Bulk Handling Today Nov/Dec 2018

BULK

HANDLING

Nov/Dec 2018

C16092

Endorsed by: CMA l LEEASA l SAIMechE l SAIMH

T O D A Y

THE GLOBAL STANDARD IN CRANES AND DESIGN • MANUFACTURE • SERVICE • SALES As a global manufacturer and provider of cranes in varying industries, Condra provides high quality engineering, flexible inhouse design and an impressive range of products to mining, shipping, steel, fabrication, robotics, railways and ports.

Since 1966, Condra has mastered the engineering, manufacturing and installation of cranes all over the world to large, medium and small industries. We are constantly innovating to provide manual, electric and combo cranes that provide solution to lifting, hooks, grabbing, magnets, ladles, buckets or stacking duties.

CRANE CRITICAL FOR EUROPEAN SPACE TRAVEL

Overhead travelling cra Wire rope hoists

Portal or semi-portal cra

Cantilever cranes (pillar

TIGHTER MARGINS FOR TODAY'S MINING GAME

Tel: +27 11 776 6000 | 0861 CONDRA (266372) | 24hr Mobile: +27 82 491 7525 | Email: sales@condr

| www.doosan.co.za | Enquire 011 974Now 2095

| info@doosan.co.za

BULK

HANDLING

BULK

Nov/Dec 2018

C16092

Endorsed by: CMA l LEEASA l SAIMechE l SAIMH

T O D A Y

HANDLING November/December 2018

THE GLOBAL STANDARD IN CRANES AND HOISTS DESIGN • MANUFACTURE • SERVICE • SALES As a global manufacturer and provider of cranes in varying industries, Condra provides high quality engineering, flexible inhouse design and an impressive range of products to mining, shipping, steel, fabrication, robotics, railways and ports.

Since 1966, Condra has mastered the engineering, manufacturing and installation of cranes all over the world to large, medium and small industries. We are constantly innovating to provide manual, electric and combo cranes that provide solution to lifting, hooks, grabbing, magnets, ladles, buckets or stacking duties.

CRANE CRITICAL FOR EUROPEAN SPACE TRAVEL

T O D A Y

Overhead travelling cranes

Contents

Wire rope hoists Portal or semi-portal cranes and bridge cranes Cantilever cranes (pillar, jib and wall)

TIGHTER MARGINS FOR TODAY'S MINING GAME Tel: +27 11 776 6000 | 0861 CONDRA (266372) | 24hr Mobile: +27 82 491 7525 | Email: sales@condra.co.za

www.condra.co.za

On the cover: Condra Tel (011) 776-6000 Email: sales@condra.co.za www.condra.co.za

South Africa | Africa | Middle East | Europe | Russia | Australia | South America | North America

CMA News 6 SAIMH Golf Day Conveying

Beltcon 19

5

9

29 Safe Operation of Belt Conveyor Systems in the Mining Industry

Two-part Panel

Right Here in Africa

40 Smart Solutions for Processing 41 Market Forum

Cover Story 10 Cranes for Tankhouses 14

Conveyor Survey Single Source Supplier

Endorsing Bodies •

18 Tailor-made Full-driveline Solution

CMA (Conveyor Manufacturers Association)

•

LEEASA (Lifting Equipment Engineering Association of South Africa)

•

SAIMechE (SA Institution of Mechanical Engineering)

•

SAIMH (SA Institute of Materials Handling) also mailed to members of the RFA (Road Freight Association)

Fire Suppression 20 Protecting Conveyors

Fuel Filtration 22 Improving Run Time Capacity

Lifting

27 The 'Big Five' 28

LEEASA News

Copyright

All rights reserved. No editorial matter published in “Bulk Handling Today” may be reproduced in any form or language without written permission of the publishers. While every effort is made to ensure accurate reproduction, the editor, authors, publishers and their employees or agents shall not be responsible or in any way liable for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies in the publication, whether arising from negligence or otherwise or for any consequences arising therefrom. The inclusion or exclusion of any product does not mean that the publisher or editorial board advocates or rejects its use either generally or in any particular field or fields.

Our e-mail address is bulkhandling@promech.co.za Visit our website on www.bulkhandlingtoday.co.za

•

The monthly circulation is 3 673

Proprietor and Publisher: PROMECH PUBLISHING Tel: (011) 781-1401, Fax: (011) 781-1403 E-mail: bulkhandling@promech.co.za www.promech.co.za Managing Editor: Susan Custers Advertising Sales: Linda Patricio DTP: Anne Rotteglia Administration: Belinda Siegruhn Subscriptions: Please email us at accounts@promech.co.za if you wish to subscribe to “Bulk Handling Today” at R550,00 (excl postage and VAT) per year; R1 380,00 per year for Africa/Overseas.

Printed by: Typo Colour Printing, Tel: (011) 402-3468 FSC (Forestry Stewardship Accreditation)

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

3

Your boutique business destination Surrounded by lush gardens in the hub of Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, The Peartree in Craighall Park caters for groups of two through to 100 guests in nine well-appointed and equipped business suites.

Breakfast meetings, working lunches, indoor or outdoor dining, half-day and full-day packages including all welcome refreshments, teas and lunches are offered in Standard, Gold and Platinum packages.

Secure parking, business centre, fibre optic broadband AV, lockable space, all underpinned by highly qualified and helpful staff dedicated to ensuring your event is a success, make The Peartree a destination of choice.

www.thepeartree.co.za e-mail: info@thepeartree.co.za Tel: 011 781 1401 41 St. Albans Ave, Craighall Park

CONVEYOR MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION

From The Chairman’s Desk

A

most successful Joint Forum meeting was held recently, hosted by Rema Tip Top and Dunlop at their Benoni premises.

On the programme were presentations on Understanding elasticity of conveyor belting; Tensioning aspects of typical underground belt conveyors; Scientific belt conveyor maintenance; and Conveyor skirts – the width and length.

project can be heard at Beltcon 20 being held next year (31 July and 1 August 2019).

It remains for me to wish all our members happy celebrations during the festive season, and a safe return from travels well refreshed and ready to face the new year.

Jay Pillay, Chairman

In addition to the programme of presentations, delegates were given the opportunity to visit the rig on which research is being conducted on unidirectional rollers. The initial collection of data has been completed, and a paper on this research

Jay Pillay, Adi Frittella, Simon Curry and Doug Pitcher

Membership at November 2018 All members subscribe to the CMA Code of Ethics Acrow Limited Actom Afripp Projects Altra Industrial Motion South Africa (Pty) Ltd Bauer Bearings International Belt Brokers Belting Supply Services BMG Bonfiglioli Power Transmissions Bosworth Brelko Conveyor Products CedoTech cc Closeal Manufacturing Collisen Engineering ContiTech South Africa (Pty) Ltd Conveyor & Engineering Equipment CT Systems David Brown Gear Industries DRA Projects SA (Pty) Ltd Dunlop Belting Products Dymot Engineering Company

ELB Engineering Services Fenner Conveyor Belting (South Africa) Flexco SA (Pty) Ltd FLSmidth Roymec Giza Technologies (Pty) Ltd Habasit South Africa (Pty) Ltd Hägglunds Drives South Africa Hatch Africa (Pty) Ltd HMA South Africa (Pty) Ltd Hosch - Fördertechnik (SA) International Belting & Marketing (Pty) Ltd Iptron Technology KevConBelt (Pty) Ltd Lesa Mining Equipment and Conveyor Belt Lorbrand Martin Engineering Megaroller Melco Conveyor Equipment Merlin consulting (Pty) Ltd Moret Mining Nautilus Projects (Pty) Ltd

Nepean Conveyors OE Bearings Oriental Rubber Industries SA Osborn Engineered Products Pegasus Industrial Services cc Regal Beloit South Africa Rema Tip Top South Africa Ringspann South Africa Rossi Gearmotors (Pty) Ltd Rula Bulk Materials Handling SENET SEW Eurodrive Shaft Engineering (Pty) Ltd SKF South Africa Tenova Takraf ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions South Africa (Pty) Ltd Timken South Africa (Pty) Ltd Transvaal Rubber Company Voith Turbo Weba South Africa (Pty) Ltd WorleyParsons RSA Zest Electric Motors

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

5

SAIMH Golf Day

G

ood weather graced SA Institute of Material Handling's Golf Day in October. Held at ERPM, golfers enjoyed a competitive game followed by a hearty meal and merry prize-giving at the relaxed clubhouse.

Graham Downey

6

Adi Frittella and Neil Cochran

A member of the Actom winning team (109 points)

Rio Carb

Merlin Consulting

Zest/Grundfos

Martin Engineering

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

Brelko

Actom

Rema Tip Top

Impala

Flexco

Weba Chutes

Zest

SEW

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

7

SAIMH

BMG/Mixtec

Brelko

Dymot

Melco

OBITUARY of Steven Bezuidenhout It is with great sadness that we've learned of the passing of Steven Bezuidenhout in Siler City, North Carolina, USA. Steve started his career in the materials handling industry at a young age at Melco Mining Supplies. He progressed through various positions in the factory and in sales to his position of General Manager of Manufacturing. He was personally responsible for implementing many of the Melco strategies such

as the move to in-house production of as many of the idler roller components as possible, including: the introduction of a press shop for the production of bearing housings, the introduction of a machining centre for the production of shafts, various modifications to the idler roll sealing systems and the introduction of robotic welding to idler frame production.

Steve emigrated to start and head Melco LLC in the USA, where he continued

to keep the Melco flag flying until his recent retirement.

Those who knew him will remember his passion for idler design and manufacturing, his keen interest in woodworking and mostly his love of a quiet family life, and friendships.

We, his friends and colleagues express our condolences to his wife, Dalene, Adele his daughter and Michael his son. We share in your sorrow.

Promech Publishing wishes all its readers a wonderful December break and a prosperous New Year

8

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

CONVEYING

Right here in Africa

K

ey equipment supplier Takraf Africa, part of the global mining, material handling and minerals processing group, Takraf, is supplying six new-design Redler chain conveyors to the Willowton Group’s factory in Isando, Gauteng.

Takraf Africa’s scope of work covered the design and fabrication of this equipment.

This order, placed in April 2018, makes the Willowton Group the first company to install these new conveyors, which are specifically designed in-house

by Takraf Africa, and which are a breakthrough development for the FMCG market.

Through its more than 40-year business relationship with the Willowton Group, Takraf Africa has supplied more than 150 machines to the group across its various operations. This includes more than 40 to the Willowton Group plant in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal and more than 100 Redler machines to the Isando plant. The machines include both Redler en-masse chain conveyors and chain elevators.

Combining the proven Redler brand with a lighter, more cost-effective design of the casing, the conveyors utilise the high quality Redler chain housed in a structure manufactured from lasercut, relatively light-weight plate-work. This unique fabrication approach has eliminated the expensive and time-consuming welding process, enabling the delivery time to be reduced by up to four weeks.

Supplied more than 5 000 Redler chain elevators and chain conveyors throughout Southern Africa over the past 40 plus years Furthermore, laser cut plates eliminate boilermaker tolerances and ensure a perfect fit on site.

In addition, Takraf Africa is now able to assemble the conveyors utilising its in-house capacity, providing a valuable upskilling opportunity for its employees.

Various operations The conveyors were ordered by the Willowton Group as part of their expansion programme for their plant in Isando, with this new design conveyor being first demonstrated to the company using a test casing. The longest conveyor is 40m in length, with the other five ranging between 20 to 24m long, all conveying sunflower products at 25tph.

The company is the exclusive licence holder/supplier in Southern Africa of the trademarked Redler range of equipment.

Moves like liquid Takraf Africa, previously known as Bateman Engineered Technologies prior to Tenova acquiring the Bateman Group in 2012, has supplied more than 5 000 Redler chain elevators and chain conveyors throughout Southern Africa over the past 40 plus years.

Proven over decades, Redler machines convey a wide range of solids, including coal, woodchips, sand, lime, cement, fly-ash, sunflower seeds, maize, wheat, flour, grain and many more. They convey particulate solids cleanly, gently and economically by inducing material to move like a liquid through dust-tight casings.

As a result, these low maintenance systems ensure minimal product degradation, while the dust-tight casings protect the conveyed material and the environment from mutual contamination.

Takraf: Richard Späth Tel: (011) 201-2300 richard.spath@tenova.com www.takraf.com

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

9

Typical overhead cranes under manufacture in Condra’s factory

Cranes for tankhouses The African market for tankhouse cranes is flourishing, with strong demand in a geographical band stretching from the Equator to the Tropic of Capricorn. For endusers of this type of crane, the main concern remains the same: prompt and effective after sales service.

T

ankhouse cranes are double-girder electrictravelling overhead machines that lift and position copper plates and slabs during electrolysis, the fourth and final step of the pyrometallurgical refining process used with certain types of copper ore.

In this fourth step, anodic copper slabs which have already attained 99 percent purity during three prior processes are hung in large tanks filled with an electrolyte solution of copper sulphate and sulphuric acid.

Small, thin sheets of pure copper are then suspended between these anodes and an electric current is applied. Positively charged copper ions leave the anodic slabs and move in solution through the electrolyte to place themselves on the cathodic sheets.

Condra designs these cranes to achieve high long-travel speeds of between 100 and 140 metres per minute (the standard speed for overhead crane long-travel is around 30 metres per minute).

