Modern Mining January 2023

with the MACH Reactor A further advantage and world for this application in Mexico is the reduced power requirement, by as much as a 70% power reduction from the original design of the MACH. The number of venturis and venturi speeds of the MACH were optimised to allow the client to tap into the benefits of the MACH with out paying a penalty on carbon footprint.

“On the back of the numerous benefits afforded by the MACH, industry uptake for the product is look ing positive,” says Singh. MACH Reactor gains market traction “Until local mining and engineering houses have a change of mindset, embrace new technologies and move away from the age-old practices of nepotism, corruption and autocratic management styles that stifle free thinking by employees, we are bound to see South Africa falling short of international best practices in mining. GoldOre remains hopeful that, as a new consort of younger, free-thinking individu als move into positions of power, the South African mining culture may be refreshed,” Singh explains. In the meantime, the technology specialist’s drive for product enhancements has seen GoldOre’s col laborative partners in the potash industry conduct interesting research with the MACH Reactor and plan its inclusion in one of their new projects. “The news is highly encouraging for GoldOre,” says Singh, “and will be the MACH Reactor’s first breakthrough into the industrial minerals sector. We hope it will lead to further growth for GoldOre in this business segment.” In addition, exhaustive testwork conducted using a semi-pilot MACH testrig at a platinum concentra tor on the Great Dyke orebody yielded impressive improvements to recovery and grade. This translated into excellent project economics with the payback on investment being less than six months. Singh is cautiously confident this will be an incen tive to adopt a full-scale installation of the MACH Reactor and thus serve as a flagship example of what is possible with the MACH in the PGM sector. Strategy for 2023 The year ahead looks promising as the company plans to focus its research efforts on the copper sector, where GoldOre has identified an exciting application that ties in well with the finer grinding most copper operators are incorporating. “The benefits that the MACH technology brings with flotation preconditioning centres is around the selectively improved recovery of valuable fines that would otherwise be lost by conventional flotation technology. Grinding finer for liberation is great but flotation technology must also keep up to ensure

The MACH Reactor in operation at Mintek.

Industry uptake for the MACH is extremely positive for 2023.

January 2023  MODERN MINING  11