53 high-pressure pumps delivered to gold mine

22nd March 2013

  

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Pumps manufacturing major Watson-Marlow Bredel South Africa has fulfilled the terms of a R4.2-million contract with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) Kibali gold mine development for the delivery of 53 Bredel SPX high-pressure hose pump units.

The pumps, delivered in December, were supplied to Johannesburg-based project management company DRA Mining for reagent pumping at the Kibali project. Of the total contract value, R1.72-million was attributed to spare parts.

Watson-Marlow GM Nico van Schalkwyk says the initial inquiry from DRA was for 27 pumps and was logged in September 2011, after which sales engineer Koos Vermeulen reviewed the application in December that year and advised on the initial requirements of the Kibali project, before Watson-Marlow engineering services manager Chris van Vuuren took control of the project.

Van Schalkwyk says the project requirements were updated regularly and, subsequently, grew to 53 Bredel SPX pumps, comprising 13 SPX10 pumps, 16 SPX15 pumps, one SPX25 pump, two SPX32 pumps, six SPX40 pumps, seven SPX50 pumps and eight SPX65 pumps.

“The official order was received from DRA in November last year and assembly of the pumps started on December 11. After just 15 working days, the pumps were ready for final inspection on January 17,” he says.

“This was a remarkable effort by our team, considering that the order was filled during the holiday period and we, as well as our electric motor and gearbox suppliers, were officially closed from December 14 to January 2,” he says.

The Kibali mine development is a joint venture between Randgold and AngloGold Ashanti – which each own a 45% share – and Congolese parastatal Sokimo, which owns a 10% share. With a reserve base at more than ten-million ounces and growing, it will rank as one of the largest gold mines in Africa.

The Kibali development covers an area of 1 836 km2 on the Moto goldfields in the north- east of the DRC. It is located some 560 km north-east of the city of Kisangani and 150 km west of the Ugandan border town of Arua.

Besides fulfilling contracts for the mining industry, Watson-Marlow Bredel South Africa has been servicing the food and beverage industry with its peristaltic pumps that meet the industry’s stringent hygiene standards and are able to handle food and beverage products.

Watson-Marlow provides pumping solutions with peristaltic tube, hose pump and sinusoidal technology across a range of processing sectors. The company’s peristaltic pumps offer ultimate process monitoring through manual, automatic or process fieldbus (profibus) control and deliver the best combination of pump and drive technology to meet critical accuracy and control demands.

“Our peristaltic hose pumps have signifi- cant advantages over other pump types, such as gear and diaphragm pumps, as there are no impellers, vanes, lobes or valves to damage the product,” says Van Schalkwyk.

He adds that the separation of fluid from the pump action ensures contamination-free pumping – which is ideal for shear-sensitive fluids, viscous sludges or slurries as well as aggressive acids and caustics.

The low-shear peristaltic hose pump action is created by compressing the tube element between rotating rollers or shoes. In between each pass of a roller, the element recovers to create a vacuum and draw in fluid. This ensures that the pump is self-priming and dry running.

“These pumps enable our customers to clean in-line at full velocity, without the intrusion of the bypass required by most other positive displacement pumps. Dismantling and further cleaning are not required, giving significant operational advantages and cost savings,” says Van Schalkwyk.

“Flavourings, colourings and additives also demand accurate and repeatable metering to ensure quality, and this is where Watson-Marlow pumps give true positive displacement with no siphoning or slip, providing an accuracy of up to about 0.5%,” he adds.

In terms of hygiene, there is also no risk of bacterial growth or even product clogging as the fluid is contained within the tube. “The pumping action ensures that the tube is fully swept and the suction and delivery orientation enables the pump to self-drain. No other pump is able to meet this level of hygienic performance,” he points out.

Watson-Marlow’s MasoSine sinusoidal pumping technology is also ideally suited for applications where extremely viscous or shear-sensitive fluids are pumped and the quality and consistency of the end-product are paramount.

MasoSine pumps benefit from extremely powerful suction capa- bilities and an exclusive single-rotor design, which provides a smooth and consistent flow of product through the pump.

“The gentle wave action of the sinusoidal rotor maintains product integrity from small batches to high-volume applications – including highly viscous products – of up to 90 000 /h. Many different applications, such as food, beverages, dairy and confectionery preparations, benefit from less wastage, faster processing and simple, economical cleaning and maintenance,” he explains.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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