After some weeks, the slabs have disappeared and the sheets have grown to become thick copper plates of 99,99 percent purity, ready for removal by the tankhouse cranes for rinsing and despatch to factories that produce copper wire, tubing and other products.

Leading crane manufacturer, Condra, reports that tenders for as many as 30 tankhouse cranes are

10

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

currently under evaluation. Eight are for mines in the Phalaborwa and Rustenburg areas of South Africa, and 22 are for the Central African Copperbelt – ten for mines in Zambia and twelve for the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Crane capacities are all around 5 tons, with a dual bottom-block system on each one to keep the sheets level while they are moved.

Twice as fast The total value of all these tenders is some R120-million, tankhouse cranes being technically advanced machines priced at about R2,5-million each excluding cabins, air conditioning and the special ergonomics usually ordered as extras to cater for the very high crane speeds – about twice as fast as the average man can run.

Previously, Condra has manufactured tankhouse cranes including three double-girder overhead machines for the copper and cobalt leaching plants at the Ruashi Mine near Lubumbashi in the southern DRC, and an undisclosed number of machines for similar plants at a copper mine in Zambia.

Measures for a corrosive environment To achieve effective levels of production during electrolysis, Condra designs these cranes to achieve high long-travel speeds of between 100 and 140 metres per minute (the standard speed for overhead crane long-travel is around 30 metres per minute).

COVER STORY

The company also keeps an eye on the corrosive nature of the tankhouse environment, offering a pressure test on crane girders in addition to the special paint specifications usually requested by the end user. Pressure applied internally to the girders allows weld seams to be checked for pinhole leaks, with a temporary application of liquid soap showing bubbling if seam integrity has been compromised.

The test ensures protection against internal corrosion caused by corrosive fumes being sucked into the girder as it expands during the heat of the day.

Spare parts on the double There must also be effective crane service and maintenance which, according to Condra, is lacking among European competitors because of the absence of local agents with spare parts holdings and a qualified service ability. Spare parts ordered from Europe can take up to two months to arrive.

By contrast, Condra’s agent for the Copperbelt, Kitwebased EC Mining, holds readily available stocks of spare parts and carries out machine maintenance at all installation sites.

As an example of the problems that poor after sales service can cause, Condra points to a Copperbelt mine where spares and maintenance is no longer available for two cranes supplied by a northern hemisphere competitor.

Condra is in talks with the management at this mine about converting the installed cranes to Condra standard so that they can be properly maintained.

A similar situation at a Cape Town zinc plant recently resulted in three overhead cranes undergoing this type of conversion at Condra’s Germiston works, outside Johannesburg, to facilitate effective maintenance into the future.

Condra, Marc Kleiner Tel (011) 776-6000, Email: sales@condra.co.za

Crab-mounted Condra hoist

R100-MILLION MARK A shipment of lifting equipment despatched in late August to Mopani Copper Mines has taken Condra’s order intake from this company to more than R100-million. Zambia-based Mopani placed its first order on Condra in 2012.

Comprising one electric travelling overhead crane, 38 hoists, two large and seven smaller jib cranes, the shipment is earmarked for various applications within the Mufulira and Nkana mines.

Work will now begin on six further single- and double-girder overhead cranes for Nkana’s synclinorium shaft, and for the concentrator plants at both mines. Crane capacities will be between 5 tons and 10 tons, with standard lifting heights and spans of between 15 metres and 18 metres.

Condra expects to receive additional orders for as many as nine further cranes while these six are on the factory floor.

Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) operates the Mufulira mine, smelter, concentrator and copper refinery on the outskirts of Mufulira, and the Nkana mine, concentrator and cobalt plant near Kitwe, both towns situated on the Copperbelt in central Zambia.

Condra’s deliveries to MCM are ongoing. Three years ago, the company delivered two 25-ton headgear cranes to the synclinorium shaft at Nkana mine, and two 70-ton maintenance cranes for the winderhouse, the latter designed with very high lifts of over 80 metres each.

The company has manufactured several other overhead and high-lift machines for Mopani since its first delivery in 2012, and regularly supplies hoists in quantity.

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

11

TRANSFORMING FREIGHT LOGISTICS

TRANSNET FREIGHT RAIL

www.transnet.net www.transnetfreightrail-tfr.net

CONVEYOR SURVEY

Afripp Projects

BMG

Brelko Conveyor Products

CedoTech

Conveyor Watch

Total Number of Employees

6

3500

151

2

4

Employees with tertiary qualifications

3

100+

28

2

4

Number of years operating in SA

21

44

31

4

25

Private

Public

Private

Private

Private

4

4

1

4

4

No

Yes

Yes

No

No

Belt, Pipe

Belt, Bucket, Chain, Pocket, Pipe

Belt

Belt

Belt

▪ Overland

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

▪ Underground

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

▪ Bulk Handling Machines (stackers, reclaimers, loaders etc)

-

-

ü

-

-

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

R2 m

R250 m

R300 000

R325 000

R224 000

21

5

20

36

14

R3 m

R180 m

R3 m

R220 000

R950 000

10 000

-

2 200

8 000

4 000

▪ Conceptualisation to commissioning

ü

-

-

ü

-

▪ Work to specification

-

ü

-

-

-

▪ Sub-contractor for specifics

-

ü

-

ü

ü

▪ Turnkey

-

-

-

-

-

▪ Manufacture and delivery to site

-

-

ü

ü

-

▪ Assembly on site

-

-

ü

ü

-

▪ Commissioning

ü

-

ü

ü

ü

▪ On-site supervision

ü

-

ü

ü

-

▪ Personnel training

ü

-

ü

ü

ü

▪ On-site annual shutdown service

-

-

ü

ü

ü

Number of export orders: over past 5 years

30

Multiple

1 000

5

-

CAD and/or CAM facilities

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

CMA

CMA, SAIMH, International Dry Bulk Terminals Group

CMA

-

Name of company

Ownership BEE rating ISO Accredited Type of conveyors handled Primary area of expertise:

Contract to supply and install: ancillary items such as crushers, chutes, screens, apron feeders, etc Total value of last two contracts Number of projects completed in 2017 Value of largest contract completed in past 5 years Size of largest contract in terms of tons conveyed per hour Capabilities:

Service support:

Professional affiliations

14

BULK HANDLING TODAY

CMA, ECSA, SAIMechE, SAIMH

November/December 2018

CONVEYOR SURVEY

DemcoTECH Engineering

ELB Engineering Services

Lorbrand

Mato Products

Megaroller Industries

Melco Conveyor Equipment

25

165

190

17

50 - 100

343

16

81

38

5

-

23

20

99

33

32

-

48

Private

Private

Private

Private

Private

Private

2

4

4

4

-

2

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Belt, Pipe

Belt

Belt

Belt, Pipe

Belt, Bucket, Cable, Belt, Bucket, Chain, Chain, Pipe, Pocket, Pipe, Pocket, Pneumatic, Sandwich, Pneumatic, Sandwich, Screw, Spiral Screw, Spiral

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

ü

-

-

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

-

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

R260 m

R577 m

R42 m

-

-

R19.2 m

3

13

48

-

-

98

R250 m turnkey

R1.8 b

R110 m

-

-

R78 m

12 000

7 200

22 500

-

-

15 000

ü

ü

-

-

ü

-

ü

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

-

ü

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

ü

-

-

-

-

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

-

-

ü

ü

-

-

-

-

ü

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

-

ü

-

ü

-

-

-

-

5

47

800+

850

-

750+

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SAIPE

CMA

CMA, MEIBC

-

CMA

CMA, SAIMH, SEIFSA

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

15

CONVEYOR SURVEY

Nepean Conveyors

Rula Bulk Materials Handling

Sure Guide

Takraf Africa

Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions

Total Number of Employees

21

118

23

175

344

Employees with tertiary qualifications

6

60

3

86

55%

Number of years operating in SA

23

46

24

99

30+

Ownership

Private and Subsidiary

Private

Private

Subsidiary of Overseas Principal

Subsidiary of Overseas Principal

BEE rating

4

3

2

2

4

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Belt

Belt, Chain, Bucket, Screw, Pneumatic, Cable

Belt

Belt, Bucket, Chain, Pipe, Pocket, Pneumatic

Belt, Cable, Pipe

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü -

Name of company

ISO Accredited Type of conveyors handled Primary area of expertise: ▪ Overland ▪ Underground

ü

ü

ü

-

▪ Bulk Handling Machines (stackers, reclaimers, loaders etc)

-

ü

ü

ü

ü

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Total value of last two contracts

R35 m

R700 m

-

+R400 m

R60 m

Number of projects completed in 2017

5

Multiple

-

15

20

Value of largest contract completed in past 5 years

R30 m

R800 m

-

R300 m

R1.2 b

Size of largest contract in terms of tons conveyed per hour

8 000

4 000

-

1 200

10 000

▪ Conceptualisation to commissioning

ü

ü

-

ü

ü

▪ Work to specification

ü

ü

-

ü

ü

▪ Sub-contractor for specifics

ü

ü

-

-

ü

▪ Turnkey

ü

ü

-

ü

ü

▪ Manufacture and delivery to site

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

▪ Assembly on site

ü

ü

-

ü

ü

▪ Commissioning

ü

ü

-

ü

ü

▪ On-site supervision

ü

ü

ü

ü

ü

▪ Personnel training

ü

ü

-

ü

ü

▪ On-site annual shutdown service

ü

-

-

ü

ü

Number of export orders: over past 5 years

5

7

120+

15

-

CAD and/or CAM facilities

Yes

-

Yes

Yes

Yes

Professional affiliations

CMA

CMA

-

CMA, ECSA, SAIMH

CMA

Contract to supply and install: ancillary items such as crushers, chutes, screens, apron feeders, etc

Capabilities:

Service support:

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

17

Tailor-made Full-driveline Solution

V

oith has a long engineering tradition in the mining industry and its name is synonymous with reliability, robustness and efficiency.

Rethinking its supplier approach was the next natural development step to be made to offer more value-added services to customers.

Thus, Voith drive packages today offer not only lower acquisition costs and an easier commissioning, but also the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry.

motor, gearbox, connecting coupling, base frame and a control unit.

The determination of the most appropriate drive system for the operation is based on customers specific requirements.

Engineering of entire drivelines is only the beginning of long-term partnerships with the customer.

The tailor-made service packages include not only classical repair and maintenance but also preventive service. The technology group has put its focus

In recent times the company has added not only new products but also many new services to their portfolio. The holistic concept starts with the engineering services for full-driveline solutions and the optimisation of existing drivelines.

Voith designs and engineers complete drive solutions underpinned by their extensive knowledge, skills and technical expertise.

Among other components, drive packages include

18

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

Custom-made driveline for a belt conveyor

SINGLE SOURCE SUPPLIER

TurboBelt 500 TPXL offers intelligent driving for belt conveyor systems

now on efficiency with their newest developments, the digital mining tools of the BeltGenius family, Alex and Eric.

Belt conveyor systems The company has recently launched its new TurboBelt 500 TPXL fluid coupling. This fillcontrolled coupling is the first model in the new TPXL family, which combines the advantages of the proven hydrodynamic drive principle with intelligent control technology. The integrated controller makes it possible to adapt the output torque of the coupling exactly to the start-up parameters of the belt conveyor system.

In addition, Voith engineers have been able to considerably reduce the dimensions of the new coupling. The TurboBelt 500 TPXL only requires half the volume of conventional coupling types for the same force transmission. In addition to the operational advantages, this new series of couplings offers attractive procurement and operating costs.

With BeltGenius Eric (Efficiency & Reliability Intelligence Control), users can boost efficiency and slash system downtime by evaluating digital simulations of entire conveyor systems during operation. The best thing is that these models calculate the relevant forces with accuracy better than 99% - predicting failures before they happen.

Since there is no need for the expert to be present on site, operators can save time and money by identifying issues via a digital application Maintenance costs With the remote service data helmet, Vocus, operators can easily receive equipment information from a centralised Voith specialist and exchange details via pictures, drawings and sketches. Since there is no need for the expert to be present on site, operators can save time and money by identifying issues via a digital application. The worker at site is therefore able to act like an extended arm of the expert and will be guided by him accordingly.

Furthermore, the equipment can be used to assist repair, measurement and individual training.

Voith Turbo www.voith.com

Alignment Belt skewing, excessive energy consumption and high spare part costs are the result when belt conveyors are not properly aligned. When excessive wear occurs, complete belt sections have to be replaced. BeltGenius Alex detects any misalignment of the belt and helps the user increase the lifetime of their mining equipment, leading to significant cost reductions.

Alex is Voith’s ALignment EXpert, detecting potentially wasteful issues in idler installations. Newly designed 3D sensors allow an extremely high accuracy level for a maximum benefit.

The remote service data helmet, Vocus, reduces downtimes and maintenance costs.

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

19

FIRE SUPPRESSION

Protecting Conveyors

Fire protection system installed on a trackless mining machine

Building on its established reputation in proximity detection systems (PDS), Booyco Electronics is now also offering the latest fire suppression technologies to help customers manage their health and safety risk.

I

t was a natural extension of our business to move into fire suppression,” says Anton Lourens, managing director of Booyco Electronics. “As experts in PDS detection, our equipment is vital in detecting potential dangers around TMM’s. Now we can also offer the latest suppression systems as part of the total solution from a single service provider thereby creating a better value proposition.”

