Modern Mining April 2018

feature MODULAR PLANTS Seen here (from left) are Murray Macnab, Erik Bruggink and Frank Delaney, all of METS.

Africa’s mining revival needs modular approach

build time due to modularisation and we are in the pound seats,” he says. “We need to remem- ber that there is still plenty of remaining value in our ore bodies, even in South Africa where so much mining has already taken place. They did not completely mine out all the shallow ‘lower grade’ seams and they left a lot of value behind for future generations. This leaves space for junior miners to enter the market.” Indeed, it is in South Africa where he sees so much immediate opportunity – and not just in unmined ore bodies but in the hundreds of ‘waste’ rock dumps and tailings dams on sur- face which have value left in them. The use of modular process plants, he says, is a vital strategy in making this vision a reality, as these technologies provide cost-effective solutions to significantly reduce geological, operational, political and financial risk for junior and senior miners alike. “Mining projects are generally high-cost and relatively high-risk ventures – and the longer they take to plan and implement, the costlier and riskier they become to investors,” says Macnab. “For this reason, we are looking to introduce solutions that will consider- ably shorten the time needed for designing, fabricating, erecting and commissioning of processing plants.” From changes in government policy to vari- ations in geology, there are many factors that can derail a project and put investments at risk, according to Erik Bruggink, Divisional Director at METS PROJECTS. “That is why METS is developing a range of pre-designed and pre-sized modular pro- cess packages that can be supplied at relatively short notice off the shelf – and include a num- ber of high volume applications (leach, CIL etc) in addition to the historical comminution and gravity-based plants,” says Bruggink. He emphasises that modular does not have to mean small with low throughput; rather, the ideal process solutions employ proven crushing, milling and thickening technologies that can be easily scaled up as the application demands. In addition to fast mobilisation, advantages include the ability to establish on site with little more than a compacted area or a concrete screed and being able to quickly

With the range of risks currently facing the mining sector across Africa, investors need a newmine development model that gives quicker returns and allows more flexibility; METS International Managing Director Murray Macnab says ‘modular’ is the way to go, and his company is prioritising these kinds of solutions.

“ T here is an urgent need to find alternatives to our tra- ditional way of starting and building mines, if we want to re-invigorate the minerals sector,” says Macnab. “The appetite for large, expensive projects with long lead-times and uncertain rates of return is simply no longer there to the extent that it was; investors want projects that will deliver results more quickly and with lower levels of risk and capital– and it is quite possible to achieve this.” He says the required shift is to reduce a project’s time to market, which in turn needs quicker planning, greater reliance on proven off-the-shelf systems, lower cost and better risk mitigation in the project design. “Based on my experience of over 35 years in the sector, I am confident that at least a six-month reduction in the lead-time of min- ing projects could boost the industry’s project pipeline by 25 % – that is how revolutionary the impact could be on the whole mining value chain. Then another six-month reduction on

40  MODERN MINING  April 2018