Modern Mining April 2019

feature MODULAR PLANTS Arnold Swarts (left) and Johan Marais.

MET63 takes modular plants to

A company that is fast emerging as a leader in the field of modular processing plants is MET63. Just four years old, MET63 already has a number of successful completed projects under its belt and is currently nearing completion of its most ambitious and challenging project yet – a highly innovative and entirely modularised battery-grade nickel sulphate purification plant at Marikana which ranks as a world first. Modern Mining’s Arthur Tassell recently spoke to one of the company’s founders, Arnold Swarts, to learn more about MET63’s skills, services and achievements.

(FLeXor) which represents a low capital, con- tinuous coarse ore VAT leaching system. “The footprint with FLeXor is significantly smaller than you would have with conven- tional heap leach – which means that the impact of rain on the water balance is reduced – and the retention time can be increased to weeks without significant capital cost. We see the system – which can also incorporate bacterial leaching technologies – being partic- ularly applicable in the treatment of low-grade deposits and dumps which were previously

D escribing MET63, Swarts says it is a focused, boutique-style, pro- cess engineering company which can take projects right through from conception to commission- ing. “Our speciality is robust, reliable and eco- nomical modular plants which are generally based on a skid design for easy construction and reduced installation time,” he explains. “We can design plants to treat virtually any commodity although the bulk of our work thus far has been in nickel, chrome, manganese and copper recovery. “We are great believers in technology and many of the processes and most of the equip- ment we supply have been developed in house, sometimes in collaboration with outside part- ners. Some of our technology is really exciting and innovative. As an example, we have devel- oped the Fluidised Leach Oxidation Reactor

30  MODERN MINING  April 2019