This is an important step forward from existing dry chemical powder-based fire suppression systems, which either extinguish the fire by suffocation or by chemical inhibition but do not address the issue of cooling Anton emphasises that the effectiveness of fire detection and suppression systems is becoming a more urgent issue for mines as there are new SANS standards being formulated for fire detection and suppression systems on heavy duty mining machines.

He says the company will be the preferred distributor for Advanced Automation Systems (AAS), the company which exclusively markets the Dafo brand of vehicle fire protection and FirePro aerosol-based extinguishing systems in South Africa.

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“We believe that AAS is a market leader in multiple offerings that hold great value for our existing customer base in the mining and related industrial sectors,” says Anton. “Our long established geographical footprint, sound reputation and strong relationships in the market will, in turn, offer great opportunities for AAS to grow its impact.”

Bottomline performance He highlights the technological advances built into these products, emphasising that mines are more than ever needing to embrace new technologies for more effective technical and bottomline performance.

The Dafo products, a world-renowned brand based in Sweden, include a wet chemical-based system that is engineered to inhibit the chemical reaction of the fire while extensively cooling the hot surface and finally creating a film forming to prevent further re-ignition.

“This is an important step forward from existing dry chemical powder-based systems, which either extinguish the fire by suffocation or by chemical inhibition but do not address the issue of cooling, Cooling is vital if the fire is to be completely extinguished and for no possibility of re-ignition to exist."

FIRE SUPPRESSION

FirePro products are non-corrosive, non-conductive, non-toxic and environmentally friendly

virtually no maintenance requirements. These products are non-corrosive, non-conductive, non-toxic and environmentally friendly.

Fit-for-purpose These systems can therefore protect enclosures of any volumetric size, from less than a cubic metre to thousands of cubic metres, which makes them suitable for equipment such as motor control centres, electrical panels, substations, mini-substations, ehouses and electrical mining skids.

He adds that the use of wet chemical rather than dry chemical powder also reduces the maintenance requirements, as it is not affected by the vibration of the machine and is non-corrosive, non-toxic, environmentally friendly and water soluble. The system can be used on load-haul dumpers, utility vehicles and other underground machinery, as well as surface shovels and haulers. It is also suitable for conveyors and other materials handling equipment.

Stored as a solid FirePro Systems is also a global brand, with installations in over 110 countries, and is a leader in condensed aerosol fire extinguishing technology.

In contrast to traditional methods, FirePro aerosol extinguishes fire by inhibiting the chemical chain reactions present in combustion on a molecular level – removing the flame free radicals and extinguishing fire without depleting oxygen.

The aerosol is stored as a solid and under no pressure which gives the product an extended life span with

“Both the Dafo and FirePro offerings come with environmental advantages, which will be required by the new standards on fire suppression,” says Anton.

“The standards will also include a performance test, to ensure that technology being offered is fit-forpurpose and reliable before it can be approved.”

These systems can therefore protect enclosures of any volumetric size, from less than a cubic metre to thousands of cubic metres He concludes that Booyco Electronics will be putting its weight behind these systems because they are proven and will ensure optimal reliability; the company also ensures that its strong support network of skilled personnel is in place to implement and maintain these solutions.

Booyco Electronics Anton Lourens Tel: 0861 BOOYCO (266926) Email: anton@booyco-electronics.co.za www.booyco-electronics.co.za

Dymot Engineering Company (PTY) LTD Specialist Designers & Manufacturers of Winching Systems WORLD OF WINCHES

FirePro products extinguish fire by inhibiting the chemical chain reactions

Market leaders in conveyor tensioning equipment Take up winches with Overload Protection Gravity Counterweight Handling Braked Capstans Screw Take Ups Hand & Motorised Winches Electrical Control Panels & Systems Sheaves 11 DERRICK ROAD, SPARTAN, KEMPTON PARK SOUTH AFRICA +27 11 970 1920 sales@dymot.co.za www.dymot.co.za

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FUEL FILTRATION

Improving run time capacity A total fuel-filtration solution has ensured that a haul-truck fleet at a large copper mine in Zambia has achieved utilisation rates of between 85% and 90%, after previously experiencing operational difficulties relating to substandard fuel qualities, which had reduced the fleet’s run-time capacity to 65%.

T

he haul trucks were not achieving the targeted 350-hours service intervals on the fuel filters due to sporadic blockages.

Fitted with Cummins QSK50 MCRS engines, onboard filter, injector, and injector-pump failures were occurring.

Cummins Filtration was requested to supply a solution to ensure that the fuel was delivered to the injectors at the correct cleanliness levels, allowing the fleet to achieve its intended service hours.

A Fleetguard service team was dispatched to the mine to carry out site surveys to investigate the bulk-fuel storage system and on-board filtration.

The bulk fuel was found to be cloudy and muddy, which meant it had not been delivered according to specification. “We found that the fuel contained water and fungus,” Cummins Filtration Africa Mining Manager Tinus Naude explains. Fungus only propagates in fuel in the presence of free water, which therefore increases the likelihood of injector failures occurring.

Cummins Filtration inspected the mine’s on-engine filtration system. The engines themselves were also inspected, including the on-board filtration systems.

“Part of our recommendations were to fix the water contamination situation in the

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fuel. We contracted clean-fuel solutions provider SupaFuel as an independent party to verify that, in fact, water was present in the fuel, to put the correct maintenance practices in place, and to manage the mine’s bulk fuel system. It also implemented the recommendation from Fleetguard in terms of the mine’s on-board filtration systems,” Tinus elaborates.

Water SupaFuel Owner Chris Chow, a qualified mining engineer, adds that it produced a report on the mine’s bulk fuel situation highlighting that it contained water. Therefore the water had to be removed in order to maintain the cleanliness standard of the bulk fuel to ensure that the quality of the fuel was sufficient to be used in the engines without any subsequent damage.

Cummins Filtration upgraded the mine’s first-stage bulk fuel filtration system to a FH239 Series Industrial Pro in the first stage of the upgrade, which provides the best contaminant removal efficiency available at 99.9% efficiency or ß1000 @ 7 micron.

During the second stage, a FF5782 fuel filter was installed with an all-in-one fuel/water separator with NanoNet media. NanoNet provides a final-stage filtration solution using the same nanofibre media technology as in the Fleetguard

FUEL FILTRATION NanoForce air filters. The nanofibres woven into the media help capture and retain contaminants more efficiently, improving performance by up to 13 times of standard filters.

Service intervals The advantage of the FH239 Series Industrial Pro is that it meets, and exceeds, OEM efficiency requirements, while the 67% increased media area ensures greater engine protection, providing for the highest level of fuel/water separation, and reduced flow restriction by up to 9%.

“Since the solution was implemented, the mine’s downtime has reduced significantly, as injector and fuel-pump failures are substantially fewer. This has provided for longer service intervals on the haul trucks, increased oil lifespan, and improved equipment availability, which has equated to significant improvement in production volumes at the mine,

Investigation of the bulk fuel storage system and on-board filtration

while generating substantial savings and reducing the total cost of ownership,” Tinus concludes.

Cummins Deepa Rungasamy Tel: (011) 589-8512 Email: deepa.rungasamy@cummins.com

A haul truck fleet at a zambian copper mine experienced substandard fuel qualities

DELIVERING TOP PROJECTS TAKRAF Africa offers innovative, reliable and sustainable solutions in mining and metals.

From excavation and comminution, environmental control, conveying and stockyards, through to loading and unloading, we have the systems and expertise.

Including locally based spares and support.

TAKRAF Africa 96 Loper Avenue, Aeroport, Spartan Kempton Park, 1619, South Africa T: +27 11 201 2300 takraf.afr@tenova.com www.takraf.com

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

23

TRACE Inte is a globa anti-br or leading pr party risk

TRACE due diligence solutions are based on internationally accepted best practices and our experience and familiarity with the compliance needs of multinational companies. Services range from a denied parties screening to enhanced due diligence, including TRACE Certified Due Diligence.

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The ‘BIG FIVE’ 600 ton lattice boom crawler crane towering over the 275 tonner.

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LIFTING

J

ohnson Crane Hire is a home grown South African business, and like the 'big five' we are firmly rooted in Africa,” Peter Yaman, sales executive at Johnson Crane Hire, says. “Just as the big five have adapted to their natural environment, so have we succeeded in adapting to our economic environment, which is not always easy.”

275 tonner in the foreground being rigged to be lifted by the 600 ton crawler in the background

Peter describes the company’s LR 750-ton crawler crane as the elephant in the fleet: “This is a brute of a crane, with the ability to lift over 100 African elephants at once – with each of these great beasts weighing five tons or more.”

Of course, we also have our zebras and impalas in the form of our 20 ton and 30 ton cranes, as well as our access platforms

A herd animal Next in line is the LR 600 crawler crane, displaying the toughness of a buffalo. He notes that the buffalo is also the ultimate herd animal, reflecting the company’s focus on teamwork to get every job successfully and safely accomplished.

600 ton LR 1600/2 lattice boom crawler crane configured with main boom, derrick and superlift attachment

“The rhino is the creature that comes to mind when talking about our powerful Kobelco 400 ton crawler crane,” he says, “as they share the attributes of ruggedness, durability and stability.”

At the same time, heavy lifting requires speed, precision and agility, qualities that make the LTM 750 ton hydraulic mobile crane comparable to the leopard.

Last but certainly not least is the LG 750 ton lattice boom crane, which Peter compares with the lion, king of the jungle and a force of nature and leadership.

600 ton LR 1600/2 lattice boom crawler crane positioned on support mats and configured with main boom and derrick

Zebras and impalas “Leadership in safety and in lifting is what we are passionate about, being driven to attain ‘SMART’ lifting – through safety, maintenance, availability, reliability and total cost effectiveness – as our brand promise,” he says. “Of course, we also have our zebras and impalas in the form of our 20 ton and 30 ton cranes, as well as our access platforms.”

Ranked among the top crane hire companies in the world, Johnson Crane Hire operates the largest mobile crane fleet in Africa, with strategically located operations to ensure quick delivery and ongoing support to customers. Outside of South Africa, it is actively engaged in several African countries including Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and Zambia.

Johnson Crane Hire Peter Yaman Tel: (011) 455-9242 www.jch.co.za

Johnson Crane Hire access equipment on display

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ENDORSER OF “BULK HANDLING TODAY”

LIFTING EQUIPMENT ENGINEERING ASSOCIATION OF SA

• A recognised ECSA Voluntary Association (VA) •

LEEASA is a fully-fledged association devoted to the lifting industry across Southern Africa. Members hale from the crane, forklift, mobile elevated work platform, aerial and suspended access platform, chain hoists, rigging and lifting tackle arenas, etc. Primarily devoted to the LMI’s (Lifting Machinery Inspectors), and LME’s (Lifting Machinery Entities), the association considers safety paramount. As such it serves in an advisory capacity to the SABS, the Department of Labour, various training bodies and the industry at large. LEEASA is recognised by ECSA as a voluntary association.

What’s in it for you:

As an Individual member who is registered as a Lifting Machinery Inspector (LMI), you may qualify for any concessionary fee granted by ECSA (this could save you over R1 000 a year).

and other training courses accredited by the association attract ECSA CPD points.

ECSA registered LEEASA members are awarded one Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credit each year. CPD is an ECSA requirement to retain registration.

Members benefit from the collective power of a recognised and established association and collective co-ordination in dealing with authorities in policy making and matters concerning the industry.

Members obtain a discount on LEEASA seminars. Both these

LEEASA has some 650 members (Individuals and Companies).

• • •

LEEASA Occupational Health & Safety Act and Regulations LEEASA Mine Health & Safety Act and Regulations LEEASA Lifting Equipment Inspection & Legal Compliance Register

Available for purchase online at www.leeasa.co.za

1

LIFTING EQUIPMENT ENGINEERING ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA Head Office: 8 Boris Road, Bordeaux, Randburg, Johannesburg Tel: 074 900 8378 • www.leeasa.co.za Secretary: Arni Sommer • email: arni@leeasa.co.za

BULK HANDLING TODAY

February 2012

BELTCON 19

The Safe Operation of Belt Conveyor Systems in the Mining Industry: The Development of Legal Prescriptions Within the South African Context Jaco Swartz

'South Africa has over the years built up a mining industry to be proud of. Our mining engineers and technicians have a high reputation, our equipment is without parallel and conditions of work, wages and social benefits of our miners are being continuously improved. This is a rosy picture, but there is the dark side as well. Mining is a hazardous occupation and in spite of improved machinery, methods, and conditions, accidents continue to occur.'

W

hile the above statement may well have been made today, it is in fact a comment made by the Minister of Mines in 1962. This quotation highlights the fact that the focus on health and safety matters in the mining industry is nothing new.

a moral obligation to continuously protect his employees against unnecessary hazards that may endanger their health and safety. In a perfect world, if the statement holds true, it would not be necessary to have any health and safety legislation. This would be a social as well as a moral norm.

This paper aims to illustrate the development of legal rules, within the mining industry, to address the risks posed by conveyor belt installations.

