Continued good demand for Bateman Grease Belts

Bateman Engineering was contracted by Promet, Cape Town,South Africa to supply a conventional Bateman Grease Belt to DiamondEx Botswana Limited’s mine near Martin’s Drift in Botswana, close to the South African border.

This was the 12th order for a Bateman Grease Belt received in 2006, of which seven were for conventional systems, with tilted moving belts, and five were for the new compact systems, with inclined belts. This is the most supplied in one year and is indicative of the growing reputation of the system. A total of 22 Bateman Grease Belts have been ordered since the system was first introduced in 2004.
The contract was received in mid October 2006 and the system delivered to site at the end of March 2007. This conventional grease-belt model recovers the diamonds in a feed of 4 t/h of concentrate from a dense-media separation (DMS) plant.

It was installed in two insulated 18 m HiCube containers at a works near Johannesburg and transported about 450 km by road to site.
According to Neels van Niekerk, Bateman Engineering Project Manager, Grease Belts, the reason for this surge in interest is that the recovery efficiency of the system is now well proven and this reputation is spreading around the diamond-recovery industry. Bateman Grease Belt systems are particularly effective for the recovery of well-scrubbed diamonds with low luminescence (type II diamonds), with throughputs from 4 t/h of fine (1 mm to 6 mm) to 10 t/h coarse (up to 50 mm) concentrate. “In a few instances, some of our clients have claimed a pay-back time for the plants of only a few months,” says van Niekerk.

“The low running costs and the fact that qualified and trained technicians are not required to maintain the systems are also good selling points,” claims van Niekerk.

Please contact Neels van Niekerk on +27-11-899-9111 or email Modular@BatemanEngineering.com for more information on Bateman Grease Belts.

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