A unique element about Glen Douglas is that it has a load-out facility. The sinter is sent on a stacker and is then reclaimed to go onto the conveyor to the rail siding.
“ The plant produces approximately 1.5 – 1.6 million tonnes of product per year and moves another 250 000 – 300 000 tonnes of overburden.”
The secondary circuit produces minus 40mm lump material, which is one of the metallurgical products. The biggest demand, however, stems from products produced at the tertiary crusher: a split between metallurgical sinter and super sand aggregate.
“ A unique element about Glen Douglas is that we have a load-out facility. The sinter is sent on a stacker and is then reclaimed to go onto the conveyor to the rail siding. We can load directly onto rail, which is rare for an aggregate operation,” says Hattingh.
Environment and safety matters
Glen Douglas is Afrimat’ s largest quarry and the second biggest aggregate producer in South Africa. It currently employs 180 people.
The mine has a strong focus on safety, health and environmental best practice.
One initiative that has been beneficial from a cost as well as an environmental perspective is the reclaiming of discard material.
The mine has two sets of discard material settling ponds.“ As soon as the one is full, we swap to the other. The first one is dried for one month. The team then reclaims the slimes, takes it back to the plant, and puts it through a separate crushing and screening circuit. If the one settling pond fills up, we switch to the other pond,” says Hattingh.
Glen Douglas then produces agricultural lime from the waste.
“ There is a big demand for agricultural lime. We cannot keep up with demand. Of course, there’ s also the added benefit of dealing with the discarding of the slimes, which is a problem during washing. We are fortunate that we can reclaim and sell it. We roughly produce about 70 000 – 80 000 tonnes per year,” Hattingh informs.
Glen Douglas mine has two product streams at its operations: metallurgical product used in steel production, and aggregate for the building and construction sector.
Glen Douglas produces agricultural lime from plant discard. Deriving from the settling ponds and transported to the plant, it is spread out, dried, and sold to the market.
22 _ QUARRY SA | March 2017