As such, it focuses on the historical need for rules dealing with workplace risks in general followed by how the specific rules regarding conveyor belt installations have developed. In terms of dealing with conveyor belt installations specifically, the situation pre- and post-1996 will be dealt with.

Why then the need for legislative control? While some of the core drivers for the existence of health and safety legislation in South Africa are discussed here, the simple reason that there is legislation creating minimum standards for workplace health and safety, is the same reason laws exist making a person punishable for robbery or housebreaking. We cannot assume that all persons will at all times act in a way which is for the greater good.

Why legislate for health and safety?

1. The employer – Employee relationship

'Although larger accidents killing a hundred or more prompted safety legislation, ongoing threats, such as small cave-ins, attracted far less regulatory attention, and miners turned to other safety measures, such as befriending the mine rats. Notoriously bigger, meaner and uglier than surface rats, mine rats were thought to sense subtle shifts in the mine workings; if they suddenly scurried away, the miners followed….one observed; “It is a common sight to see a miner feeding half a dozen or more rats from his dinner pail.

Frequently they become so tame that they will climb on a miner’s lap as he sits at his lunch and crowd around him to receive such portions of his meal as he has taught them to expect.' - Freese, Barbara. Coal – a human history. London:

Arrow Books 2003.

While the description above of mining conditions in the British coal industry around 1898 may not be relevant today, it does contain some of the key issues the mining industry faces in South Africa in the 21st century.

First, it is apparent that legislation, then as now, is written in blood. In other words, the legislature responds to industry trends and norms by implementing or amending legislation on an ongoing basis.

Another point raised in the quotation is the fact that not all potential risks in mining are specifically dealt with in legislation. As illustrated, an example would be conveyor belt installations prior to 1996. Where risks were not specifically regulated, the manager or employer still had the general legal obligation to identify the 'rats' required to enable employees to work safely. This, however, has its own legal implications.

As reasonable persons, it is assumed that the reasonable employer (ie, a normal employer) would accept that he has

Historically, throughout the world, there has been a very close relationship between the rise of employee unionisation and the increase in workplace standards in terms of health and safety legislation. The root of this goes back to the dawn of the industrial revolution. While this is not a purely South African phenomenon, the relationship between the employer and employee union is one which has had a major impact on the political scenery, stretching back as far as the 1880s.

As individual employees had very little or no power against the might of the employer, they banded together in order to collectively protect their rights, including denying the employer their labour by striking.

The first formally organised union in South Africa was established in 1881, when the joiners and woodworkers on the Rand unionised. The reason for the unionisation of skilled labourers and miners was to a large extent due to the fact that skills were scarce, and had to be imported. Most of the skilled labour was imported from Britain, mostly Cornwall or Northumberland in England, and from mines in Scotland and Wales, where they had been unionised. They brought these principles with them to South Africa.

One of the first examples of organised industrial action in South Africa took place in 1883 in the then Cape Colony.

Diamonds had first been discovered in the area of what would later become Kimberley in 1871, which was followed by 'diamond fever', when prospectors from all over the world rushed to the Griekwaland diamond fields. By the 1880s, most of the prospectors had either disappeared, or were in the employment of big companies which had taken over most of the claims.

The Mining Act of 1883 gave these employers far reaching

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BELTCON 19

rights, including the principle of job reservation which remained in the South African mining legislation under the Union Mines and Works Act in 1911. The De Beers Consolidated Mine, in the climate of the legislation, forced all workers, except managers, to work in overalls, and to take off all clothing in change houses at the end of their shifts where they were searched for hidden diamonds. Employees embarked on a strike, demonstrations and looting, calling this 'degrading'.

The De Beers company retracted its policy after this, allowing the striking employees to dress in normal work clothing, and to be searched while clothed with shoes removed. Another example of an early strike was the Randfontein Mine strike in 1897.

What most of the early strikers had in common was that they were primarily unhappy with their employment conditions.

These strikes were predominantly about money and benefits, including wages. During the course of the latter part of the last century, unions played a very prominent role in the general political landscape. While wages and conditions of work, including health and safety issues, were still seen as grounds for industrial action, trade unions became, to a large extent, politicised beyond pure labour issues.

Since 1994, while the political nature of trade unions is still evident there has been an increased focus on traditional workplace issues. An example of this was the increased involvement of the trade union movement in matters of workplace health and safety, as can be seen in the newspaper report below.

The department of Minerals and Energy last week said that Gold Fields, the world’s fourth biggest gold producer, had the worst mine death record in the country so far this year.

According to Business Report Gold Fields recorded 47 deaths in the year to last month, including 23 deaths in the first half of this year. Overall, mining deaths were down by 22 percent, but Gold Fields recorded one of its worst years in history, the department said. “There is a total negligence and disregard for safety standards and procedures. Management is not taking health and safety seriously,” Bailey told Sapa.

“We will stage a one-day national strike. All Gold Fields operations in South Africa will be affected,” he said, adding that a date had yet to be finalised. The mass action would either take place in the last week of July or early August.

Gold Fields spokesman Daniel Tole told Business Report that most deaths were “freak accidents”. Some 19 people had died in four such accidents in the first half of this year.

In the past eight years, almost 300 deaths had occurred at Gold Fields mines.

While there is no doubt that trade unions have historically impacted on government policy, the specific relationship that the trade union movement has with government in South Africa will in future have an even greater impact on health and safety legislation.

2. Society demands legislation

JOHANNESBURG - The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will stage a nationwide strike to protest against the high number of deaths at Gold Fields mines, a spokesman said on Monday.

The general public perception is that mining and its related activities are dangerous. While many persons involved in the industry can point out that the mining sector has a better safety record than, for example, the transport industry, the negative perception regarding mining can to some extent be traced back to actual performance.

“Gold Fields is the leading killer this year. It is almost every month that Gold Fields has a fatality and we cannot go on like this,” said NUM health and safety spokesman Peter Bailey.

Historically, South African health and safety performance has been poor. In 1886, the De Beers Kimberley Central Mine had a fatality rate of 150 per thousand persons employed.

NUM plans national Gold Fields strike

THE HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN MINING LEGISLATION Small scale mining took place throughout southern Africa during the iron age, although it is commonly accepted that industrialised mining in South Africa had its origins in the Kimberley diamond mines after 1867.

Evidence of earlier organised mining does however, exist.

Copper and tin mining activities stretch back to at least 1544, when a Portuguese expedition to Delagoa Bay mentioned that rough refined copper was available for trade. What points to organised mining is the fact that the copper offered for sale in Delagoa originated in the Limpopo province.

MINING AND LEGISLATION PRIOR TO 1910

The discovery of the Kimberley Diamond Fields around the mid 1860s brought with it changes which would have a large impact on the nature of South African mining. After the initial discovery, a flood of fortune seekers rushed to the diamond fields from all over the world. Initially, traditional methods of alluvial mining were used which entailed the washing of diamond-carrying sand to extract diamonds. This method was unsophisticated, and required very little specialist knowledge.

Over time, the nature of mining started to change. The alluvial diggings became exhausted and mining of the Kimberlite pipes started. This required more skill and capital, and slowly at first, the small claim holder was forced from the diggings. At

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the same time a severe drought, and several mud slides as a result of mining becoming deeper and deeper, forced most of the marginal claim owners to sell their claims. The last straw came when mining reached the water table, and all mining stopped. This meant that only capital rich companies, backed by wealthy financiers, were left able to mine. This was the start of the big mining corporation in South Africa.

It is important to understand the relationship between the big corporations and financiers and the government. The mining industry had a huge impact on the government of the day, and as a result a direct impact on mining legislation. This is illustrated by the fact that Cecil John Rhodes, who founded the De Beers Mining Company in 1880, was elected to the Cape Colony Government in April 1881, and eventually became Prime Minister in 1890.

It was during his time as a member of parliament for the colony that the Cape Colony Mining Act of 1883 was promulgated. The Act dealt almost exclusively with issues that were close to the mine owners’ interests and served to protect their investments. (As has been discussed, this gave rise to one of the first examples of industrial action.) The legislation had no reference to health and safety.

The discovery of the world's largest gold reserves in the Zuid

BELTCON 19

Unfortunately, the public at large come to hear of occupational health and safety matters as a result of major disasters. Tragically this happens often in South Africa’s mining industry, a case in point being the Vaal Reefs disaster of May 1995, in which 104 lives were lost as a result of a locomotive crashing through its safety barriers and down the shaft, invoking greater public outcry than any previous modern mine accident.

Mine

Year

Fatalities

Coalbrook

1960

437

Kinross

1986

177

Durban Navigation Collieries

1926

125

Vaal Reefs

1995

104

Natal Navigation Collieries

1923

78

as prominent in the media as at present. In the not too distant past, media attention was only given to mining disasters with multiple fatalities, whereas even accidents which do not result in fatalities are now deemed newsworthy.

This implies that the threshold of what the broader society sees as acceptable has changed over time. What has remained the same is the fact that government has to act, and a good example of this is the presidential audits requested by then President Mbeki.

President Mbeki in 2007 instructed the then Department of Minerals and Energy to perform audits on the South African mining industry. This followed a spate of mining accidents, including 3 200 mineworkers being trapped underground for almost 48 hours at Harmony Gold’s Elandsrust Mine. One can only speculate, but the amount of media attention given to this, which potentially could have resulted in one of the world's biggest mining disasters, forced government to act.

It is also widely accepted that this led to the amendment of the Mine Health and Safety Act, 29 of 1996 through the promulgation of the Mine Health and Safety Amendment Bill on 28 May 2009.

Table 1. Top five South African mining disasters

The statement is often made that the South African mining legislation is written in blood. If the above table is taken into account, this is easy to understand. Where the public has a certain perception regarding a threat to its well-being (as is the case of mine health and safety), government has to act. In part, this is related to the social contract that is entered into in any democratic form of government. Society gives government power, through an elective process. In return for receiving this political power, government must act on the mandate that they were given for receiving power.

This mandate includes providing society with such things as transport infrastructure and medical facilities, but also includes the mandate for the protection of society, including protection at work.

3. If there was no Act

Mine health and safety in South Africa is governed by statute.

As is seen later, the primary source or statute regarding health and safety in mining is contained in the Mine Health and Safety Act. But what if there was no specific act dealing with health and safety and by default, conveyor installations?

The following statement made by Judge Tindall in Barker v Union Government may serve as an indication of the possible situation if there were no statute or Act:

It is interesting to note that while there has been a general improvement in health and safety performance in the mining industry (fatalities in the industry numbered 533 in 1995 and 73 in 2016 ), the perception of the safety at mines in general is still poor. To a large extent this is driven by the media, as health and safety matters have never before been

“Absolute safety under all circumstances is not guaranteed to the labourer by the contract of employment. The employer is not an insurer. He is not bound to provide the best machinery, nor to provide the best possible methods

Afrikaansche Republic’s Heidelberg district in 1886 closely followed the experience of the Cape Colony diamond fields.

At first, gold bearing rock was mined where outcrops were visible above the surface. As in the Cape Colony, a rush of prospectors to the Witwatersrand took place. Initially, winning the gold from the ore was relatively straightforward, using simple mechanical means.

Once the surface outcrops were depleted, from around 1895, prospectors and small miners faced the same scenario as in the Cape diamond fields. Underground mining was capital intensive, and specialist underground mining knowledge was required. This led to many of the smaller prospectors selling their claims, and began the process of consolidating the smaller operations into large gold mining operations.

The underground mining operations were also exceedingly dangerous, with the Standard and Diggers’ newspaper of 10 June 1899 reporting a 20% mortality rate per annum for underground labour in selected deep mines.

The final death knell for the independent miners was when underground workings started to strike pyritic quartz ore, sometimes as shallow as 120 feet below the surface. A sense of panic gripped the gold fields, as traditional mechanical methods were not able to free the gold from the hard rock, and the stock market crashed. The only way to win the gold

would be through a very expensive and complicated chlorination process. Unbeknown to other mining operations, a cyanide process was obtained by Wernher, Beit and Company (later to become Rand Mines) which solved the problem, but this was the final act in consolidating the gold industry in South Africa, and left a huge amount of power in the hands of a few.

Other than in the Cape Colony, the mining houses in the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) did not have a direct means of impacting on government policy – in other words on mining legislation. In fact, there was deep mistrust between the government and the mining houses, as the ZAR saw the mines, owned and managed by foreigners, as a direct threat to its survival. In addition, the labour intensive mining industry competed directly with the farming industry, traditionally the ZAR’s backbone, for labour. Because of the mistrust between the two factions, other than in the Cape, legislation was not drafted to protect the mine owners specifically. The first mining legislation in the ZAR was promulgated in 1870, but it, and the laws that followed up to 1898, did not directly concern health and safety, and the mining houses saw these laws as acting against them.

To prove the point, the ZAR Gold Act of 1898 protected the rights of the owner of the land on which mineral rights were discovered. The fact that this right was often enforced at

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BELTCON 19

for its operation, in order to relieve himself from responsibility. He is only required to furnish instrumentalities that are reasonably and ordinarily safe and well adapted to the purpose for which they are designed.”

If no laws or legislated rules existed for health and safety in mining, the South African common law would be applicable.

If common law had to be relied upon to regulate mining, it would have a great impact on both the employer and employee, as no specific and easily identifiable obligations would have existed. The technical and specialised nature of mining and its related activities would also have made the application of generic common law principles difficult.

