Modern Mining May 2017

feature CRUSHING, SCREENING AND MILLING This complete MMD turnkey semi-mobile installation at a graphite mine in the north of Mozambique is about to be commissioned.

Fourth MMD sizing station

What is undoubtedly one of the biggest applications of mineral sizer technology seen in South Africa reached a milestone earlier this year when MMD Mineral Sizing (Africa) commissioned a fourth MMD semi-mobile sizing station at Exxaro’s Grootegeluk open-pit coal mine near Lephalale in Limpopo Province.

T he new semi-mobile station com- prises a primary 1300 Series sizer fed by a D9 apron plate feeder. A sacrificial conveyor transfers ma- terial to a secondary 625 Series sizer. The station is capable of processing coal at a rate of 3 000 t/h. Construction began in March 2016 and by the end of November the unit was relocated to its working position. Like the semi-mobiles before it, it was relocated in five sections down into the pit over a distance of 6 km using MMD’s Atlas 500T transporter. “The MMD sizing stations at the mine pro- vide a complete in-pit crushing solution. The four semi-mobile stations have been deliv- ered and installed over a period of six years. Although all four installations are similar, we have continually improved and customised the designs in the light of operational experi- ence with the units and to meet the customer’s evolving requirements,” says Zane Nel, MMD Mineral Sizing (Africa)’s Engineering Manager.

MMD Mineral Sizing (Africa), which has had a presence in South Africa since the early 1980s with its manufacturing facility being expanded by 3 500 m 2 in 2002, is part of the MMD Group of Companies. The South African company is based in a modern office/work- shop complex in the Longmeadow Business Estate in Johannesburg. The MMD Group can trace its origins back to the late 1970s, when its founder, Alan Potts, set up shop to design and produce mining

34  MODERN MINING  May 2017