An unusual aspect of the robotically controlled iron-ore sampling plant that the JSE-listed Kumba Iron Ore has established at the Port of Saldanha is its open access to all iron-ore exporting miners – and not just the company that built it.

The new ‘robolab’ provides the quick turnaround and accurate certification to match the loading of two Capesize vessels.

“This robolab is cutting edge,” Kumba CEO Chris Griffith tells Mining Weekly.

Kumba is able to receive results within three hours of the first sample being delivered, as opposed to the traditional turn-around of 3 to 14 days.

Kumba, the iron-ore business unit of Anglo American, has invested R100-million in the high-technology plant and State-owned transport enterprise Transnet has invested R60-million in the buildings that house it.

“It’ll serve not just Kumba, but it’s available for use by all exporters using the Saldanha iron-ore terminal,” Griffith adds.

This open-access stance will be of particular benefit to upcoming black economically empowered (BEE) iron-ore juniors, which Transnet iron-ore corridor executive James Mackay says the State-owned transport enterprise is taking steps to accommodate.

The port services a number of exporters, including Assmang, which produces iron-ore at its Beeshoek mine and which is bringing on the second phase of the Khumani iron-ore expansion.

IMP Innovative Solutions, the company that designed and commissioned the fully automated iron-ore sampling plant, will manage the robolab, which provides rival miners with the necessary arm’s length from Kumba.

The involvement of State-owned Transnet also serves to underpin the robolabs’s across-the-board use.

“This is a case of the private sector working very closely with a State partner, Transnet. There’s a fantastic relationship and we’re able to work together for the benefit of other players and for the good of the country as a whole,” says Griffith.

The new lab facilitates early billing and the potential for a greater revenue stream because of its high levels of consistency and accuracy.

“For any exporter, it’s essential that you know, before your products leave your shores, that you are supplying to the customer’s exact specifications.

“Your customers are paying you based on the quality and quantity you specify you have shipped, and you must be able to certify the qualities of the products that you are supplying,” adds Griffith.

When a vessel arrives at a port on the other side of the globe weeks after leaving the Port of Saldanha, queries are difficult to manage and can lead to financial disputes.

In the worst cases, vessels are turned around because customers refuse to accept the load.

Accreditation Under Way

The formal accreditation of the facility will take 18 months, starting in June this year and finishing in December 2012.

During this period, umpire laboratories will be employed to verify the results produced by the new facility.

Kumba’s main iron-ore mine, the Sishen operation, in the Northern Cape, produces iron-ore with up to 66% iron content, as its new Kolemela project is expected to do from the first half of 2012.

However, the comparative advantage of the Kumba ore comes not so much from iron content – although it has one of the better-quality iron contents – but rather from its hardness.

Because of the hardness of its iron-ore, the company is able to split the ore into smaller-size fractions.

“When you sell a smaller-size fraction, it comes with a range of chemical qualities as well.

“Because of our good ore qualities, we’re able to size to very narrow tolerances, and, with the new technology, customers now know exactly what they’re getting from us and they’re able to blend accordingly,” Griffith explains.

The robolab also provides quick information flow back to the mines.

Transnet, which carried 47,3-million export tons on the Sishen–Saldanha rail line in its last financial year, expects to carry 50-million tons this financial year.

Kumba last year exported 36,1-million tons through Saldanha, which has been South Africa’s iron-ore gateway to the world since 1976.

Transnet is working on increasing the capacity of the iron-ore export line from 60-million tons to 90-million tons a year, which may include facilities for the export of manganese.

The line’s 342 rail wagons each carry 100 t of ore and two are tipped at a time at the Saldanha port, which has a loading rate of 10 000 t/h.

The iron-ore jetty allows the simultaneous loading of two Capesize ships of up to 350 000 deadweight tons.

Kumba offers a variety of iron-ore products in both lump and fine ore, with varying sizes and iron-ore content.

The robolab, which measures particle size, moisture and chemical composition, is able to analyse both fine and lump ore.

The process begins with cutters extracting samples weighing 120 kg and 350 kg during the loading of fine and lump ore.

A sieve determines particle size and oven driers determine moisture content.

X-ray fluorescence technology analyses the chemical composition of the ore and measures the presence of iron, phosphorus, alumina, silica, potassium oxides and sulphur.

Multotec provided the primary samplers, and Transnet Civils was responsible for the cutter building, the laboratory building and the provision of services.

Metallurgist-in-training Mpume Thanjekwayo, who has been intimately involved in the commissioning of the sampling plant, tells Mining Weekly that 25-million grams of sample are extracted to obtain less than a gram of iron-ore.

Thanjekwayo points out that processes are pursued to ensure that less than a gram of the iron-ore remains representative of the 25-million-gram sample.

A laboratory information system captures the results of the physical and chemical analyses.

Quality complies with the world’s highest International Standards Organisation (ISO) benchmark and oversight is being provided by the South African National Accreditation System, which is accredited to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation. The facility has been designed to comply with ISO 3082.

Western Cape Finance and Economic Development Minister Alan Winde reports that a study is under way on how beneficiation can best be implemented in the Saldanha area, where plans are being drawn up for the development of an industrial development zone.

Saldanha mayor Randall Abdol reports that intiatives under way in the Saldanha area have the potential to create 129 000 additional jobs.