Modern Mining April 2022

process design criteria, then we cannot guarantee the throughput of the overall operations, which is what the operator is effectively after at the end of the day,” explains Mahlare. He adds that UMS has undertaken many modular designs and peer reviewed several modular plant projects with modular suppliers. The company also recently undertook a crushing and screening project for a client who wanted the plant installed quickly. “We formed a partnership with a supplier who had already done this type of plant. We engineered it for the client and produced the desired throughput. We also had success in installing a modular chrome plant that fitted within that client’s specific criteria,” says Mahlare. “Modular plants can work if applied within the correct selection criteria for such a solution, the necessary engineering is taken into account, and if we work as a team with the client and supplier to ensure that the project is set up to succeed,” he concludes. 

and if they can maintain the specific equipment. “If the engineering is bypassed, some of these steps can be missed, and the plant can then become inoperable and require excessive maintenance input with associated cost implications for the end user,” says Mahlare. He says that some modular plant suppliers have already undertaken the background engineering and test work required for specific mineral process ing circuits. For example, the majority of coal and diamond ore sources are well defined and generic in nature in which case a modular plant within these base case parameters, or an off-the-shelf design, will fit the requirements. This is based on the fundamen tals that the process has already been engineered for these parameters and it is possible to plug and play the equipment. Nevertheless, Mahlare says that, from experi ence, plug-and-play plants don’t always pay, even on smaller throughput targets, unless they have the engineering behind them to identify the key process design criteria. This must include the inter facing equipment since the modular plant design only deals with the specific desired operations and does not usually cater for related operational requirements such as raw material supply, stockpil ing, waste removal, water supply, etc. all of which will contribute to the success or failure of the com pleted operation. “In our experience, modular plants can be suc cessfully installed if we work as a team with the client and the modular plant manufacturer from the onset. We can either design the plant or work with an established supplier who has already done the background engineering, then lay it out consider ing the interface and infrastructure requirements and work together with the supplier to manufacture it accordingly. If we have not been involved in the

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