Dry crushing and screening plant commissioned
Dry crushing and screening plant
The 350 ton/hour dry crushing and screening plant at East Manganese was commissioned in September 2021. Once the mine has reached full ramp-up the plant will process 30 000 tons of manganese ore every month. The dry crushing and screening system ensures significantly reduced water usage at the mine. East Manganese produces both lumpy (85%) and fine material (15%).
The commissioning of the plant was done in collaboration with the design engineers, the plant operator and General Engineering Superintendent Themba Soko (31). Themba, who holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering, is not a newcomer to the Menar Group, having begun his career as an engineering intern in 2016 at Canyon Coal’s Hakhano Colliery, in Middelburg, Mpumalanga. He completed his Government Certificate of Competency (GCC) training and became a GCC candidate engineer. He is currently preparing for the mines and work plant engineering exam in order to became a certified GCC engineer as he recently passed the mines legal knowledge exam.
“The commissioning of the plant has not been without its challenges, however, now that it has been commissioned, we are confident that it will run optimally,” he states.
Themba’s responsibilities include overseeing the running of 350 ton/hour dry crushing and screening plant, the workshop, servicing and scheduling maintenance of the yellow equipment and the mine’s generators.
“The mining machines are approaching something like 4000 operating hours, which is when more breakdowns tend to occur and this can be challenging. However, we always plan for at least availability 95% on the machines. This uptime benchmark is crucial for ensuring maximum uptime. It is impossible to achieve 100% uptime because we still have to stop the machine for basic regular maintenance,” Themba explains.
The mine’s mining machines fleet comprises 12 articulated dump trucks (ADTs), 4 excavators, 2 dozers, 1 grader and 2 front-end loaders. Themba explains that the machines are still under warranty and therefore being serviced by the OEMs. “We will take over the servicing of the machines once the warranty comes to an end,” he states.