Another issue is the ability of the common law to develop.

While development of the common law continuously takes place, the development is driven by our courts. In short, when a court interprets the common law, all other courts are bound by it, until a higher court changes the interpretation. It is easy to understand that this takes time, and that it will be impossible to quickly react to, for example, new technology in mining, or when a disaster has taken place.

4. Normal legal remedies are not adequate

The contract of employment between an employer and an employee contains those stipulations that regulate the relationship between the two. There were those in the past who held that health and safety matters could be regulated through the contract of employment by stipulating the responsibilities of the employer and the duties of the employee. In theory, this is not impossible.

Where this does come short is in enforcing the stipulations of the employment contract. Normally, where a breach of contract takes place, the party who is in breach may be forced to specific compliance with the terms of the contract. This would not serve to protect the employee where an accident has taken place as a result of the employer's non-compliance with contractual health and safety issues.

The employment contract of the employee itself would not the cost of the foreign prospectors and miners led to further distrust between mines and government.

The mining houses’ inability to protect its interests through influencing legislation is perhaps one of the core reasons for the outbreak of the Anglo Boer War in 1899.

THE POSITION FROM 1902 TO 1910

Following the British victory in the Anglo Boer War in 1902, one of the colonial administration's prime objectives was to get gold production back to pre-war levels in order to pay for the war and reconstruct the country. To allow for this, several new pieces of legislation were drafted relating to mining, but the central theme of the new legislation was the advancement of mining interests. One example of this relates to the importation of Chinese labourers, who were willing to work for cheaper wages than local labour, in terms of the Labour Importation Ordinance of 1904 and the protection of jobs through implementing a formal colour bar.

Some of the mining legislation implemented in this period in the Transvaal colony includes: 1903 - Mines, Works and Machinery Ordinance – Replaced the ZAR Gold Act. 1906 - Mining Regulations – Prescribed the minimum daily dietary allowance for workers etc.

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provide him/her with much recourse against his/her employer for an injury sustained at work. He/she could consider bringing a civil claim for the injuries against his employer but to do so he would have to prove, on a balance of probabilities, that his employer’s negligence resulted in his injuries.

This is not something the average employee would be able to do. Pursuing a civil remedy could possibly lead to victimisation by the employer, and the prohibitive costs and the lengthy process would further make it an impractical remedy.

Such a scenario would not necessarily motivate the employer to take all reasonable steps to safeguard the health and safety of his employees. Thus, the need for legislation that makes an irresponsible attitude towards workplace health and safety a criminal offence is required.

5. Legislation creates standards

The lack of legislation implies that both employers and employees would have very little guidance in terms of their respective responsibilities. Where legal standards do not exist, decision making on things like training or machinery would be left for the employer to decide upon. This could then be impacted on by the employer's lack of knowledge or experience, which could lead to incorrect decision making, which in turn could lead to workplace accidents and incidents.

In short, legislation creates enforceable standards that are applicable to the employer, employee and third parties, including suppliers and designers. In essence, these legal standards have two separate but linked characteristics.

First, all legal standards are defined. This means that these legal standards are written and published so that all affected parties have knowledge of it, and what is required of them in any given situation. This does not imply that legal standards do not change. It simply implies that where they are amended or changed, a formal process is followed.

Second, all legal standards are subject to measurement. This measurement may take place in a variety of ways, but could be as simple as physically verifying whether sufficient fire As a whole, the years between 1902 and 1910 can be seen as a period where some of the elements found in the modern mining environment were established.

It can however, also be seen as a period where legislation was severely influenced by capital and pure political needs, which meant that health and safety matters were not automatically at the forefront.

LEGISLATION AFTER 1910.

In the period between 1902 and 1910 there was no South Africa as we know it today. Instead, South Africa consisted of four separate colonies, being the Cape, Transvaal, Free State and Natal, each of which was a separate Crown colony under British control.

At the Peace of Vereeniging following the end of the Anglo Boer War, Britain gave the assurance that the ZAR and Free State would have some form of self-governance in the future.

Although no time frame for this was stipulated, it coincided with a strong movement in the four colonies (the previous British colonies of the Cape and Natal, and the two new colonies being the Transvaal and the Free State) for some form of union between them. It thus came about that the four British colonies in South Africa were combined in the Union of South Africa on 31 May 1910.

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Article 4

extinguishers are present, or whether all trackless mobile machinery operators are licensed. Fundamentally, all laws are standards, the compliance with which is measureable in a court of law.

These previous five points are to a degree purely South African in nature. There is also an international motivator for government to ensure the drafting and enforcement of minimum standards for health and safety. As discussed under point 5, these standards take the form of legislation.

1. The measures for ensuring application of the Convention shall be prescribed by national laws and regulations.

2. Where appropriate, these national laws and regulations shall be supplemented by: a. technical standards, guidelines or codes of practice; or b. other means of application consistent with national practice, As identified by the competent authority.

South Africa is a signatory of the International Labour Organisations Occupational (ILO) Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (which was ratified by South Africa in 2003) and the Occupational Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (which was ratified in 2000), among others.

Article 4 places a duty on the member nation to enact national legislation and regulations concerning health and safety, and calls for it to be supplemented by technical standards, guidelines and codes of practice. This is exactly the format followed by the South African legislature.

The ILO and its more than 140 member nations meet once a year where specific work sessions are held. Each member state is allowed to send four representatives, two representing government, one organised labour and one to represent employers. These representatives have voting rights (independent of one another), which are used to adopt, among others, conventions. This tripartite principle, government, employers and employees, has also been incorporated into South African health and safety legislation.

Article 6, Occupational Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995

6. International obligations

In taking preventive and protective measures under this Part of the Convention the employer shall assess the risk and deal with it in the following order of priority: a. eliminate the risk; b. control the risk at source; c. minimise the risk by means that include the design of safe work systems; and d. in so far as the risk remains, provide for the use of personal protective equipment, having regard to what is reasonable, practicable and feasible, and to good practice and the exercise of due diligence.

Where a convention is adopted by the ILO as a result of the tripartite process, and this is ratified by the member country, it must be adopted as the convention becomes binding on the member nation. The conventions typically contain minimum requirements that have to be incorporated into national legislation. The broad adoption of the health and safety conventions worldwide has made the principles contained in them universal, and there is a lot of commonality in health and safety legislation worldwide. To illustrate how these conventions impact on South African legislation, refer to the two excerpts from the ILO Occupational Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995.

Section 11, Mine Health and Safety Act 2. Every employer, after consulting the health and safety committee at the mine, must determine all measures, including changing the organisation of work and the design of safe systems of work, necessary to: a. eliminate any recorded risk;

This meant that the four colonies would in future have one government, and that, for the first time, laws would be applicable to all four provinces. Following the Union of South Africa Act of 1910, the growth of mining legislation in the Transvaal following the end of the Anglo Boer war was extended to the three other provinces.

that were addressed by the Act are considered, it is clear that many of the topics are covered by the modern MHSA. Some of the key issues that were addressed included:

The first example of mine-specific legislation in terms of health and safety in this period was the adoption of the Mines and Works Act of 1911. This was based on a commission report drafted on a study of the Transvaal mining laws published in 1907. This report was almost exactly taken up in the Mines and Works Act, in other words, the post-war Transvaal legislation was extended to the rest of the country.

THE MINES AND WORKS ACT, 1911

The Mines and Works Act, as explained above, was based on the legal situation in, and work performed by, the then Transvaal Colony. It was the first health and safety legislation which was applicable to the whole of the Union of South Africa.

Its importance cannot be underestimated, as the Act and its various amendments and Regulations led to the Mine Health and Safety Act as it is in force today, and it remained in force from 1911 to 1991, although some of the regulations made under it are still in place today. In fact, if some of the topics

1. Requirements for the appointment of mine managers, shift bosses, engineers etc. The Act further described the competence of the appointees, for example that an engineer as required by the Act had to be in possession of a Government Certificate of Competence (GCC). The first mining engineer (machinery) GCC was awarded on 2 February 1912.

2. The Act specifically regulated hygiene and health in addition to safety. It went so far as to prescribe the minimum dietary requirements in terms of meat and vegetables that employees were to be given per day. In addition to this, the Legislation contained eleven separate regulations on miners’ phthisis and ventilation, and by 1918 there were 63.

3. It demanded that a competent person should be appointed to supervise all pressure vessels. The Act further held that all vessels were to be inspected every two years, while hydraulic tests were to be performed every four years.

(The first recorded accident involving a pressure vessel in the South African mining industry took place in 1896, when a boiler exploded in Langlaagte. It is not recorded how many fatalities this resulted in.)

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b. c. d. i. ii.

control the risk at source; minimise the risk; and in so far as the risk remains provide for personal protective equipment; and institute a programme to monitor the risk to which employees may be exposed.

As can be seen from the excerpts from Article 6 of the Occupational Safety and Health in Mines Convention and Subsection 2 of Section 11 of the Mine Health and Safety Act, international conventions have a direct impact on South African Health and Safety legislation, and strongly influence the form and function of local legislation.

Now that the reasons for the existence of legislation dealing with health and safety matters in the mining industry have been investigated, the specific development thereof will be investigated.

The history of the development of mining health and safety legislation in South Africa 'Mining is inherently dangerous both to life and health.

Those who wish to extract anything from under the surface of the earth by digging a hole must be prepared to devote some of their resources to safety. It is an unnatural activity giving rise to unnatural conditions.

But safety measures invariably cost money and the employer must bear its expenditure. Thus a perpetual conflict of interest arises between employer and employee as to the nature and extent of the safety measures that may be considered reasonably practical and reasonably necessary.'

- Mr. Justice JF Marais. Report, Marais Commission of Inquiry into the Coalbrook disaster

The Coalbrook mining disaster took place on 21 January 1960, when 437 persons died underground at the Coalbrook North Colliery, approximately 22 km. from Vereeniging, as a result of a roof fall in a section of the mine.

This disaster ranks in the top 10 reported mining disasters in the world in terms of fatalities.

The quote by Justice Marais highlights the potentially antagonistic historic relationship between employer and employee.

Traditionally, the employer’s major concern is profit, while the employee’s major concern is personal benefit (wages, secure employment) and personal wellbeing (health and safety).

To balance these two traditionally opposing sets of interest, legislation is implemented to formally manage the relationship between employer and employee in terms of health and safety, through for example the Mine Health and Safety Act. The Mine Health and Safety Act 29 of 1996 (MHSA) is a complex statute regulating health and safety in the mining industry, dealing, among other issues, with conveyor belt installations. It thus reflects the standards society expects when it comes to workplace health and safety, and is the primary source of legal rules that we are concerned with. It is however not a piece of legislation that developed overnight.

The current health and safety legislation is the culmination of more than 120 years of development. As we have already pointed out, the development was influenced by many factors, ranging from workplace accidents to trade unionism as well as the political climate of the day. In addition, mining, and the development and history of South Africa, is closely intertwined, and mining and minerals have to a large extent formed the country as we know it today.

In order to understand and to be able to interpret the modern legislation, it is important to understand the development of not only the legislation itself, but also of the principles contained in it. As Judge Marais wrote, '(mining)…is an unnatural activity giving rise to unnatural conditions.' This has not changed over the past 120 years.

Impact of the Mine and Works Act on conveyor belt installations

The Mines and Works Act and Regulations, in neither its 1911 or 1956 guises, dealt with conveyor belt installations to the same extent as the Mine Health and Safety Act regulations do today.

Instead, an addition to the basic requirements for conveyors

4. It required the provision of ambulances and medical aid in case of an accident.

noted, but no general amendment and simplification of the regulations was made.

5. The Mines and Works Act, 1911 called for government to appoint a government mining engineer. The GME was directly responsible to the governor general of the Union (comparable to the modern-day president of the Republic of South Africa, and was independent from the then Department of Mines.)

So, the body of the regulations kept on growing in a haphazard fashion over the years, in response to both changes in technology and mining methods, as well as in response to mining accidents. It is interesting to note that some of these regulations remain in power today, as even when the Act was ultimately repealed, the regulations remained in power.

6. Where a trivial provision of either the Act or the regulations was breached by a miner, a fine of £5 was payable by the miner in his personal capacity. Miners were summarily tried in inspectors’ courts, chaired by an inspector of mines.

7. The regulations did not specifically deal with conveyor belt installations.

To further regulate matters over which the Mines and Works Act had authority, regulations under the Act were promulgated in 1912. This was however, a period of technical advancement, and it was often necessary to amend regulations with little notice, or apparently little thought. As early as 1925, a Mining Regulation Commission was established to investigate the regulations under the Mines and Works Act. It found, inter alia, that some of the regulations were vague and difficult to interpret. The commission’s report was duly

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A prime example of this is Minerals Act Regulation 2.10.2, initially made under the 1911 Act. It places a duty on the mine manager to not: 'permit any incompetent or inexperienced workman to be employed on dangerous work, or work upon the proper performance of which the safety of person depends.'

The 1925 Mining Regulation Commission found the regulation (then under the Mines and Works Act) to be too vague, as it did not describe what competent would be, and felt it left too much discretion to the manager. More than 84 years later, the Leon Commission of 1995 confirmed this, but to date, 92 years later, the regulation still stands.

The original Mines and Works Act was amended in 1926 and in 1956 replaced with a new Mines and Works Act.

