Industry intelligence
AngloPlat opens piping plant
Anglo American Platinum recently
opened a new speciality pipe
manufacturing plant, Africa Pipe
Industries North, in Mokopane, Limpopo.
The plant is a joint venture ( JV ) with
Africa Pipe Industries (API) and will
create 76 direct jobs at peak operational
capacity in the Mokopane community.
The plant consists of an ultra-modern
pipe mill that manufactures a variety of
technically advanced steel piping for the
distribution of water, oil and gas. The
plant will supply customers in Limpopo
and sub-Saharan Africa. Anglo American
Platinum will be a customer of the plant,
therefore ensuring a stable order book
and stable community employment.
The plant was commissioned in
October 2017 and will be API’s first
facility in Limpopo province. API will
operate the plant and is responsible
for the technical know-how on the
plant design, building construction and
equipment installation.
Hydrocyclones boost recoveries
Tharisa Minerals platinum mining
operation on the south-western limb
of South Africa’s Bushveld igneous
complex has boosted its mill circuit
production performance by 36% by
replacing its original cyclones with
Cavex hydrocyclones from Weir
Minerals Africa.
Tharisa is about 95km north-west
of Johannesburg and 35km east of
Rustenburg.
The new hydrocyclones allow the mine
to recover an additional 98oz of platinum
group metals (PGMs) each month, giving
an additional annual revenue of USD800
000 – almost R11-million. With this
improved performance, Tharisa’s payback
period for the cluster of new units was
just 29 days.
Tharisa mine, in production since
2009, produces metallurgical grade
PGM concentrate and chemical grade
chrome concentrate from a shallow open
pit operation. It had used conventional
510mm flat-bottom cyclones fitted
onto their secondary mill circuit cluster.
However, according to the mine, these
cyclones were cutting too coarse, were
inefficient and experienced a low mass
split to underflow.
The mine’s objective is to allow the
secondary mill circuit to improve mass
pull to the underflow and produce a
much finer cyclone overflow material
reporting to downstream flotation and
spiral circuit. By providing a finer feed
material to flotation and the spiral
circuits, PGM and chrome recovery
increases significantly.
Using the data supplied by the
customer, Weir Minerals generated a
mass balance simulation, highlighting
the performance capability of its Cavex
500CVX hydrocyclones. These units
have a 360-degree laminar spiral inlet
that reduces turbulence within the
hydrocyclone, improving performance and
classification.
[6] MINING MIRROR JANUARY 2018
Cavex hydrocyclones installed in
the secondary mill circuit.
Cavex hydrocyclones retrofitted
onto the existing cluster on site.
Cavex