Recent modular-plant contracts received by BATEMAN
from around the globe highlight the international demand for this technology
and the benefits these plants provide for remote locations where skilled
labour and a sophisticated infrastructure are not readily available.
Because they are pre-tested at the factory and delivered to site in
modular form, BATEMAN’s modular process plants require minimal
civil construction.
Russia and CIS
Contracts from Russian-based concerns include a 5
t/h dense- medium separation (DMS) sampling plant and a 1,5 m by 3 m
scrubber for JSC Permgeologodobycha’s operation in Perm in central
Russia. This is the first contract to be received from this client and,
since non-nuclear sources are preferred in Russia, the DMS plant was
designed with a non-nuclear density controller.
Two 1 t/h DMS plants were supplied to Alrosa Company
Limited for use in prospecting operations in Northern Yakutia. The plants
are skid- mounted so that they can be easily moved. Previous to this
contract, BATEMAN had already supplied four DMS plants to Alrosa.
Middle East
BATEMAN modular process plants are also in demand
for research purposes, with the latest such contract being a 5 t/h DMS
for the Iranian Minerals Processing Research Centre.
Canada
In Saskatchewan, Canada, BATEMAN has supplied a fully
integrated kimberlite sampling plant at Shore Gold’s Star Diamond
Project, 60 km east of Prince Albert. The plant comprises a 30 t/h feed
preparation plant, a 10 t/h DMS and an x-ray recovery plant. The feed-preparation
plant includes primary crushing, scrubbing and secondary crushing. A
re-crush option is available. To comply with Canadian environmental
standards, a water-recovery and de-grit system have been designed into
the plant. The plant will treat an initial bulk sample of 25 000 t of
kimberlite, in order to obtain a parcel of diamonds for evaluation.
A 5 t/h modular DMS plant is currently under fabrication
for Ashton Mining of Canada.
Africa
Contracts in Africa include the supply of a complete
30 t/h diamond plant for a new operation being developed by El-Hillal
Minerals adjacent to the Williamson Mine near Shinyanga, Tanzania. This
semi-mobile plant will be used for bulk sampling of an alluvial deposit
for the first six months and, as mining operations progress, will be
moved every six months to reduce trucking distances. The plant, which
was pre-erected and water tested in Johannesburg prior to dispatch,
consists of a 30 t/h front-end, a 20 t/h DMS and a 1 t/h x-ray recovery
plant. As part of the contract, BATEMAN will commission the plant and
provide training to the mine’s staff for three months.
Two contracts from Catoca Mining Society, Lda, include
an upgrade to the existing plant at a mine near Saurimo, Angola. The
diamond mine was designed along traditional Russian lines and has been
upgraded to incorporate new technology. Because of this, BATEMAN designed
two gravity 40 t/h DMS plants and one gravity 30 t/h DMS plant to be
incorporated into new and existing plants. The gravity-type plant was
selected due to the existing height of the buildings. Catoca is jointly
owned by ENDIAMA, an Angolan government- owned diamond company, Odebrect
Mining Services Inc., Almazi Rossii- Sakha, S.A. and Daumonty Financing
BV.
As with the modular process plant ordered by Diamonds
Works RSA for their Koidu mine in central east Sierra Leone, a front-end
DMS and recovery plant supplied to the Portuguese banking group, Escom,
was built using equipment that had been damaged in 1995 during a civil
war. This new plant for the Chimbongo project in Angola was built using
recovered parts of a plant supplied to Sominor, near Saurimo in Angola.
An order for spares for this plant is the largest such spares order
received by BATEMAN to date.
A 150 t/h DMS was supplied to and commissioned for
Oryx Natural Resources for their mine near Mbuji-Mayi in the Kasai area
of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, together with an upgrade of
the system to handle the run-of-mine feed to the DMS. This is one of
a number of projects undertaken by BATEMAN for Oryx, incorporating some
four 50 t/h DMS modules. MIBA in Mbuji-Mayi previously purchased a 150
t/h DMS unit which was incorporated into their 400 t/h kimberlite plant
for their NLK1 project.
In South Africa, BATEMAN concluded a concept exploration
study for a new facility to treat dumps at De Beers’ Finsch Diamond
Mine.
The sixth DMS plant to be purchased by Sonop Delwery
is a 50 t/h DMS for their Sydney-on-Vaal mine near Barkley West in the
Northern Cape. This plant, which will be situated at the historic town
of Sydney-on- Vaal established by Cecil John Rhodes, will be fed with
pan concentrates and not the usual raw ore. The process equipment has
therefore been designed with this in mind. This brings to 11 modular
diamond recovery plants supplied to the Kimberley area over the past
two years.
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