Modern Mining May 2016

CRUSHING, SCREENING AND MILLING

Grand plan for legacy brand FLSmidth is investing significantly into technologies and expanding on its successful product lines including Meshcape® screen media. According to the company, this range of locally manufactured screen media products is known for its ability to maximise the cost per tonne delivered, thus lowering the total operating cost of a process plant.

T he strategy involves strengthen- ing the company’s manufacturing capacities to cater for the increas- ing demand for its comprehensive range of woven wire, wedgewire and polyurethane screen media, while boost- ing the exports of Meshcape screen media into other mining destinations on the continent, Alistair Calver, General Manager responsible for screen media at FLSmidth, tells Modern Mining . Calver reports that a new wedgewire manufacturing machine is being commis- sioned at FLSmidth’s manufacturing plant in Johannesburg. The facility will also benefit from an investment into a wide range of tool- ing that will improve its ability to manufacture very specific wedgewire screen media products for key mining markets. In addition, the 17 000 m 2 facility will receive an aesthetic overhaul, bringing it in line with FLSmidth’s other international plants. “This shows just how committed FLSmidth is to the Meshcape screen media brand,” says Calver. “Meshcape has a long history in the country that dates back to 1905. Since then, the company has been at the forefront of wire innovation with its research and development programmes giving rise to the Vibro Optimax™ wire and a host of other innovative screen media solutions, such as self-cleaning woven wire screen media, hybrid poly ripple screens and poly wire.” Calver says FLSmidth’s massive African footprint will be used to grow its screen media presence in other mining markets on the continent. This includes the company’s large installed base of equipment in Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique and the DRC, as well as Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Ghana. The range of Meshcape screen media prod- ucts manufactured by FLSmidth is already very well known for its sound performance in a host of screening applications, with one of South Africa’s biggest iron ore producers being just one of many users in the mining sector. Ross Dott, Sales Manager – Screen Media

at FLSmidth, says it is the optimal perfor- mance of application specific screen media wh i ch t r an s l a t e s into cost savings for plants. “Being able to facilitate enhanced throughput of mate- rial, increasing the life of screen media and reducing main- tenance costs on a screening plant have become more of a compe t i t i ve edge

than ever for FLSmidth, especially given the economic challenges facing mines due to the global slump in commodity price,” he says. Dott is, however, concerned that there are still screening operations that opt for inferior screen media in a cost-saving exercise. He notes that by the time the issues associated with this decision are apparent, these plants have generally experienced excessive unplanned downtime. “The overall lifespan of the screen media product is absolutely key as this enhances the operation of the screening plant and will reduce maintenance costs. It is a fallacy that bigger is better in this industry. For example, it is the way in which we draw our wire that improves the tensile strength of Meshcape’s woven wire screens, making these lighter and more cost effective as well as allowing for improved wear characteristics,” Dott says. “Meanwhile, we engineer our polyurethane screen panels to suit specific applications. Here, we aim to maximise the open area as much as possible, while reduc- ing the mass of the panel itself as well as the overall installed mass of a screen.” As an example Dott points to two platinum mines that achieved significant savings through applying the correct screen media to their screening plants. Other examples include max- imised magnetite recovery in coal operations where Meshcape wedgewire is being used. 

Modular polywire screen panel in a silica application.

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May 2016  MODERN MINING  51