Bespoke approach required to mitigate African challenges

Maximising available resources and optimising plant efficiency while minimising environmental impact is just one of the challenges that wet processing equipment manufacturer CDE continues to address.

“Working in sub-Saharan Africa requires an understanding that each country has its unique challenges and advantages. We, therefore, cannot approach projects with a one-size-fits-all outlook, but rather one that is customised for each environment,” says CDE sub-Saharan Africa business development manager Wayne Warren.

He notes that CDE approaches each project with the concerns of investors and communities in mind, adding that water recovery, energy efficiency and waste reduction are the manufacturer’s key focus areas.

Further, Warren’s experience with CDE has demonstrated that the best way of mitigating the challenges in sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa is by providing “unique and effective products” for use in the regions’ mines.

“With the current drive from mine developers to integrate washing processes, we are seeing an increase in the demand for certain products such as our industry-leading CDE AggMax technology, a compact combination of screening, scrubbing, sizing and organics removal.”

He notes that African alluvial gold and diamond mines that aim to increase productivity tend to be inclined towards using the CDE AggMax, in combination with the bespoke R-Series scalper feeders, as this results in “a continuous plant operation in some of the stickier feeds – regardless of the rainy season”.

Meanwhile, Warren points to significant advances in diamond recovery, where using the latest technologies have become the norm. “This has shown the need for cleaner, uncontaminated feeds to the diamond selection process with continuous operation and a reduced loss potential,” he says, noting that this need has been addressed by products such as the AggMax.

Moreover, the ability to recover larger-stone sizes using CDE’s technology has further increased demand for the AggMax, which cleans and scrubs without causing damage to the stones, removing contaminants from the feed material and increasing the potential of discovering stones before passing to the crushers.

Mining in West Africa is opening up new growth possibilities, Warren notes, adding that the shift from companies in the region, from just barely providing an adequate amount of capital expenditure to “proper investment” in the latest technology, has driven demand for state-of-the-art solutions.

He adds that CDE is  progressing opportunities with various stakeholders and mining investors who are seeking to implement CDE technology at mines in West Africa and Southern Africa, ranging from diamonds to rubies and emeralds.

Warren notes that CDE hopes to replicate its successes in the Australian market by offering its “proven” modular technologies to African countries for the enrichment of low-grade iron-ore stockpiles, as these countries are expressing greater interest in the abovementioned technologies amid the depressed iron-ore environment.