24
Mechanical Technology — May 2013
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Materials handling and logistics
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M
u l t o t e c G r oup CEO,
Thomas Holtz, says the
company is committed to
drawing on its in-depth
application knowledge to add value
to our customers’ assets by ensuring
that their processes remain optimal.
“These customers want to see predict-
able or consistent failure patterns, in
order to plan their maintenance activi-
ties more effectively. It’s a given that
plant equipment in the flow sheet will
eventually wear out and fail, so it’s a
case of managing the replacement of
older equipment in the most effective
way, both in terms of controlling costs
and sustaining operational efficiencies
while equipment is being changed out.”
He says what differentiates Multo-
tec in the marketplace is the diverse
equipment support package they offer.
“We’re right there at an end user level,
from plant commissioning and onwards
into the day-to-day grind of running
that plant 365 days a year for ten, 20
and 30 years at a time. We’re there for
the lifetime of that plant and we make
sure it remains as efficient as when it
was first put together. Management and
plant personnel move on and ore bodies
change, and the efficiency of a plant
will deteriorate over time without active
collaboration between plant personnel
and equipment suppliers.
“This is the space we’ve played
in very successfully over many years
and, in the current climate, this is
exactly what our clients are looking
for. They don’t want catalogue sales
people – instead they need metallurgi-
cally knowledgeable people who are
prepared to go into the plant, look at
the application and see for themselves
if cyclone cut-points are right, that the
screens are functioning as they should,
if the samplers are working effectively
and the spirals are achieving accurate
results. At this level it’s possible to
recommend a design change that might
improve the throughput or the grind.”
Holtz adds that one the primary
metrics of a plant owner is the cost per
ton. “It’s not about reducing the price of
the products we sell you,” he stresses.
One of the two 52 ton self-driven trommel screens supplied by Multotec to a mineral sands project
in West Africa.
Adding maximum value to processing equipment
In line with a transition in the global mining industry away from mergers and acquisitions in
favour of a focus on extracting wealth from existing assets, specialised equipment supplier,
Multotec, is intensifying its process support activities throughout the mining industry. From
self-driven trommel screens for a West African mineral sands project to TeePee screen panels
for dewatering applications, the company is committed to adding maximum value to the
processing equipment it supplies.
“We’re not a low cost producer of
product and, typically, this is not what
gives you value for money. The value-
add lies in having correctly specified
products that work efficiently, fail pre-
dictably, are maintained sufficiently and
that sustain the required efficiencies
throughout their working life. The key
is being able to reconfigure or improve
the performance of a particular piece of
equipment so that it works to specifica-
tion in the context of the circuit.”
On tne new products side, Multotec
develops and supplies specialist process
equipment into the gold, platinum, iron
ore, diamond, base metal, mineral
sand, coal and chrome sectors and the
engineers working on these commodity-
specific product lines include qualified
metallurgists and former plant person-
nel. Holtz says these professionals
understand client applications and have
the knowledge and experience to specify
or reconfigure a particular product for
an application.
Trommels for mineral sands
“We have recently supplied two 52 ton
self-driven trommel screens to a mineral
sands project in West Africa, and will
shortly be supervising erection and
commissioning,” says Holtz.
The self-driven trommel screens
have inside diameters of 3 365 mm
and are 16 544 mm in length. Each
unit is capable of handling 4 375 t/h of
solid feed or 12 888 m
3
/h of pulp. The
screens are mounted on support ped-
estals, plumber blocks and steel tyres
on the feed end, with a plumber block
supporting the discharge end coupled
to a hydraulic drive.
On track to commence production
this year, the mineral sands project is
set to become one of world’s largest
producers of zircon and titanium dioxide
products, coinciding with a period of
unprecedented demand. It has a pro-
jected mine life of at least 20 years and