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in Regulation 10, it also dealt with conveyor belt installations broadly, viewing it as machinery, implying that all prescriptions regarding machinery would also apply to individual conveyor belt installations in total but also with respect to its individual components.

The Act, in Section 1 (viii) defined machinery as: 'any engine, boiler or appliance or combination of appliances which is used or intended to be used for the generating, developing, receiving, storing, converting or transforming any form of power or energy or conveying persons, material or mineral and which is situated at a mine or works' In addition to the general regulations applicable to machinery, some specific issues were to be considered.

1. The appointed manager and engineer for the specific mine carried the responsibility for ensuring compliance with the Act and regulations applicable to the conveyor belt installation. The modern approach is to place the responsibility for complying with conveyor belt installation-related legal prescriptions on the employer.

2. While not specific to only conveyor belt installations, the issue of dust liberation and control was addressed in Regulation 10.2.1, which referred to dust exposures as a result of the 'moving or handling' of minerals.

3. The Mines and Works Act Regulations, under 11.4, dealt with belt conveyors. This included the duty placed on the manager to enforce a code of safety practice. This could be seen as the precursor to the latter day requirement for mandatory codes of practice, although no requirement of this to be based on a guideline or for submission to the Department of Mineral Resources or its equivalent was considered. It had to deal with the installation, operation, maintenance and patrolling of the belt conveyor system.

4. It further dealt with fire-fighting requirements along the length of the conveyor and at the driving head. It did not deal with the specific nature of the equipment, save for the requirement that it be for immediate use.

5. It called for the fitting of a device to stop belt operation.

The regulations also developed over the same period. This was however, not the end of the development of the Mines and Works Act. Following the Coalbrook Mine disaster in 1960, the Governor General, C.R. Swart, called for a judicial commission to investigate health and safety in the mining industry. The commission was chaired by Justice J.F. Marais, and was tasked with investigating five key points. These specifically included establishing the efficiency of the Mines and Works Act, as well as the efficiency of the Department of Mines (precursor to the DME and later the Department of Mineral Resources) in enforcing the Act and regulations. The judicial commission submitted its report in 1963.

The commission’s most important findings included the following: 1. Efforts should be made to increase the confidence of the workforce in the inspectorate.

2. The powers of inspectors to close mines or sections of mines should be more detailed in the Act. As with the current Section 54 of the Mine Health and Safety Act, the Mines and Works Act allowed for inspectors to close workplaces, although no rules of practice had been implemented. As such,

This had to be operable from the entire length of the installation, unless an attendant was placed at the driving head in which case steps for signalling to the driving head would suffice.

6. Where belt conveyor installations were used in sequence, interlocking devices were to be put in place.

7. In coal mines, specific prescriptions further applied.

Conveyor belts were to be fire-resistant or incombustible, undefined measures were to be taken to prevent the build-up of coal or coal dust to prevent ignition, and devices were to be installed to stop drive in case of broken or jammed belts or where excessive slipping takes place.

Mines And Works Act Conclusion

The Mines and Works Act with reference to both the 1911 and 1956 versions spans a period of tremendous growth in the mining industry. This growth may be categorised with reference to both the sheer number of persons involved in the industry (101 524 in 1906 versus 623 129 in 1990) as well as the massive changes in technology and mining methods over this period.

Some of the elements of regulation found in the current legal requirements regarding conveyor belt installations may be identified, but even a casual study of the Mines and Works Act Regulation Chapter 11 shows that while some regulation is evident, and possibly somewhat familiar, the requirements are vague. These include: 1. Lack of clearly defined standards, e.g. for fire resistant conveyor belting used in coal mining operations.

2.

The undefined nature of the required 'code of safety practice'.

3. Unspecified nature of fire-fighting equipment required.

The foundations were however, laid for greater future regulation.

Minerals Act, 1991

The Minerals Act was an attempt by government to codify all the different pieces of mining legislation into one enabling statute. At the time, it was government policy to deregulate mine closures were extremely rare. During the Marais commission, the Chamber of Mines admitted that mine closures were sometimes necessary, but should not be implemented where this would affect production.

3. The commission’s proposal was that an inspector would have the power of mine closure, and only where this would not have far reaching effects for the economy. Where a mine closure took place, an appeal by the mine would immediately suspend the order while the appeal was being heard, unless the inspector was of the opinion that suspending the closure would unnecessarily endanger people, in which case the government mining engineer would have to agree for the closure to come into effect. If the procedure for mine closure is taken into account, it is quite clear why mine closures were uncommon.

4. The procedures regarding inquiries and investigations should be simplified.

5. The salaries of inspectorate staff should be addressed to ensure the retention and sourcing of competent staff members, as there was direct competition with the mining industry for scarce skills.

It is important to note that some of the issues highlighted by the Marais commission remain valid to this day.

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The Leon Commission Chapter 5 of the Minerals Act regulated health and safety in the mining industry. The Minerals Act elicited a lot of response from both industry and organised labour. It was felt that Chapter 5 did not deal with the health and safety issue sufficiently. Certainly, the frequency and seriousness of mining disasters seemed to support this view. In particular, the Merriespruit disaster of 1994, in which the wall of a slimes dam collapsed, moved the government to appoint a commission of inquiry into health and safety in the mining industry. This commission was under the chairmanship of Mr Justice R.N. Leon.

The commission's mandate was to investigate all aspects of the legal regulation of health and safety in the mining industry as defined in the Minerals Act No 50 of 1991, and it subsequently made recommendations to the state president on possible improvements to existing regulatory legislation and the implementation of these changes in the light of prevailing circumstances within the mining industry.

The importance of the Leon Commission cannot be overestimated. It has been referred to as the most far reaching and important commission in terms of health and safety held in South Africa, since it not only had a direct bearing on the drafting of the Mine Health and Safety Act, but contains implications that will affect mining health and safety legislation for some time to come.

The Leon Commission on Safety and Health in the South African Mining Industry started its hearings on 18 July 1994. In reaching its conclusions, the commission made the following findings: 1. The commission found that over 69 000 mineworkers had died in the period between 1900 and 1994, and more than a million were seriously injured.

2. A worker who spends 20 years working underground in a gold mine faces a 1 in 30 chance of being injured or killed.

3. The commission found the regulations pertaining to training to be vague and unclear.

4. It referred to the Minerals Act as 'clearly inadequate'.

5. Mining legislation in South Africa was not adequately enforced, and very few examples of senior management being prosecuted existed.

6. The commission commented negatively on safety management systems, saying these systems had not reduced the fatality rate in mining. The commission listed examples of mines with high safety gradings which had suffered major disasters, and had reported that it had no basis for recommending that these systems be used.

7. It commented on the lack of senior management legal responsibility because of the wording of the Act, specifically at the level below owner but above mine manager.

8. The commission deemed the principle of self-regulation, as proposed by the Chamber of Mines, as unacceptable.

9. The Minerals Act and its regulations were not conducive to ease of understanding.

10.The inspectorate was underfunded and under resourced.

From the above examples it is clear that the situation regarding the legislation and the enforcement thereof was deemed to be unacceptable. This is amply illustrated by one submission to the commission, with which it agreed.

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and privatise government institutions, in essence to devolve responsibility to the lowest level. When the Minerals Act was thus promulgated in 1991, the main reason behind the exercise was not to improve mine health and safety, or because the Mines and Works Act was deemed to be outmoded, but to reorganise and economise government administration of mining in South Africa.

As a result of the Minerals Act of 1991, 29 Acts were completely repealed, while six others were partially repealed.

Fourteen inspectorate offices were rationalised into nine, and the fourteen mining commissioners' offices were incorporated into the nine inspectorate offices.

Primary Goal The Mines and Works Act, No 27 of 1956 was repealed by the Minerals Act on 1 January 1992 with the exception of Section 9, which was a restriction on Sunday work and other relevant definitions. The Minerals Act did not, however, repeal all the regulations made in terms of the Mines and Works Act. The stated aim of the Minerals Act was threefold: 1. To regulate the prospecting for, and optimal use of minerals 2. To provide for health and safety in mines and works 3. To regulate the orderly use and rehabilitation of land.

It was argued that points 1 and 3 should be included in the Act, as they also concerned the health and safety of persons.

It should however be plain to see that this is a stretch, as was borne out in practice. Of the 70 sections of the Act, only 22 related to safety. Another major shortcoming of the Act was the lack of authoritative rules on occupational health. Although the word health is continuously used, it is mostly used as interchangeable with safety, as in health and safety. The Act contained no specific provisions for managing health issues.

In addition to the enabling Act, the Mines and Works Act regulations (some of which dated to the old pre-1911 Transvaal Colony ordinances) were incorporated under the Minerals Act. To some extent then, at least from a day-to-day perspective, there was continuation in the legal rules regulating mining, despite the shortcomings of the regulations as has already been pointed out.

Key Developments under the Minerals Act Although the Minerals Act faced criticism from some quarters, it did bring some changes which were important for the later Mines Health and Safety Act. 1. Individual liability The concept of individual liability for workplace incidents was created by the Mines and Works Act. The owner of the mine or works could appoint a manager in writing in terms of Regulation 2.5.1 which stated that each mine and works should be worked under a manager who would be responsible for the control, management and direction of the mine or works. Insofar as responsibility for health and safety was concerned, the manager had the following functions: • He had to take all reasonable measures to comply with and enforce the requirements of the Minerals Act as well as with the orders given by inspectors in the interests of health and safety and to ensure that employees observed them. • He had to take all reasonable measures to provide for the safety and proper discipline of the employees.

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• He had to prevent the employment of incompetent workmen for dangerous work. (This provision dated from the 1911 Act).

'If one reads the regulations, and indeed the Act itself, if becomes quite clear that what one has, is a collection of regulations which have been inserted from time to time, in order to cope with particular problems and with very little attention to the overall objectives of the Act.

Although the duties and responsibilities of the mine manager were not a drastic departure from the Mines and Works Act, the responsibilities of the manager were now contained in the enabling legislation itself in terms of Section 31, and were more strongly formulated than previously under the regulations alone. Section 31 formed part of Chapter 5 of the Minerals Act, which was subsequently repealed by the Mine Health and Safety Act.

One then gets lost in the maze of regulations which have no particular order. So the most important steps in ameliorating harm or hazards are not listed in order of importance, they are simply listed in the order in which they were thought of and at some stage or another, there has got to be an overall review of those regulations and the Act so that one does not lose the primary objectives in the minutia of the casuistic inclusions'.

The Mines and Works Act also provided for the appointment of subordinate managers in terms of Regulation 2.6.1. The Minerals Act retained this provision. A subordinate manager is appointed to assist the manager in the control, management and direction of a mine or works and has the same responsibilities as the manager, but for a reduced area of responsibility.

1. Recommendations of the commission

The manager's responsibilities were redefined with the enactment of the Minerals Act, as were the responsibilities of a subordinate manager. This was done to demonstrate that more was expected from management with regard to occupational health and safety.

Notwithstanding the above, the engineer in charge was effectively the person held responsible for what occurred at a workplace, for example where an accident occurred during the maintenance of a conveyor belt installation. The reasoning behind this was that by virtue of his background, he is the most competent person to explain, for example, why a particular installation failed. Once again this was carried over from the 1911 Act. The problem therefore was that the manager still controlled the provision of health and safety resources, and because the inspectorate did not really hold him accountable, he was, invariably, not inspired to be generous in the provision of such resources. The reformulation of the manager’s duties and responsibilities, as mentioned, was intended to address this issue.

2. Administration The government mining engineer and assistant government mining engineer, inspectors of mines and inspectors of machinery supervised the Mines and Works Act. The inspectors were the officials who practically administered and policed the Act in the workplace.

They had wide ranging powers and even had jurisdiction, under certain circumstances, to convict and sentence contraveners of regulations and/or special rules. The inspector could, however, impose a fine only and not a jail sentence.

The employer had the right to withhold payment of wages from a contravener who failed to pay his fine, and to pay the amount over to the inspector. There was a special provision requiring an inspector to pay all fines received over to the State Revenue Fund.

The Minerals Act was, in turn, administered by the directorgeneral of the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs.

The application of the Act's provisions was done under the direction of, and was subject to, the instructions of a deputy director (generally known as the government mining engineer).

Regional directors were appointed on a regional basis and were to a great extent autonomous in their regions. They had a multitude of functions and were assisted by a regional mining engineer and other officers.

The recommendations of the commission not only related to amendments to be made in the Minerals Act 50 of 1991, but also to the drafting of a new Act. The recommendations were as follows: 1. A new Act, devoted to health and safety in the mining industry only, should be drafted.

2. The existing regulations under the supervision of the Mining Regulation Advisory Committee (MRAC) should be upgraded.

3. New regulations should be drafted concerning the following: Accidents caused by falls of ground Accidents from haulage and transport underground Occupational health Coal mine explosions and respirable dust Restructuring of the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs.

4. Regulations dealing with occupational health in mines should be promulgated as soon as possible. These regulations require, inter alia, that: the mine owners provide medical surveillance for diseases on the mine the mine manager ensures that the owner's surveillance scheme is properly operated, and that adequate records are kept, and supplied (subject to medical ethics).

5. A Mine Health and Safety Council must be established to advise the minister on all matters relating to health and safety in mines, the relevant legislation and the enforcement thereof.

