Modern Mining May 2018

COMPANIES

South Africa’s Weba a world leader in chute technology

There are only a handful of South African companies that can claim to be world leaders in their field. One of this select group is arguably Weba South Africa, designer and manufacturer of the innovative Weba Chute System. The company now has over 4 000 installations in the field worldwide which collectively handle more than 2 billion tonnes of material a month. “We believe we probably rank as the world’s largest dedicated manufacturer of engineered transfer chutes by far,” says Weba’s Managing Director, Mark Baller. “I can’t think of a single company globally that rivals us.”

W hile chute design and manufacture might seem to many a routine, low-tech process, Baller insists that this is not the case. “Chutes can have an enormous impact on production at mines and we are often called in to replace chute systems that are simply not doing the job they were intended to do,” he says. “Some mine owners regard chutes as simply being platework. This is a big mistake and the im- pact on the bottom line can be huge when a chute fails to perform or even fails altogether.” Baller says that successful chute design is an extremely complex process that depends as

Mark Baller, Managing Director of Weba South Africa.

much on in-depth experience as on technology. “Obviously, Weba uses all the latest techno- logical tools such as Computer-Aided Design (CAD), three-dimensional scanning and dis- crete element modelling (DEM) but these alone are not enough,” he says. “Our years of experi- ence and thousands of successful installations inform Weba’s design process and ensure that the company provides clients with highly effec- tive solutions that optimise material flow in mining environments.” Weba Chute Systems come in many different sizes and configurations but are generally based on two basic designs – the Cascade chute sys- tem or the Superflow liner system. In the case

Weba Chute Systems operates a fully staffed design department.

32  MODERN MINING  May 2018