Mineral Technologies Global leader in mineral processing solutions

30th July 2021

Mineral Technologies Global leader in mineral processing solutions

The business development team

Year of formation and background to founding:
Celebrating 80 years in 2020, Mineral Technologies is built on the passion and vision of our people, who strive to bring innovation and unparalleled quality solutions to the mineral processing sector.

We are a global leader in mineral processing solutions with teams located in major mining regions worldwide.

In 1973, we established an office in Southern Africa. Today, our local team is based in Richards Bay operating a spiral production and wet high intensity magnetic separation (WHIMS) refurbishment facility as well as delivering support services to customers across the African continent.

Company mission, products and services:
Our mission is to be the leading provider of quality physical mineral separation solutions that maximise the value of our customers’ mineral assets through our highly skilled people and innovative process technologies.

Current shareholders:
Mineral Technologies is owned by Downer, a leading provider of integrated services in Australia and New Zealand. With a history dating back over 150 years, Downer is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and New Zealand Stock Exchange as Downer EDI Limited (DOW).

Number of people employed:
Globally, Mineral Technologies employs over 260 people. Of this number around 20 people are based in Africa.

Greatest corporate achievement:
Over the past 80 years we have delivered many successful outcomes for our customers. In Africa, this has included delivering engineering services and equipment to the world’s largest mineral sands plant at Grande Côte, Senegal.

The project started in 2001, when Mineral Technologies conducted the first metallurgical testing. Over the years, this expanded to further testing, resulting in the development of process flowsheets to deliver optimum separation of zircon and ilmenite.

Given our proven expertise in fine separation and our considered metallurgical knowledge of the ore body, Mineral Technologies was appointed to design the wet concentrator plant and deliver process equipment including gravity spirals and a 7,000 t/h surge bin and tails densification modules. The surge bin design was the forerunner to a new technology released by Mineral Technologies, which was branded the Lyon’s Feed Control Unit (LFCU) after its innovator John Lyons.

Mineral Technologies is currently delivering another mineral sands separation module (2,500 t/h) to a customer in South Africa near our factory in Richards Bay.

We have also delivered chrome tailings recovery solutions for the major chromite producers including Samancor. The Samancor modular plants leverage the latest wet high intensity magnetic technology, a system which processes existing waste.
Other recent projects in Africa include Base Resources in Kenya, Kenmare Resources in Mozambique and QMM in Madagascar.
In addition to delivering projects for our customers, Mineral Technologies is in the process of renewing ISO 9001:2015 certification. Over recent years our team has been making headway to increase local content of manufactured parts for locally made magnetic separators and spiral equipment.

Mineral Technologies is also working with its South African partners and customers to achieve and maintain Level 4 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment by August 2022.
 
View to the future:
With a focus on the future, Mineral Technologies is embracing Industry 4.0 principles and product innovation to bring new, cost effective process solutions to our customers.
We are introducing Industry 4.0 technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT) connected sensors and devices to our equipment. We are also working collaboratively with leading universities and research centres to revolutionise the way composite polymers are used to manufacture precision-engineered parts.
Our product innovation includes bespoke spiral profiles for chrome and mineral sands, new surge bin technology with the LFCU, truckless mining solutions with our mobile mining unit and a new range of modular plants which are enabling customers to easily relocate processing operations across mine sites and across different projects, maximising capital expenditure and operational efficiencies.
With a view to the future, we look forward to bringing new technologies and innovative mineral processing solutions to help our customers across Africa enjoy continued success.

For more information visit mineraltechnologies.com