MINERAL PORTS
Bulk exports
Metso has optimised its Rotaside railcar dumper technology
Paul Moore looks at some innovations in mineral port material handling and storage in terms of the equipment and component technology offerings local project activities up to commissioning. The company states:“ This major contract award was TAKRAF’ s first from SEINFRA and was won as a result of a number of important factors having been considered in the final decision. Since the CSU was to be installed in an area close to the city, the client placed specific emphasis upon limiting environmental impact and selected TAKRAF’ s machine for its various environmentally friendly solutions. One of these solutions relates to the fact that the material flow is totally enclosed with the‘ digging foot’ operating within the ship’ s hold and discharging material through transfer chutes, maximising dust suppression and noise reduction.”
Many mineral port solutions are developed for dedicated ports handling one main mineral type that is the main production export of a particular country, and as such technology suppliers have to be ready to supply the needs of those specific facilities.
Tenova TAKRAF, the Leipzig-based company with a wealth of experience in development, design, fabrication, erection and commissioning of equipment and systems for the global mining and materials handling industry, has secured a major contract for the turnkey supply and installation of a bauxite handling plant in Guinea, West Africa. The contract value is approximately € 100 million.
Guinea, situated on the west coast of Africa, boasts the world’ s largest reserves in bauxite, a raw material utilised for the production of alumina. Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée( CBG), jointly owned by the international mining houses Alcoa, Rio Tinto, Dadco and the State of Guinea, has mined and exported bauxite for more than 50 years and has put in place an ambitious program to increase its port export capacity, for which TAKRAF is supplying equipment for the unloading of rail wagons and crushing and conveying of the bauxite. A major challenge is the brownfield character of the works, which means that the new supplies and modifications to the existing plant have to be carried out whilst the installation is in operation. Very limited plant downtime and difficult conditions for logistics are a further challenge.
TAKRAF is executing this contract in close cooperation with its subsidiaries in the USA, China and South Africa, with the project lead in Leipzig, Germany. TAKRAF’ s CEO Dr Frank Hubrich underlined the importance of this project for the growth of the company in important markets in West Africa and highlighted the cooperation between the
different entities of the company. The commissioning of the plant is scheduled for the second half of 2018.
Elsewhere, TAKRAF recently completed the delivery of a Continuous Ship Unloader( CSU) to handle iron ore at the Port of Pecem, Brazil. The major turnkey contract was awarded by Secretaria Da Infraestrutura( SEINFRA)- Governo Do Estado Do Ceara in March 2014. The CSU has a nominal capacity of 2,400 t / h and is able to unload vessels up to 125,000 DWT.
The CSU is equipped with a bucket-chain elevator approximately 35 m in height and with a slewing / lifting boom, which includes the transfer conveyor, for a total length of 42 m. The discharge on the conveyor jetty is via a vibrating feeder, a solution that has already proven highly successful on other machines, and which offers a number of advantages. Some of these advantages include being more compact and hence reducing the height of the machine; an important factor to consider given that the jetty conveyors are more elevated than usual.
The entire project was successfully concluded thanks to the excellent collaborative effort and synergies between the various TAKRAF offices: design and construction of the CSU was carried out in Italy; TAKRAF’ s China office was fully engaged and oversaw all matters related to complete manufacturing and assembly of the machine, whilst the company’ s Brazil office was responsible for all
The TAKRAF CSU has a nominal capacity of 2,400 t / h and is able to unload vessels of up to 125,000 DWT
The chute specialists
Cleveland Cascades is a specialist in the design and manufacture of bespoke dry bulk loading chutes which are widely used in the minerals industry at port facilities. It is best known for its Cascade controlled flow technology chute, which uses a series of inclined cones, inside a retractable cover, to control dust pollution at source, while at the same time minimising both material degradation and segregation. This technology has established the company as a leading global force in ship and silo loading chutes for minerals.
Paul Moore spoke to Matthew Barnard, Managing Director of the company about some mineral specific issues. In terms of any challenges in handling bulk minerals with the widely differing attributes of the materials, he comments:“ Different materials are more or less abrasive than others, so the lining materials inside chutes change as a result. Corrosion also plays a part, and certain systems need a‘ marine’ paint finish, while others need a C5M paint finish which is a corrosive spec. Some chutes can be galvanised and others must be all stainless with no galvanised parts allowed. So each chute is designed and tailored both mechanically and electrically to the application, environment and the material to be handled.”
APRIL 2016 | International Mining 75