Eriez Manufacturing Co.’s Flotation Division (EFD), formerly known as Canadian Process Technologies,has been selected to supply proprietary process equipment to the Kropz Elandsfontein phosphate project on the west coast of South Africa. The EFD equipment includes CrossFlow separators for size classification, a rotary slurry powered distributor for stream splitting and 10 flotation columns. The equipment will be commissioned in 2016.
The Elandsfontein property is the second largest phosphate deposit in South Africa after the Phalaborwa deposit. Samancor, who operated a phosphate mine near Langebaan, identified and drilled the Elandsfontein deposit in 1985, but chose not to develop the project. According to DRA International, which was awarded a contract for the engineering implementation phase of the project, the new processing facility and its associated infrastructure is designed to produce approximately 1.35 million metric tons per year (mt/y) of phosphate concentrate. Included in the process plant will be screening, classification, milling, reverse flotation, dewatering and product handling. Tailings will be dewatered by belt filter prior to dry stacking.
The order for Eriez equipment followed completion of an extensive analysis for processing ore from the Elandsfontein deposit. EFD said a team of its mineral processing engineers and technologists working at the Eriez Test Lab in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA, developed various flotation flow sheets for ore processing. Following a number of test campaigns and evaluations, Kropz and DRA International, worked closely with EFD personnel to design and select the optimal flow sheet.
EFD said it has supplied flotation equipment for more than 100 phosphate applications in the United States, Brazil, Canada and China, including HydroFloat for floating coarse ore, CrossFlow separators for sizing ore, and flotation columns with sparging technology based on specific ore particle characteristics.
