Modern Mining January 2015

PRODUCT News

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MODERN MINING

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January 2015

MBE Minerals’ Pneuflot® pneumatic flota-

tion technology has been installed in a

range of applications internationally. In the

last six months, the company has commis-

sioned plants for a magnetite application

in Chile and a scavenger application at the

back end of a gold float plant and replaced

an existing coal float plant in Russia.

The German Original Equipment

Manufacturer (OEM) introduced Pneuflot®

into Africa in 2012 through its wholly

owned subsidiary MBE Minerals SA, which

has been operating in South Africa for

more than 47 years, explains Gregory

Niekerk, Business Development Manager,

MBE Minerals SA. Its extensive footprint

of products in the South African mining

industry includes the biggest Wet High-

Intensity Magnetic Separator (WHIMS)

plant in the world outside of Brazil in the

Northern Cape, its jigging installation at

Assmang and Leeuwpan and a number of

screens in the coal and iron ore industries.

To date the company has

made significant investment

in laboratory equipment

and a pilot plant in order

to prove the technology in

local applications. In coal,

MBE Minerals SA has already

tested material from the

Waterberg, Soutpansberg

and Central Basin areas.

“The results achieved

with both the laboratory cell

and pilot plant show that our

technology is capable of pro-

ducing a final product that is

within the specifications for

both the metallurgical and

coking coal markets,”Niekerk says.

Recent tests performed on a graph-

ite sample from Mozambique Graphite

demonstrate the flexibility of Pneuflot®

pneumatic flotation technology. Here

the Pneuflot® laboratory cell was able

to recover large flakes at a top size of

675 micron in a rougher/cleaner com-

bination, and in the process produce

on-specification material without the need

for further regrinding. “This will have a

material impact on the company’s bottom

line, as larger flake sizes are worth at least

a multiple of two over smaller flakes in the

world market,”Niekerk says.

MBE Minerals SA is also performing

pilot plant trials in the platinum industry

on PGM ultra fines, which would normally

report to tailings. “We proved in a head-to-

head test campaign in Canada a few years

ago that Pneuflot® is able to outperform

column cells on verti-milled product at

less than 40 microns. It is early days, but if

MBE Minerals invests in pilot plant

the quality of the froth produced recently

is anything to go by, then we are on a

good wicket here,”Niekerk says. “The natu-

ral progression of our work in this sector

is to prove within the next two quarters

that Pneuflot® can produce market-grade

chrome from the final tails of plants in the

Rustenburg area.”

The pilot plant, comprising a 1 m

tank

and a cell (separation vessel), is easily con-

tainerised for transportation. It can be

run in both batch and continuous mode

and can treat up to 10 m

/h of slurry. MBE

Minerals SA offers a full testing programme

in Southern Africa. Its laboratory-scale

Pneuflot® cell is stationed at Mintek and

test work can be done there through either

Mintek or directly through MBE Minerals

SA, or the unit can be transported to cus-

tomer sites. The same applies to the pilot

plant.

Industrial units are available from 0,8 m

to 6 m diameter or in slurry feed rates

from 10 to 1 400 m³/h. “MBE Minerals SA

can supply its customers with a fully engi-

neered solution, from purely designing the

flotation process flow sheet together with

a 10 % cost estimate to full turnkey execu-

tion. As per standard, we provide process

guarantees based on both laboratory

and pilot/semi industrial scale test work,”

Niekerk says.

Pneuflot® technology is claimed to

use 35 % less electricity then competing

technologies. It also features lower main-

tenance requirements given that it has

no motor-driven mechanism in its cell or

expensive auxiliaries. Pneuflot® has a 30 %

smaller structural footprint than agitator

cells and a 60 % smaller footprint than col-

umn cells of a similar capacity.

MBE Minerals SA, tel (+27 11) 397-4660

Pneuflot® pneumatic flotation technology fromMBE Minerals has been

installed at mines around the world.