MechChem Africa March 2017

Crowning a successful year According to KSB Pumps and Valves’ slurry specialists, Mohamed Trabelsi and Rob Bond, the ability of the company to supply a full range of high quality pumps with full backup and support, as well as readily available spare parts, has placed the company in a unique position where mines can meet all their pumping requirements through a single supplier.

L ocal pump supplier, KSB Pumps and Valves, has continued its strong gains in the mining sector with several large-scale slurry-pump contracts be- ing awarded to the company in the latter half of last year. These include projects in the ferrochrome, gold and copper industries as well as pumps to be used for stainless steel processing. In all instances the customers selectedKSBpumpsdue to their performance and reliability, aswell as theafter sales service offered by the company, which is designed to ensure uninterrupted production in these high-value plants. “This has put us in a position to supply pumps for several projects being undertaken by Minprotech, a company which processes downstream products from Samancor fer- rochrome mines in Steelepoort, Rustenburg, MooinooiandMilsaai,forexample,”saysBond. “These projects are currently underway in phases and require the supply of a variety of slurry process pumps and water pumps. In this instance our slurry pumps were found to be best suited for the project and our already well-proven water pumps perfectly comple- ment the company’s requirements. “Significantly, this international client

also found that KSB Pumps and Valves glob- ally had the best after sales support for such complex and demanding high production work,” he says. “Another large scale project that we have beenawarded is the tailings expansionproject being undertaken by QKR Mining Company, at its Navachab Gold Mine in Namibia. This calls for the supply of two trains of six LSA high-pressure (severe duty) slurry pumps in the discharge segment of the plant’s grinding circuit,” Bond continues. “The two trains are designed for redun- dancy to ensure that pumping capacity is always available even in the event of a pump failure. Also, considering the severe nature of pumped materials and high pressures involved, the second train allows regular maintenance without affecting production. “In this project the supervision and ex- pertise of the company’s Namibian branch manager, Klaus Streit ensures that despite the relative remoteness of the plant themine has full-time access toKSBexpertise,” he assures. Trabelsi explains that mines value the expertise of a globally connected company such as KSB Pumps and Valves, where en- gineered solutions can be found to ensure

Rob Bond (left) and Mohamed Trabelsi of KSB Pumps and Valves. the right materials, types and sizes of pumps are used to reduce downtime and wear parts for the pumps. “That means that if the company makes the right selection it will get the best production and longevity from their equipment. “This is proving tobe the case at Columbus Stainless in Middleburg, where the previous solution supplied by another company was proving problematic because of excessively high numbers of breakdowns and abnormally highwear onexposedparts. Also, aftermarket service was lacking and no solution was ever found by the previous supplier to remedy the situation. “In this case we carefully analysed the requirements versus the materials being pumped, aswell as the volumes required, and specially designed a pump solution based on our standard large-size 250 mm LCV heavy dutyvertical pump. Theapplication to remove steel scaling called for a pumpwith highwear resistance and the ability to operate in harsh conditions at high temperatures. “We were able to meet and exceed these requirements and, needless to say, this par- ticular pumping circuit on our customer’s plant is no longer problematic,” he says. “Our growing reputation for expertise and quality has also given us the opportunity to supply the Australian firm, First Quantum, with a trial MDX 550 mill circuit pump for its Kansanshi Copper Mine,” Trabelsi continues. “This pump will primarily supply the cy- clone feed for the secondarymill, where itwill be the most critical production pump on the plant requiring a constant supply of course ore material to be delivered directly to the mill. This is one of the newer pumps that is receiving a lot of attention locally and abroad so we are confident that its performance will meet the company’s strict requirements,” he concludes. q

KSB Pumps and Valves’ MDX 750c. MDX extra-heavy mill duty pumps are the heart of mill circuits, tackling the most extreme duty conditions.

14 ¦ MechChem Africa • March 2017