Modern Mining March 2023

SUPPLY CHAIN News

Weir Minerals Africa’s integrated solutions deliver plant efficiency

process audits during site visits to identify bottlenecks and then use flowsheets, mass balances, 3D layouts and feasibility studies to advise on the most appropriate solution to a particular problem. “Our unrivalled manufacturing and ser vice network, featuring service centres within 200 km of most major mining areas, is at the heart of the value we deliver to customers,” van den Berg says. Among recent successes have been a US$8 million integrated solutions order received from a diamond mine in the SADC region, as well as a US$2 million order from a Central African copper mine. 

Through its Integrated Solutions approach, Weir Minerals Africa can provide fast and effective assistance to customers who are engaged in brownfield optimisation of their operations or looking for solutions to particular problems hindering efficient pro duction, the company said. Weir Minerals’ dedicated Integrated Solutions teams combine diverse expe

Africa is hungry for electricity, and electri cal specialist Zest WEG is seeing growing demand from the oil and gas sector, both in upstream and midstream facilities as nations on the continent look to these commodities to power their economies, the company said. According to Lukas Barnard, Zest WEG’s business development specialist for the oil and gas sector in sub–Saharan Africa, the trend is towards gas production due to its lower emission levels of greenhouse gases. At the same time, the oil sector remains a vital part of many African economies with WEG product and solutions being applied in both upstream and midstream facilities in countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Congo, Gabon, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. Barnard highlights that Zest WEG – as the fully owned subsidiary of the global WEG group responsible for sub-Saharan Africa – developed a strategic focus on the Kathu, the iron ore capital of the Northern Cape province, is where condition moni toring specialist company, WearCheck, recently opened its newest laboratory. While for many years there has been a WearCheck office in Kathu, where used oil samples could be dropped off, the nearest laboratory where samples could be processed was in Johannesburg. Now the samples are processed in Kathu, reducing turnaround time for local sam “Our multi-disciplinary teams ensure that a problem is considered from all per spectives, identifying potential issues and opportunities to optimise the circuit with upstream and downstream benefits,” says Pieter van den Berg, sales director ROA (Rest of Africa) at Weir Minerals Africa. He adds that the teams can perform rience – ranging from comminution to tailings and from chemistry to hydraulics – and typically include process engineers, design engineers and product experts, as well as local Weir Minerals Africa person nel, who will have a thorough knowledge of customer sites in their areas.

Zest WEG gains traction in oil and gas

Weir Minerals Africa provides fast and effective assistance to customers.

VoltVision delivers significant upside for

Endeavour mines VoltVision, the UK-based specialist in digitised industrial power networks, has completed the first phase of a programme to digitise the power networks at Endeavour

Zest WEG is seeing growing demand for its products from the oil and gas sector. oil and gas sectors in recent years. This has seen the company engaging with the sec tor in various southern, central and west African countries. “Among the exciting projects we are involved in is an oil and gas refinery in Nigeria, where we have supplied two WEG medium voltage soft starters; an 8.4 MW 11 kV unit and a 2.1 MW 6.6 kV unit,” says Barnard. 

VoltVision: VoltVision MD Manoli Yannaghas

Mining’s six West African gold mines. The project has been designed to help maximise the efficiency of Endeavour’s elec trical power systems, enabling it to improve power quality, increase uptime and reduce CO₂ emissions, while lowering energy con sumption and operating costs. VoltVision has progressed to Phase 2 of the roll-out, which is focusing on condition monitoring, failure prevention and further power reduction analysis. This is the only commercially available electrical data analytics system in the mining industry that is able to be installed, operated and managed remotely, requiring no site visits from Voltvision representatives. VoltVision MD Manoli Yannaghas says: “Because our technology is plug-and play, Phase 1 was installed successfully by Endeavour’s own engineers, without any site visits from us or disruption to production. It also proved its suitability for remote and hos tile environments.” 

WearCheck labs open in Kathu, Johannesburg ples to 24 hours or less. The company’s Kathu laboratory is created from three remodelled shipping containers. Kitted out with the latest laboratory instruments, the labs boast features such as ventilation, air extraction systems, fire prevention, unin terrupted power supply, air conditioning and burglar bars. WearCheck’s growing footprint extends across nine countries in Africa and beyond, including many satellite offices and 15 world class laboratories. 

38  MODERN MINING  March 2023