Capital Equipment News March 2019

MINING NEWS

Shift towards technology acceptance in global mining industry

The quest to increase production efficiencies and reduce operating costs is driving the uptake of technology by the global mining industry. The focus on innovation spans all facets of the mining value chain, including the mineral-processing industry, where so- phisticated analysers are being deployed to provide quick and accurate response times to variations in processes. For example, Blue Cube Systems has already supplied more than 60 MQi analysers to various mineral plants in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, the DRC and Morocco. This is in addition to those supplied to mineral beneficiation plants in other globally important mining countries, in- cluding Australia, Papua New Guinea, Finland, Kazakhstan, Dominican Republic and Brazil More recently, an MQi online grade analyser was also successfully deployed in combination with Mintek’s new actuator technology to automate control in a gravi- ty-spiral plant. The trial entailed controlling 24 spirals at an operational plant that pro- cesses platinum-group metals and UG2 ore. Considering the large throughputs at gravity spiral plants, it stands to reason that small improvements made to the

Blue Cube Systems has already supplied more than 60 MQi analysers to various mineral plants in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, the DRC and Morocco.

metallurgical performance of the simple, yet robust method of concentration will result in significant financial returns. The automation of the plants has largely been hindered by harsh operating environ- ments and inherent limitations in spiral designs, and they are, therefore, currently controlled manually in an onerous process that entails moving many splitters by hand, to counter disturbances. Mintek’s actuator system was installed on one of the recleaner banks, which accounts

for about 75% of the final concentrate mass pull, and Blue Cube Systems’ MQi online grade analyser in the spiral-concentrator line. A variable pressure control valve was used to finely manipulate the control action on the spirals, in an approach that reduced the variability in the product chrome grade by 85%. This improved stability provided a concentrate grade closer to the lower limit of the targeted product specification, while mitigating the risk of producing a sub- standard product. b

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