6. The owner must appoint those persons slotting in between the manager and the owner in the hierarchy, e.g. consulting engineers.

7. A system of health and safety representatives should be established at each mine, with at least one representative per 100 non-managerial employees. The manager, in consultation with the workforce, should facilitate their election and define the workplaces to be covered.

8. One or more mine health and safety committees should be established by the manager at each mine, after consultation with workplace representatives.

9. The mining industry should develop a methodology for assessing the most serious hazards at the workplace.

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3. Offences and Penalties The Mines and Works Act held a person guilty of an offence if he, by his act or his omission, caused serious bodily injury to any other person. The maximum fine was R1 000 and only if he failed to pay this fine, could he be sentenced to jail for a period not exceeding twenty four months; i.e. a jail sentence was not really a threat as long as he had enough funds to pay the R1 000 fine.

The Minerals Act had a similar provision although it added the requirement of negligence. The fine was R15 000 initially, but the Minerals Amendment Act did away with these limits.

What is important though, is that the Minerals Act provided that a jail sentence of two years could be imposed without the option of first paying a fine.

Drafting of the New Act

During 1995 the Parliamentary Mineral and Energy Affairs Portfolio Committee supported the recommendation for the drafting of a new Act and shortly thereafter the cabinet approved the implementation of this recommendation.

The Mine Health and Safety Bill was subsequently drafted by Mining Regulation Advisory Committee (MRAC). MRAC is a Mine Health and Safety Act Regulations

Mines and Works Act Regulations

Chapter 5– Fires and Explosions

Chapter 3 – General Provisions

Chapter 8 – Machinery and Equipment

Chapter 4 – Workmen

Chapter 10.1 – Hazardous Locations

Chapter 5 – Surface Protection

Chapter 10.3 – Draw Points, Tipping Points, Rock Passes and Box Fronts

Chapter 20 – Machinery: Special Safety Measures Chapter 21 – Machinery

Table 2. Legal prescriptions for consideration Mines and Works Act Regulations

tripartite body comprising of members of the state, employers and employees that was established on a voluntary basis.

The main objects of the bill were to promote and protect the health and safety of all persons employed or working at mines.

The Mine Health and Safety Act was assented to on 30 May 1996 and commenced on 15 January 1997.

The Act is dedicated solely to health and safety within the mining industry, which was not the case with the amended Minerals Act preceding it.

Current legal Prescriptions for Conveyor Belt Installations

Where conveyor belt Installations are concerned, it has been shown that the trend internationally is for a reduction in the fatal injury frequency rate associated with conveyor belt use.

This has not been part of the South African experience, and it has been shown that conveyor belt installations have historically contributed to a large proportion of mining accidents, with 37% of all machinery related fatalities between 1988 and 1992 being contributed to tail pulleys.

As a result, there has been an increased focus on bulk materials handling, and conveyor belt installations specifically, ultimately leading to Regulation 8.9 of the Mine Health and Safety Act Regulations dealing specifically with conveyor belts. This was Gazetted in 2008 under Chapter 8 of the Mine Health and Safety Act Regulations. It is topical to note that conveyor belt installations are dealt with under Chapter 8, Machinery and Equipment. It should be obvious that conveyor belt installations and their components would still fall within the definition of machinery in Section 102 of the Act, and thus subject to the general provisions applicable to machinery.

Mine Health and Safety Act Regulations

One of the difficulties in dealing with the Mine Health and Safety Act is the fact that two sets of regulations have to be

GNR 93 (2008)

GNR 622 (2013)

Prohibits the cleaning of the conveyor belt installation while it is in motion.

Prohibits the cleaning of designated sections while the conveyor installation is in motion (save for using pressurised water)

Requires locking out of power supplies during maintenance and related cleaning of spillage etc.

Requires locking out of all sources of stored energy and locking out after isolation, allows for training and alignment of belts while in motion.

Required a code of safety practice to be drafted.

Required procedure for splicing, joining and repairing of belts, including use of chemicals

Requires written procedures on: training and alignment of belts, cleaning of belts outside of designated sections, procedure for splicing, joining and repairing including use of chemicals.

Belt to be fitted with devices to stop operation or provide for means to communicate with an attendant who could stop belt.

Belt to be fitted along entire length with Belt to be fitted along entire length with a device a device to stop operation wherever to stop operation wherever access to the belt is access to the belt is possible. possible.

Required fire resistant or incombustible belts in coal mines.

Requires steps to prevent exposure to flames, fumes or smoke, including measures to detect start and spread of conveyor belt installation fires.

Requires steps to prevent exposure to flames, fumes or smoke, including measures to detect start and spread of conveyor belt installation fires.

Required testing of conveyor belt installation safety devices are tested weekly (pull cords and take up devices)

Required testing of safety devices in designated sections every week, 3 months where the devices are outside of the designated areas and immediately after belt extension or shortening.

Where conveyor belt installations are operated in series, sequence interlocking is to be provided to prevent feeding onto stopped belts and prevent start up until next belt is in motion.

Where conveyor belt installations are operated in series, sequence interlocking is to be provided to prevent feeding onto stopped belts and prevent start up until next belt is in motion, except where maintenance procedures require independent operation.

Interlocking devices to be put in place where conveyors operate in sequence.

Table 3. Comparison of regulations and amendments

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consulted, being the Mine Health and Safety Act Regulations and the Mines and Works Act Regulations which were not repealed and are still applicable in terms of Schedule 4.

law in the mining industry that the industry has not played its part in reducing the fatality rate in mining. This has seen a trend of prescriptive regulation through the promulgation of regulations under the Act. The latest regulations all share a trend of being prescriptive, with the Trackless Mobile Machinery Regulations approach to proximity detection devices being a case in point.

The existence of two sets of regulations applying to the mining environment is a result of the history of the development of the mining legislation, as has been discussed elsewhere in this paper. When the Minerals Act replaced the Mines and Works Act in 1991, it adopted the Mines and Works Act Regulations and when it in turn was replaced with the Mine Health and Safety Act in 1996, Schedule 4 of the new Act adopted the previous regulations. A recurring theme since 1997 has been the repeal of old regulations, and the making of new regulations dealing with the same topic under the Mine Health and Safety Act.

The CMA’s Guideline to Safety Around Belt Conveyors may not be a promulgated statute, but it is given legal working by fulfilling the definition of 'reasonably practicable'.

In the end the debate regarding whether a self-regulatory or prescriptive system is preferable is moot. Industry must comply with the laws applicable to it.

If the end goal of implementing and enforcing legislation is the safeguarding of employees on mines, an investigation of fatality statistics through the years is self- explanatory. This can be seen from the following table:

The fact that Mine Health and Safety Act Regulation Chapter 8.9 now specifically deals with conveyor belt installations should be welcomed, but it cannot be dealt with in isolation. The legal prescriptions (Table 2) would still have to be considered.

Regulation Chapter 8.9 was initially published under GNR 93 of 2008. This was not the first example of conveyor belt installations being dealt with in regulations (See the Mines and Works Act Regulations, 1956) but it introduced several topics and controls which were not dealt with before, but which could historically have been considered best practice.

Year

Combined surface and underground fatalities

1911

906

1930

584

1993

578

2016

73

Table 4. Fatality statistics

One fatality, however, is still one too many!

Although the regulations should be seen as a step in the right direction, they were not without criticism, with serious issues being raised by the industry regarding among others, the practicality thereof. The initial 2008 regulations were amended by GNR 622 of 2013. This updated the original regulations, to a large extent catering to the concerns raised by the industry.

This paper was first presented at the Beltcon Conference in 2017.

Copyright is vested with IMHC. www.beltcon.org.za Jaco Swartz, Legislative Compliance Specialists www.legalcs.co.za

Table 3 compares the original Mines and Works Act Regulations, the 2008 regulations and the 2013 amendments by highlighting some of the more pertinent prescriptions.

In general, the amendments made to the Mine Health and Safety Act Regulations conveyor requirements since 2013 should be seen as a positive. It is submitted that this is an example of positive interaction by the relevant parties in the mining industry, being government, organised labour, employers and the conveyor industry itself under the auspices of the Conveyor Manufacturers Association.

Conclusion

Where does the mining industry then find itself in 2017 regarding the legal rules applicable to the safe use of conveyor belt installations? In short, it is an amalgam of legal approaches. One aspect illustrates the principles of selfregulation as found in the Mine Health and Safety Act, where the focus is on following a risk-based approach and acting 'as far as is reasonably practicable', whatever that may be in an individual mine’s context.

This is further reinforced in Section 9 of the Act, where Subsection 2 requires each mine to draft codes of practice where, ultimately, instructed to do so by the DMR. The content of the mandatory codes of practice are still within the authority of the mine, thus to an extent still self-regulatory. A direct example with a bearing on belt conveyors is the Guideline for Mandatory Code of Practice for the Safe Use of Conveyor Belt Installations, published on 19 December 2014.

This self-regulatory approach, while not formally discarded by the authorities, has of late been tempered. This comes against a perception among those tasked with enforcing the

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November/December 2018

39

TWO-PART PANEL

Smart Solutions for Processing

O

Engineered mining solutions provider, Tega Industries, has developed an array of products to prolong the life of equipment and lengthen the period between service intervals of machines.

ne of the smartest breakthroughs from the company recently is its new Rapido two-part screen panel which effectively gives minerals processors the ability to replace working screen surfaces quickly and easily without having to replace the entire base plate construction. This makes the top screening surface a disposable item that is far quicker and easier to replace.

Says Vishal Gautam, Tega Industries sales and marketing manager, “The Rapido makes the replacement of a screen panel simple. Once it has worn to the cut point, the only screening surface is removed and replaced.

Close collaboration

“Solutions like these are developed in collaboration with our customers worldwide and are in response to real requirements of the industry. In this instance, we wanted to produce a panel that has the ability to withstand wear for prolonged periods of time but is more cost effective and easier to replace.”

He adds that the Rapido therefore ticks all the requirements, being as reliable as any screen in the market today yet more cost effective with less downtime when compared with traditional screen panels.

Engineers will also appreciate that the metal wear rate is much lower in this type of liner due to the resilience of the total system The company’s collaborative approach has earned it the trust of more than 700 clients in the mineral processing and materials handling industry across the globe. It has more than 600 screen applications in mining, mineral processing, steel plants, cement plants and aggregate industries and is recognised as one of the leading manufacturers of screens.

Lasting liners

In addition to its market leadership in the provision of screen services, Tega Industries is also a market leader in the provision of mill liners and services.

The company has more than 500 grinding mills in 68 countries lined in SAG, AG, ball, primary and secondary milling applications lined with either rubber or rubber metal composite liners.

“One of the most impressive product ranges we have is our Combi-Liners for tough grinding applications in large diameter SAG and FAG mills. We developed this liner in response to the need for a liner system that is as durable as conventional steel liners and as resilient as rubber liners. It also needed to be able to withstand high energy impact with a high degree of resilience," adds Vishal.

40

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

Benefits

• Super-fast replacement and 50% less downtime as panels need not be aligned (bottom part already aligned) • Flexibility to easily change the aperture size because of operational requirement • Environmentally friendly as a result of the reduction in industrial waste thereby reducing carbon footprint.

• Overall lower cost per tonne.

The Combi-Liner therefore combines the properties of steel and rubber to produce a solution that is lighter and easier to install while providing a longer service life. Not surprisingly, the company has already landed its first order in South Africa, for a mine ball mill of 7.92m x 12.7m which is required to process 1100TPH.

Engineered solution

“The benefits are easy to see. Our liners have the ability to provide any profile with the desired face angle depending on the operational requirement of the mill. The weight of the lining system is also less than that of the complete steel liners. Hence the GD2 value of the mill with respect to motor will be lower.

“As a result, smaller size fasteners can be used compared with metal liners and the number of lifts is irrespective of the number of fastening rows in the shell. This is a unique feature which makes this suitable for any type of retro fitment.

"Engineers will also appreciate that the metal wear rate is much lower in this type of liner due to the resilience of the total system provided by the backup rubber against impact and attrition motion of the charge as well as the electro chemical effect which is also minimised due to the presence of the backing rubber which acts as an electrical discontinuity.

“In fact, as this liner wears out, it becomes more stable in terms of distribution of metal and rubber.

Hence, the degree of resilience increases which makes the load intensity gradually lower and the wear rate decreases up to some level of metal thickness, beyond which, the wear rate again increases.

This unique phenomenon makes the wear life of this liner significantly higher than the other liners as the force is less and the fastener sizes are smaller, compared with the metal,” concludes Vishal.

Tega Industries SA, Vishal Gautam, Tel: (011) 421 9916, www.tegaindustries.co.za Email: vishal.gautam@tegaindustries.co.za

MARKET FORUM tion solution that is ideal for mining applications.

These include inspecting plant equipment, mining machines, pumps, valves and pipes – in fact, most items of equipment that may require regular inspection and, in some cases, regulatory requirements.

RFID for mining

Screening and vibrating equipment solutions and services provider Aury Africa has introduced a radio-frequency identification (RFID) audit and inspec-

RFID tags use an electromagnetic field to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects and equipment. This aids in flow-process inspection and maintenance, and ensures compliance with all regulatory reporting requirements.

