Of late the buzz word, or should we say sentence in Africa has been, “I’m into mining”. During a visit to most hotels in Africa, from Cape to Cairo you will invariably notice clumps of people huddled in close and concentrated meetings, all very deeply intent and focused. These are the mining fraternity (geologists, process engineers, exploration experts, metallurgists and mining engineers to name a few). The continent has attracted extreme interest from all corners of the earth and within, all concerning the huge, and in many cases, dormant surface and underlying resources within. Africa is endowed with a huge array of minerals and to enter into that realm would take up a huge hunk of time. Suffice to say, the interest is there and many projects are being planned, implemented and commissioned right now.

Mining today is an applied art; the business model must be efficient and worthwhile, taking into account all aspects such as; preliminary mineral test-work, resource targeting, resource evaluation, environmental and social impact, water and power needs and availability, return on expenditure, etc. Old time miners will easily take a seat and proclaim, “You need this and you need that”, and in many cases would be miners and active miners take advice from these revered men of yore; going ahead blindly and often boldly, only to find the recommended process equipment does not suit the actual ground conditions and feed material. White elephants in the form of abandoned plants can be found all over the African continent, rusting sentinels that have a tale to tell.

Fortunately there is an up to date mineral test-work laboratory www.peacockesimpson.com  situated on the continent where material can be submitted for actual amenability test-work to ensure that, before a project is undertaken, the ore does the talking. A great mining cliché’ is “Let the ore dictate the terms.” The laboratory boasts the latest state of the art equipment, such as XRF / Digital Microscope Technology, not to mention the Knelson Gravity test work modules and all aspects of chemical recovery process test-working. Using this world leading technology hub, mining concerns can rest assured they will be given the red, orange or green light before proceeding onto process specification.

A popular process that has evolved of late is the of scrubbing available resource to liberate minerals within the loose matrix that can thereafter be recovered by gravity, alleviating the use of chemical processing that takes up a lot of time, money and environmental issues. The RG (Rubble Guzzler) (a large diameter scrubbing drum with integral trommell and screen) range of scrubbers represented by Appropriate Process Technologies has taken not only the African continent by storm, but others to boot. Advantages of the RG process are many, a few examples are: easy maintenance, easy operation; easy installation; quick return on capital expenditure; low operating expenses; chemical free process; high recovery efficiency; low energy requirement (usually below 2 kw/hr per tonne, as opposed to conventional mining process of milling & crushing etc., +14 kw/hr per tonne), low labour requirement.

APT have also recently offered the option of combining a unique crushing module with the scrubbing plants. Therefore if the washed oversize is carrying well it can be crushed and re-introduced to the scrubber feed system. This is proving a very popular addition to the range and by utilizing up to date technology APT have ensured the energy required for these modules is kept to the absolute minimum, a win win situation.

In other words, once a resource is ready and proven to be amenable and there is enough raw water available on site, the scrub/gravity or scrub/crush/gravity recovery process plant can be implemented with the minimum of effort. Gone are the days of setting up mine admin centre’s, mine clinics, mine staff complexes that sprawl over the countryside, huge milling houses engineering departments etc. etc.,  to do just 20t/hour. The RG plants minimal footprint for 20t/hr is miniscule only 100 square metres. Start up is short and sweet and mineral recovery is instant. What more could a miner want !! The RG scrubbing plants cater for many different minerals. Most commonly the big five; gold, chromite, tantalite, tin and silver.  Chatting to the guys and girls who represent the RG Scrubbers is easy www.processtech.co.za  or email info@processtech.co.za