MechChem Africa November-December 2024

Innovations driving sustainable processing Alistair McKay of FLS talks about latest technologies and trends in minerals processing and the company’s strong drive to support sustainability by maximising yields while minimising energy and water use, waste and carbon footprints.

“O ur current mission is really around the sustainability of whole mineral’s processing cycles, from managing the input pressures on the crushing side, to the screening, filtration, through to the thickening and recovery of final product and all the way to tailings management and water recovery. Our strength at FLS is our ability to manage technologies across entire processing circuits through the lens of our MissionZero strategy,” begins Alistair McKay, VP for Mining Capital Sales in Europe, Arabia and Africa. “We are always looking to reduce the carbon footprint of the solutions we offer, to minimise water and energy losses and waste. All of our R&D is about innovation so as to consume less, to ensure sustainability while improving grade recovery and extending plant life,” he adds. At the moment, he says, FLS has a dual focus balanced between the Greenfield envi ronment with new mines coming on stream, and the huge task of upgrading existing mines currently in operation. Describing how this is being achieved, he begins by outlining the wear life improve ments on FLS equipment. “If you are not catering for the correct wear mechanism in a chute, vibrating screen or a mill feed circuit, an entire plant can be compromised by excessive shutdowns. So, we really try and focus on how we can improve, not only on the operational reliability side, but through advanced tech nologies and applications at the wear contact

points. This so that production can be more continuous and equipment, consumable life and periods between maintenance shutdowns are extended,” he says. On the screening side, we've got a new NextGen range of panels for sizing crushed ore before it gets fed into grinding mills. These panels can be sized and retrofitted to any vibrating screen and the tests we have done in the iron ore sector in the Northern Cape show that the LUDODECK ® NextGen polyurethane screening panels can last up to five times longer than both traditional FLS and competitor panels. This is a game changer with respect to maintenance on vibrating screens, with the aperture size being sustained for much longer, positively affecting everything downstream,” he tells MCA . FLS’ LUDODECK ® NextGen polyure thane screen media has been developed in house and, along with the vibrating screens themselves, is locally manufactured in the company’s Delmas facility. “We have just completed several significant investments there, particularly around our new vibrating screens and the large variety of NextGen screening panels. “We are also excited by our new trommel screens, the rotating screens that fit onto the outlet end of a grinding mill. We have re-engineered a trommel solution based on lightweight tubing to significantly reduce their weight, which in turn reduces the energy consumption and carbon footprint. Together with the NexGen screen media, which is also

lighter, these offer much better uptime,” he notes, adding that this also contributes towards improved sustainability of current operations and extended mine life. Another key focus for FLS is ensuring that asset health remains optimised. “Rather than just using digitisation technologies to moni tor the condition of equipment, we strive to combine the health of a machine with its production performance. As well as picking up faults, we also look to use measurements such as temperature, vibration and pressure to look at how well a machine is running: is the pump running efficiently; is the cyclone roping; is the speed of the mill causing the grinding balls to impact onto material rather than onto the liner. From the analysed data, we can make adjustments that have a direct effect on production performance and wear life,” McKay explains. Turning to the Greenfield side of the of the business, he cites some innovations on the conveying side. “Belt conveyors have been around forever and a day, particularly long Alastair McKay, VP for Mining Capital Sales in Europe, Arabia and Africa for FLS.

LUDODECK ® NextGen polyurethane screen media has been shown to last up to five times longer than traditional FLS and competitor panels.

46 ¦ MechChem Africa • November-December 2024