Modern Mining August 2017

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MODERN MINING

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August 2017

feature

COAL MINING

ottmann is quick to stress that on-

going product improvement has

seen equipment upgrades over

time to ensure that the latest de-

velopments are incorporated into

plants. He also notes that each application,

whether greenfields or brownfields, is careful-

ly assessed in conjunction with the customer

during a comprehensive site visit to determine

the optimum solution.

“Our extensive local and international

footprint allows the company to leverage the

experience and expertise necessary to ensure

a profitable and sustainable end result,”

Kottmann says. MBE Minerals’ full scope of

services includes feasibility studies, raw mate-

rial testing, financing concepts, erection and

commissioning, personnel training and pre-

and after-sales service.

MBE Minerals has a reference base of vibrat-

ing screens in the African mining industry,

from sizing to scalping, dewatering and media

recovery. These vibrating screens have a proven

track record under arduous and demanding

conditions. They are available in a variety of

sizes of up to 3,6 m in width and 6,75 m in

MBE a leader

in coal beneficiation

Dual feed and product

discharge for a 6 m

wide Batac® jig in a coal

application.

Ease of operation and reduced maintenance costs are the

critical parameters that all coal process plants demand. Add

to this enhanced productivity and you have a winning for-

mula, according to Johannes Kottmann, Managing Director

of MBE Minerals, a company which has been involved in

coal beneficiation technology for more than 100 years.

length, in single or double deck configuration

and in either circular or linear motion.

Particular innovations introduced by MBE

Minerals include an innovative side plate

mounted drive, which means they are much

more lightweight than those using vibrator

motors. However, screens can be supplied with

vibrator motors if necessary, while resonance

screens offer the added benefit of lower power

consumption.

All types of screening surfaces can be

accommodated, with each screen incorporating

mechanical design features such as vibration

dampening, side plates, cross members and the

appropriate feed and discharge chutes.

The PNEUFLOT

pneumatic flotation sys-

tem was introduced into the market with the

first coal flotation installation at Pittston,

Pennsylvania in the US in 1987. Since then the

technology has been used widely for fine coal

slurries treatment. Currently PNEUFLOT

’s

largest installation base is in China and India,

with the technology expanding rapidly into

Eastern Europe and other parts of Asia.

In 2012 MBE Minerals decided to introduce

PNEUFLOT

into the Sub-Saharan market and,

to address the key concern that the technol-

ogy remained untested on South African coals,

invested in a laboratory cell and pilot plant.

These units have been used to test material

from both the Soutpansberg and the Central

Basin over the past year.

The laboratory cell has achieved product

with less than 10 % ash (feed +50 % ash) for

a Soutpansberg seam while the pilot plant pro-

duced a bulk product sample from the

tails of a Central Basin plant fit for market

acceptance presentation by a coal major.

“Test work has proved that PNEUFLOT

can produce a Waterberg flotation con-

centrate with less than 11 % ash at yields

greater than 33 % and organic efficiencies

greater than 68 %,” Kottmann says.

Prior to the design of an industrial

scale flotation plant, laboratory scale

test work and – where possible – semi-

industrial pilot test work has to be carried

out. The pilot plant can be installed any-

where in an existing circuit as a ‘plug and

play’ device and the results generated

can be scaled up directly to a full-scale

application.

MBE Minerals offers a full testing pro-

gramme in South Africa and Kottmann