Modern Mining January 2021

Kwatani grows its base of customised screening solutions “Our reputation has been

As leading vibrating screens and feeders specialist Kwatani has transitioned from equipment supplier to solutions provider, it has attracted customers from well beyond South Africa and even outside Africa. Its strong in-house expertise and design capability ensures that its customised solutions deliver optimal performance at the lowest possible lifecycle costs. According to Kwatani GM sales and service Jan Schoepflin, the company’s strong in-house expertise and design capability – combined with the world- class manufacturing quality it consistently achieves – ensures that its customised solutions deliver optimal performance at the lowest possible lifecycle costs. “Our recent orders show that our customer base in Southern Africa remains strong, while there is growing recognition of our cost effective offerings in West Africa, East Africa and North Africa,” says Schoepflin. “At the same time, orders from countries like Canada and Russia indicate that our markets abroad continue to grow.” Kwatani remains the market leader in the supply and servicing of vibrating screens and feeders on iron ore and manganese mines in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. It also counts platinum, coal, diamond and gold mines in its customer base. Its West African orders have been mainly to gold mines, and there is growing potential for gold mining in East Africa, he says. Over its four decades of operation, Kwatani has produced about 16 000 custom-designed screens, and is building on average 30 to 40 units a month in its ISO 9001:2015 certified facility close to OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

built on prioritising what our customers need, and doing business with integrity and trust,” Schoepflin says. “This means delivering on what we promise, and making sure that customers achieve the expected value from our products.” He highlights that the company’s solution-focus is underpinned by its significant

Large scalper screen leaving Kwatani for the end user in an iron ore mining application.

and ongoing investment in local skills, ensuring that its designs leverage strong mechanical and metallurgical engineering expertise. “This confidence in our products allows us to offer a process guarantee to customers, to deliver the tonnage,

throughput and fractions that they expect,” he says. “Depending on which country our customers operate in, they may also have different industry and quality standards/ certification expectations and we work closely with them to understand these clearly and meet their requirements.” 

Metso Outotec delivers flotation technology to GTK’s pilot plant

Metso Outotec will deliver new, smart flo- tation cells to GTK Mintec’s pilot plant in Outokumpu, Finland. The delivery consists of approximately 20 pilot flotation machines and additional equipment. GTK Mintec is replacing the flotation cells to modernise and expand its services. The new flotation cells will support the improvement of the monitoring of benefi- ciation studies and process design. “GTK and Metso Outotec promote sustainable and competitive mining tech- nologies. We are pleased that GTK chose Metso Outotec’s leading edge flota- tion technology for their test facilities,” says Stephan Kirsch, president of Metso

Outotec’s Minerals business area. “The test plant and laboratory in Outokumpu offer mining customers a com- prehensive service package. The whole production process needed for a mineral deposit can be tested there on the scale required by the research problem. Through the flotation investment, our domestic and international customers can use state-of- the-art technology in research related to battery minerals and circular economy materials, for example,” says the head of the Circular Economy Solutions unit Jouko Nieminen from the Geological Survey of Finland, adding that Metso Outotec is a frontrunner in sustainable technologies. 

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