8
Mechanical Technology — February 2014
⎪
Industry forum
⎪
The EU and South Africa will step up
collaboration in the fields of global health
research, earth observation and research
infrastructures, according to senior of-
ficials following the 12
th
joint Science
and Technology Cooperation Committee
meeting that took place Brussels to review
and plan new priorities of collaboration
under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme.
The EU and South Africa pledged to
mobilise broader African participation.
The European Commission welcomed
the commitment from South Africa to
become a full contributing member of
the EU programme’s general assembly.
The parties also decided to collaborate
within the framework of the Global
Research Collaboration for Infectious
Disease Preparedness and continue to
support work through respective funding
programmes of the Global Alliance for
Chronic Diseases.
In the context of the post-2015 strat-
egy for the Group on Earth Observations
(GEO) both parties will explore a possible
joint action to support the AfriGEOSS
initiative and Africa-EU GEO-related
cooperation. In the domain of research
infrastructures, the EU and South Africa
will discuss synergies between the
European Strategy Forum for Research
Infrastructures (ESFRI) and the South
African national research infrastructure
roadmap. Cooperation in the area of radio
astronomy will specifically be encouraged,
including support for the Africa-European
Radio-Astronomy Platform (AERAP).
The meeting took note of South Africa’s
planned association to the EUREKA
Network for industrial research. Other
possible future areas of cooperation dis-
cussed were marine research including
the possible opening of the Atlantic Ocean
Research Alliance initiative towards new
partners, such as South Africa, minerals
research and innovation, the bio-economy
and water and waste management.
Scientific collaboration between South
Africa and the EU was established under
the Science and Technology Cooperation
Agreement concluded in 1996, which
entered into force in November 1997.
South Africa is also very committed in
playing a role to strengthen EU scientific
cooperation with the rest of Africa.
Lead times in the pressurised African
mining industry have become a decisive
differentiator for suppliers. With this
in mind, Multotec has established a
bonded warehouse at Tema Port on the
Atlantic coast of Ghana that will drasti-
cally reduce its equipment supply lead
times to mining operations in Ghana,
Burkina Faso and Mali, all of which are
within 2 000 km of the new facility.
“For many years the West African
mining industry has faced lead times
as long as seven months for imported
items of consumable equipment and the
move to establish a stockholding at a
more central location is long overdue,”
says Multotec’s Kris Vergote. “We iden-
tified Tema Port as the ideal site for such
a warehouse, which will be managed by
our office in Accra, just 25 km away.
“We’ve already begun the process
of negotiating supply contracts with
customers in Ghana, Burkina Faso and
Mali, who recognise the significant
value to be gained from being able to
access the consumable equipment they
In addition to a grinding mill order
earlier this year, Altay Polimetally has
now chosen Metso as the supplier of a
complete grinding system for their new
copper mine in Kazakhstan. The order
value is over
€
30-million.
Altay Polimetally is targeting produc-
tion of 3,0-million t/year, and including
host rock, 10-million t//year needs to
be crushed. The plant is scheduled to
begin operation during the last quarter
of 2014. Metso’s solution is designed
to ensure that Altay reaches this target.
“Metso has designed this grinding
system as a standalone unit, taking
full responsibility for plant efficiency.
EU and SA commit to science and technology collaboration
Driven by automated control, the solu-
tion is designed to monitor overall plant
efficiency and to guarantee maximum
ore recovery,” says Serge de Backer,
business manager, Crusher Systems,
Mining and Construction, Metso.
The order which will be included in
Mining and Construction’s 4
th
quarter
2013 orders received data, includes
Intelligent grinding solution for Kazakhstan copper project
Metso’s vertical grinding technology was chosen for
the grinding system of Altay Polimetally’s new copper
mine in Kazakstan.
process design, engineering, com-
plete equipment supply, controls and
instrumentation and electrics, trans-
portation and installation. The project
complements two energy efficient Metso
VTM‑4500-C Vertimill
®
vertical grind-
ing mill orders under a separate contract
earlier this year.
Multotec sets ups bonded warehouse in Ghana
need in a matter of weeks. At present
99% of this type of product is imported
from Europe, Australia, South Africa or
other manufacturing hubs, and takes
months to arrive on site from the date
of order.”
The Multotec bonded warehouse will
concentrate on supplying consumable
equipment such as mill linings, trom-
mel panels, vibrating screen panels,
interstage screens, ceramic tiles and
adhesives. Vergote says this fulfils the
“speed to market commitment within
Multotec’s consumables supply model”
that seeks to respond as quickly as pos-
sible to customers’ needs.
There is also an intention to identify
opportunities to establish similar ware-
house facilities in other mining centres
on the continent during the course of
2014.
In addition, Multotec has launched
a dedicated service in Ghana for the
installation of mill liners, screen panels
and the servicing and calibration of ore
samplers.
