Modern Quarrying July-August 2017

ON THE COVER

a strategic acquisition

is among the best quality of its kind in South Africa. “We are far from the market which is one of our biggest disadvantages, but it has also forced us to look at a different segment of the market. There is a huge market on the Reef for acid mine drainage and transportation is a major cost factor,”he says.“It is the same for fluid gas desulphurisation (FGD) on the new coal-fired power stations for which there is a market of hundreds of thousands of tons of lime- stone and lime. And again transport is a problem. So we have come to terms with the fact that we can’t compete in the general lime and limestone market. Luckily we have a quality orebody and we are focusing on the niche end of the market.” The operation is a limestone and dolomite mine similar to any quarrying operation but the difference is at least 80% of the material that is quarried and crushed goes through secondary and tertiary beneficiation steps. The raw materials are supplied mainly into the glass industry. “We supply the three big role players with their dolomite and limestone require- ments. This is not exclusively; we do have compe- tition in these markets. Our dolomite supplied to PFG is the only suitable source in South Africa with the alternative being in Namibia,” Terblanche tells Modern Quarrying . “We also supply part of Consol and Nampak’s glass requirements on the lime- stone side. “The limestone and dolomite at Cape Lime is processed through the same primary crushing plant alternatively, depending on the require- ments for the secondary steps. The three crush- ing stages consist of the primary crushing plant which is a Telsmith jaw crusher, the secondary is a Sandvik and the tertiary is an Osborn 38H,”he says. “The secondary and tertiary crushers have closed loop screening and the plant is set up in such a way that you can use a couple of diverters in the chute work to produce any of the G products in the same set up. “The primary crushing plant hasn’t changed much over the last few years, but the ‘latest’ addi- tion is the Sandvik crusher in the secondary appli- cation, which I must say, is a wonderful machine. It has been running trouble-free for 10 years,”he says. The operation has its own workshop, but wear and tear is minimal because of the low silica con- tent of the material. The plant is able to run for

The aggregate stockpiles.

Old and new: The fluid bed calciner (FBC) on the left with the old shaft kiln pictured on the right.

Limestone feed stockpiling.

11

MODERN QUARRYING

July - August 2017