MechChem Africa January-February 2024

Goodwin: the premium submersible for dense abrasive slurries MechChem Africa talks to Rui Gomes of Goodwin Submersible Pumps Africa about the niche applications and benefits of Goodwin submersible slurry pumps, which are engineered in the UK to handle very dense and abrasive slurries.

that can match us when it comes to pumping dense slurries. The ANZE range can handle slurry densities of up to 2.8 kg/l, with a solids content by weight of up to 65%,” says Gomes. Describing a typical application, he cites tailings recovery for mining operations as key. “Tailings dams are typically loaded at an SG of between 1.6 and 1.65. The fines then settle, and the water is recovered. The remaining product is what we typically get involved with,” he says. He cites a four-year project undertaken in Lydenburg in Limpopo to recover the chro mium from the tailings of a platinum opera tion. “This is known as minerals recovery or hydro mining, and we are negotiating doing something similar in the Rustenburg area. After a tailings dam has been left to settle, there is often an opportunity to recover sec ondary minerals, such as chrome in this case, which were not initially targeted. This is often the case at platinum production plants. To recover the chrome, the tailings need to be transported back into a different process plant. This can either be done using front-end loaders and trucks or we can pump it back as a dense slurry,” Gomes explains. In Lydenburg, this was done over a four year period using Goodwin’s largest 112 kW,

high density slurries. For this, world leading expertise in large castings and the technol ogy that goes into abrasion and corrosion resistant materials has been developed and incorporated into Goodwin’s pump designs. While the most common material used for wear resistance of centrifugal slurry pumps is hard chrome, Gomes says that Goodwin has developed its own range of casting materi als with market leading abrasion resistance. For the 200 mm 112 kW Goodwin ANZE ® submersible slurry pump, for example, the company’s proprietary NiHard composition is used for the casings, while the impellers and wear plates use a tungsten carbide-coated NiHard formulation to deliver application spe cific abrasion and the wear resistance needed. “The global submersible market is massive, going from smaller 2.2 kW submersibles all the way to 300 kW pumps. Our smallest unit is a 30 kW submersible, and at the moment we go up to 112 kW in South Africa. In terms of motor power this is typically mid-range, but we are in the upper echelon when it comes to the ability of these pumps to handle heavy density slurries,” Gomes notes. This is the differentiator for Goodwin sub mersible slurry pumps. “There are very few OEMs in the world with submersible pumps

“G oodwin PLC, our holding company, has manufactured engineering components in the UK for some 140 years, for the power generation and nuclear in dustries; for petrochemical projects; and for safety critical structural solutions,” begins Rui Gomes, operations and marketing director of Goodwin Submersible Pumps Africa. On the pump side, the company specialises in submersible slurry pumps with the abrasion and corrosion resistance needed for pumping Goodwin submersible slurry pumps are purpose-built to deal with the abrasion and corrosion resistance needed for pumping high density slurries.

For application specific abrasion and wear resistance, the 200 mm 112 kW Goodwin ANZE® submersible slurry pump uses Goodwin’s NiHard composition for the casings, while the impellers and wear plates use a tungsten carbide-coated NiHard formulation.

12 ¦ MechChem Africa • January-February 2024