes adds “The system we had
previously off ered one very sloppy wet product and it wasn’t
consistent either. This was because of factors like the plant
jamming, and so on.”
The bucket wheel came with its own limitations relating to
product output. “Bucket wheels struggle to process suffi cient
volumes of water to achieve the desired cut points, fi nes are not
effi ciently removed and between 100 – 300 micron fractions are
lost to ponds or to the water treatment phase,” says Wayne Warren,
CDE business development manager for sub-Saharan Africa.
After rigorous testing by CDE, it was determined that the CDE
Combo would be the best fi t. It is tailor made to solve the quarry’s
challenges. It has a capacity range of 50 to 500 tonnes, matched
with a unique modular design to combine feeding, grading,
washing, water recycling and stockpiling onto one compact
chassis. This also makes the Combo environmentally friendly.
For the Ground Breakers quarry, the Combo transforms 80 tonnes
per hour of raw feed into washed 0-6mm river sand and 0-1.5mm
Conveyors deposit river sand and plaster sand to opposite ends of
the quarry.
plaster sand. Running for less than a year and producing more than
double the quantity, the technology has revolutionised the quarry.
According to CDE, the Combo helps to retain every valuable
grain of sand available in the system and reduce the size of the
settling ponds and maintenance time. Warren explains that
material handling and washing happens in one place. “Instead of
water going off to a diff erent part of the site to be washed and
reused at a later stage, in this instance, it is reused immediately.”
Called the AquaCycle, the thickener – which is incorporated
on the chassis – recycles the process water for immediate
recirculation in the system.
Warren continues, “All the water in the washing process will go
through the cyclone and then directly to the thickener. The
AquaCycle then separates the very fi ne dust and washes out the
The CDE Combo has helped the Ground Breakers quarry to be more effi cient and maximise their mining area. From left: Willem du Plooy, JC van Vuuren,
Johan Meintjes and Wayne Warren.
www. africanmining.co.za
African Mining Publication
African Mining
African Mining November 2019
37