Special mention for Bateman Modular Plants structural
steel design
BATEMAN projects received special mention at Steel Awards 2005,
the prestigious presentations made annually by the South African Institute
of Steel Construction to recognise outstanding applications of steel
in the industrial field. This year saw a record number of entries.
In making the award, the judges commented on BATEMAN's submission
that: "A big driver in the success of the SA steel-fabricating
industry continues to be the needs of our mining industry. When an
engineering concept is perfected that makes the contracting issues
for our fabricators easier and at the same time has overall major
benefits to our client body, our judges felt that they would be doing
all the parties involved an injustice in not making a special mention
of the modular design solution to mining plants conceived by (BATEMAN)
for the De Beers group."
BATEMAN entered two of its modular-plant projects for De Beers in
the Industrial Mining and Engineering category: the modular plant
for processing drill chip samples for Venetia Diamond Mine, near Musina,
Limpopo Province, and a dense-media separation (DMS) plant being installed
as an upgrade of the New Treatment Plant at Kimberley Mines, Northern
Cape, both in South Africa.
Modular Plant for Venetia Diamond Mine
One of the main requirements of the plant was that it had to be possible
to disassemble the plant at the end of a sampling campaign, load it
into a transport aircraft with relative ease, and move it to other
diamond-mining areas in Africa.
The main structure of the plant therefore comprises a fully-welded
frame constructed from square, hollow-section, steel beams, sufficiently
compact and light to be transported by air, yet strong enough to support
the processing units in the plant. This design also provides for easy
access for maintenance purposes. Vibration of the structure, induced
by the vibrating screens, scrubbers and crushers, had to be minimised
to ensure the required comfort level of the plant operators.
A steel sump at the bottom of the plant provides the frame with the
required stability and removes the need for a concrete surface bed.
All that will be needed to rehabilitate the site will thus be to restore
the vegetation and return the crushed material to source.
BATEMAN provided all of the engineering expertise necessary for the
project.
The sampling plant weighs a total of about 45,0 t, with 30,0 t of
steelwork and 5,0 t of platework and liners. It comprises three sections:
a liberation module containing the scrubbing, screening, primary crushing
and over-size crushing circuits, a DMS module and a diamond-recovery
module. The latter was designed by the client. All of the individual
components of the plant can pass through a 3,2 m by 3,0 m loading
hatch of the transport aircraft.
This fast-track project commenced in May 2004 and, after commissioning,
the plant was handed over to the client in mid April 2005. (See page
7.)
DMS plant for New Treatment Plant
The plant, which treats 450 t/h of ore, is the largest modular DMS
plant supplied to date by BATEMAN.
This bolted structure was constructed using square, hollow-section
steel columns with circular, hollow-section steel bracing. This design
provided the lightness required for transportability and strength
to support the processing circuits. The transmission of the vibrations
generated by the vibrating screens mounted on the structure had to
be minimised.
All components were galvanised as protection against corrosion.
The plant contains three of BATEMAN's new Mega 150 t/h DMS modules
with 70 t feed hoppers and five vibrating screens per module, a conveyor
system and ancillary facilities such as pumps, electrical supply,
motor-control centre and supervisory control and data-acquisition
facilities.
A single feed conveyor supplies ore sequentially to the three feed
hoppers, the input being controlled by a programmable-logic controller
to maintain an appropriate level of ore in each hopper. To contain
costs, an innovative use was found for an existing conveyor gantry,
which was used as a pipe bridge across a nearby stream.
The contract was received in mid March 2004 and the three DMS modules
delivered in August, September and October. Commissioning of the first
module started in mid November with all units running successfully
by the end of 2004.
Both plants were fabricated, preassembled and tested at the manufacturer's
yard in Gauteng and then dismantled and transported to the site for
re-assembly and commissioning. This reduced construction time and
greatly facilitated commissioning of the plant in the shortest possible
time.
For further information, please contact Robert Abate, General Manager,
Modular Plants, on +27-11-899-2238 or email modular@batemanengineering.com.
