Modern Mining November 2017

DIAMONDS

Mining dredge developed for

An alluvial mining dredge designed and developed in South Africa will soon be working on the Tshikapa River in the DRC’s Kasai Province recovering diamonds from the river bed. The iDredge™, as it is known, was recently demonstrated at a dam near Balmoral in Mpumalanga. The function was attended by the development team, representatives of the owner of the dredge, Africa Resources AB (a non-listed Swedish company), suppliers of the heavy-duty dredging pump and other interested partners. Modern Mining’s Arthur Tassell was present at the event.

T he company responsible for devel- oping the dredge is Imilingo Min- eral Processing, based in Centu- rion near Pretoria. Founded three years ago, Imilingo describes itself as an “engineering company with a vision to be the leading integrator of sensor-based sort- ing technologies.” In essence, it offers the min- ing industry fit-for-purpose complete sorting systems, based on pace-setting technologies such as XRT (X-Ray Transmission). Its modu- lar products include iPlant™, iFeed™, iCon- vey™ and iScreen™, with the iDredge being the latest addition to its line-up. “We have a good relationship with Tomra

and are great believers in their XRT technology, which has been so spectacularly successful at the Karowe diamond mine in Botswana and indeed other projects,” says Imilingo’s Managing Director, Jaco Prinsloo. Explaining the background to the iDredge, Prinsloo says that the project site in the DRC

The iDredge is put through its paces at a dam in the Balmoral area.

30  MODERN MINING  November 2017