The microchips used in the tags can be embedded into different types of attachments, including cable ties, bands, buckles, and bolts.

The flexibility of these attachments enables them to be welded, glued, or tied onto the required application.

RFID tags each have their own unique identifier to ensure they can never be duplicated. The system requires a proof

of presence, as the person undertaking the inspection has to be within proximity range of the tag with the scanning device to communicate the information securely.

These RFID mobile devices are fit-forpurpose, with apps available for iOS or Android operating systems. One of the key features of the system is that the tag and the scanner do not have to be in direct line of sight for the transfer of communication to occur.

Through the use of the specialised mobile scanning device, users can identify and perform inspections on equipment and conduct in-field certifications. The mobile device has additional features that enable users to capture GPS coordinates of assets, and keep track of where they have been previously deployed.

In addition, fixed readers can be used to create ‘gateways’ whereby tagged equipment passing through the gateway can be read automatically. Typical uses of this functionality would be, for example, the transfer of equipment from one location to another.

Aury Africa, Sydney Parkhouse Tel: (011) 026-6642 Email: syd@auryafrica.co.za www.auryafrica.co.za

FORKLIFT DRIVERS In many operations, fuel is typically proven to be the highest operational cost in most fleet budgets. In Goscor Lift Truck Company’s experience, however, fuel is secondary to the most important cost factor in forklift ownership, which is driver cost.

Outside of the lift truck itself, John Valentine, national systems manager at Goscor Lift Truck says the driver/ operator is in fact the biggest cost as far as the ownership of a forklift is concerned, but also potentially the biggest saving. “Firstly, there is the cost of recruitment, driver training, uniform and the necessary PPE – that’s before the real work starts. Then there is the ongoing cost of checklist books, salaries or wages, bonuses, refresher training every two years and a myriad of other operator improvement related costs.”

Not so easy to calculate

are the hidden costs of drivers/operators, namely labour unrest, damages to machine/racking/product and health & safety violations – the list goes on. By all accounts, these translate into a far greater cost than fuel on average.

On the other hand, having a driver doing exactly what they were trained to do is potentially a significant saving. “This translates into increased productive machine hours, lower fuel costs, lower abuse-related costs and an extended machine lifecycle in general,” says John, adding that this of course largely depends on the right attitude – backed by suitable controls.

He advises that one of the most important elements in this regard is practising ignition controls. Simply turning the machine off when not in use as opposed to leaving it idling unnecessarily, averts unnecessary burning of fuel or battery drainage. “I believe that investing in driver skills turns an onerous disciplinary task into one that rewards the much needed correct behaviours,” he concludes.

GLTC, John Valentine Tel: (021) 932-3052 Email: jvalentine@goscor.co.za www.goscorlifttrucks.co.za

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

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MARKET FORUM

AFRICA Footprint Weir Minerals Africa has expanded its Cavex hydrocyclone footprint across Africa with its two most recent orders going into the Central African Copperbelt; one in Zambia and one in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Sheldon Gabriel, Product Manager – cyclones at Weir Minerals Africa, says the hydrocyclone solutions supplied in these two countries were customised for the individual plants.

A major differentiator that Weir Minerals Africa brings to its customers is the ability to assess individual application requirements and provide a tailored solution. “It is not just about providing an off-the-shelf product. The company has a full team of experienced process and metallurgical engineers who look at how to best optimise the process for the customer. The major focus is on achieving the most efficient separation with the lowest total cost of ownership.”

The hydrocyclone cluster to be installed at the Zambian copper mine is an 18-way Cavex 400 CVX cluster in a mill circuit classification application. A 2-way Cavex

BMG-PT25082018 - BHT Thursday, 25 October 2018 4:15:52 PM

Cavex 1150CVXT20 hydrocyclone installed in a DM coal application

500CVX hydrocyclone will also be supplied for use in a densifying application at the plant.

For the process plant in the DRC, Weir Minerals Africa is supplying a 14-way Cavex 500CVX hydrocyclone cluster for the SAG mill application. In this particular instance, the solution was designed to allow for future additional capacity,

saving the customer future capex. The company is also supplying a 2-way Cavex 500 CVX cluster for a limestone application at this mine.

Weir Minerals Africa Rajen Govender Tel: (011) 929-2701 Email: rajen.govender@mail.weir www.minerals.weir

MARKET FORUM

A Helping Hand The donation of a skidsteer, together with a highly-trained operator from Bobcat Equipment South Africa, has allowed a much-needed extension project at the Stepping Stone Hospice & Care Services In-Patient Unit in Alberton get off the ground.

The extension, from an eight-ward unit to a 14-ward unit, is the result of the donation of a 435 m2 second-hand park home, used previously as offices, by Kim Scanell from Grayston Travel, Stepping Stone CEO Tersia Burger explains. Russell Cruickshank from Cornerstone Projects will oversee the transformation of the dilapidated building into a first-class care facility.

However, an unforeseen problem was that the site itself had previously been used as stables, which meant that a 0.5 m layer of compacted compost first had to be removed. Bobcat Marketing Manager Madel Dalla Pria explains that Stepping Stone approached Bobcat about hiring a skidsteer.

“It is a local charity and hospice that relies on donations from the community and surrounding businesses in order to provide a safe and comfortable resting place for terminally-ill individuals,” Dalla

Pria explains. It is for this reason that Bobcat took the decision of donating the machine and operator for a day.

“It is both a charitable cause and an important community resource that provides an essential service to people in need. This is why we decided on the donation,” Dalla comments. The highly

Proven Innovative Scrolled Design Known for its robust construction, the Siebtechnik Conturbex Screen Scroll Centrifuge offers ease of operation due to its ability to absorb process variations. Its scrolled or wormed design is

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The centrifuge comprises a drive component located in the bearing house, a

versatile yet compact S185 skidsteer loader played a critical role in site levelling and preparation for the mooted extension project. www.steppingstonehospice.co.za/.

Goscor Group, Debby Marx Tel: (011) 230-2600, www.goscor.co.za Email: dmarx@goscor.co.za

drum which holds the screen in place, a scroll which transports the product across the basket and a housing which encloses the rotating parts.

The innovative construction of the screen scroll centrifuge inlet turns in the same direction as the screen drum, but at a small differential speed. This ensures a uniform acceleration of the solids, and eliminates imbalances in dewatering applications.

The transport screen scroll also acts as a control mechanism by regulating the sliding speed of the solids as well as the retention time. Vibration isolation of the bearing housing from the structural steel support is conducted with rubber buffers.

These eliminate 95% of all dynamic loads which would be transmitted to the support structure.

Multotec Group Vivienne Murray Tel: (011) 923-6000 Email: marketing@multotec.com www.multotec.com

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BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

43

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European Space Travel

MARKET FORUM

At DLR’s Institute of Space Propulsion in Germany, 320 employees are primarily researching drive gear technology for the upper stations of the Ariane launch rocket family. This technology is used when supplying the International Space Station ISS and in the development of the European satellite navigation system, Galileo. The drive gears are tested at the P4 test facility, one of a total of eight test facilities in Lampoldshausen, under the conditions they will be exposed to later when flying in space.

Valuable research equipment, weighing several tonnes is delivered and unloaded when preparing these tests. This is a key task for the rotary crane on the roof of the building, which is nearly 12 meters tall.

In order to upgrade the old crane system, DLR counted on the experience and competence of Konecranes, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of crane and lifting technology.

“We closely inspected the 1964 rotary crane on the roof of the test facility P4

and together with DLR, developed a concept to update the crane system to the latest technical level. With features such as the frequency-regulated drives for the rotating gear and overhead gantry, the rotary crane now meets all the modern requirements of the test facility and its operation,” says Werner Marquardt, Project Manager Modernisations at Konecranes.

The crane experts also reinforced the steel structure and renewed its corrosion protection coating. Worn mechanical components were replaced and the crane’s electrical system completely changed. With new footbridges, platforms and ladders, Konecranes also improved the access and safety of the crane system.

On the roof of the rocket drive test facility, the crane system must withstand a range of temperatures from minus 5 to plus 40 degrees Celsius with wind, rain, sun and snow in all seasons. Moreover, the state of Baden-Württemberg has more rainfall than any other in Germany. 965 litres per square metre fell on average in 2016.

“Over the years, the weather exposure has had a heavy impact on the rustprotection and the steel structure,” says Werner. For this reason, Konecranes specialists first dismantled the counterweight of 5.5. tonnes before removing the main structure of the 13.8-tonne crane. This was removed with the help of two truck-mounted cranes and placed on the terrain surface.

Konecranes, www.konecranes.co.za

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MARKET FORUM

Low-Capacity Reclaim Feeder Adaptability is the watchword for FLSmidth’s Buffalo range of low-capacity modular reclaim feeders, making it a versatile offering for anything from runof-mine applications by medium-tier miners to flexible stand-in units for larger operations when stacker-reclaimers require maintenance downtime.

According to PC Kruger, FLSmidth’s account manager for coal in subSaharan Africa, the modular format allows different discharge heights and loading decks of various lengths to suit the required application. It also facilitates transportation of these units in standardised containers to remote locations, after being manufactured in a dedicated FLSmidth workshop.

says PC. “The modularity allows us to tailor the final product to meet customers’ specific requirement and ensure optimal productivity, with easy reclaiming using dozers or front-end loaders.”

Depending on the application and the level of mobility required, the units can

FLSmidth, Willie Van Wyk Tel: (010) 210-4820, www.flsmidth.com Email: marinda.kerr@flsmidth.com

Cleaning up Spillage

“Our current designs are optimal for soft, non-abrasive material such as coal and salt, as well as potash and gypsum,”

Low capacity reclaim feeder breaker drum sub assembly

be mounted on skids or even wheels to be relocated from one position on site to another. This further enhances their versatility.

The motor control centre (MCC) is located onboard the reclaim feeder and only the power supply needs to be isolated before relocating the unit.

“Our reclaim feeders and feeder breakers can be installed as a freestanding unit – with or without civil works – or as a multi-unit construction with hoppers or sizers,” PC concludes.

“This presents an ideal backup system for stacker and reclaimer systems, and they can be implemented for side-tipping or back-tipping applications to reduce double handling of material.”

Having taken delivery of the very first Guzzler vacuum truck in the country some five years ago, a coal export terminal has purchased the second unit from Goscor Cleaning Equipment, the sole supplier of the Guzzler brand in South Africa.

Five years ago, a local South African coal export terminal bought its first Guzzler vacuum truck from local sole supplier, Goscor Cleaning Equipment (GCE).

Having experienced the benefits of this premium vacuum truck, the company has since taken delivery of its second unit, which also becomes the second unit ever to be sold in South Africa.

Gregory Venter, MD of GCE, explains that the unit will be deployed to remove spillages from coal chutes and

around the facility, as well as for sludge removal from the pits. “The client has an existing unit and, having had a great experience running it for the past five years, requested the exact same unit to match the performance of the existing one,” says Gregory.

“The pits where they vacuum spillages from are about 10m deep, and the vacuum performance of the Guzzler ensures that they are able to clear up the spillages timeously and efficiently.”

In line with the client’s requirements, GCE had to ensure that the supplied unit was corrosive-proof due to the environment and the corrosive nature of the product recovered on site. “We also had to reinforce the boom to be

able to handle the weight and volume the client would be vacuuming from the deep pits,” Gregory concludes.

Guzzler vac trucks are designed to vacuum a full spectrum of materials, from solids and dry bulk powders, to liquids, slurries and thick sludge, across industrial areas such as coal terminals, cement plants, steel mills, railroads, oil refineries, chemical plants, foundries and power stations, among others. One of the key talking points on the supplied unit is the effective dust control capability offered by the 4-cyclone system.

Goscor Group, Debby Marx Tel: (011) 230-2600 Email: dmarx@goscor.co.za www.goscor.co.za

BULK HANDLING TODAY

November/December 2018

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MARKET FORUM

Expanding Into Russia South Africa-based original equipment supplier Weba Chute Systems has further extended its footprint into the northern hemisphere with the recent appointment of a licensee in Russia. Managing director of Weba Chute Systems, Mark Baller says the selection of Somex as its partner in Russia is in line with the company’s long term goal of a sustainable international business model.

Significantly, the company has an established reputation as an OEM with more than 4 500 of its custom engineered chute systems installed all over the world.

“We have always been very selective about the markets which we enter,” Mark says. “We obviously seek those markets that offer the greatest potential, partnering with companies that have the best possible fit to ensure a sustainable future there.”

He highlights that Somex also has a solid engineering capability with manufacturing facilities that produce quality products, as well as an extensive sales network across a spectrum of industries where bulk materials need to be transferred.

This approach has proved very successful for the business and Weba Chute Systems already has exten-

“Somex operates 20 offices across the Russian territory and has an extensive range of products and services which have synergy with our custom engineered chute and transfer systems,” Mark adds.

Mark Baller, MD of Weba Chute Systems,

sive representation across the globe with licensees and agents in the USA, Canada, South America, Turkey and Australia, as well as throughout Africa.

Weba Chute Systems, Mark Baller Tel: (011) 827-9372 www.webachutes.com

Better Access Emerging contractors in the construction industry will now be better able to participate in major projects following a landmark agreement between Sanral and Barloworld Equipment, the dealer for Cat earthmoving machines and Cat power systems in southern Africa.

The Cat dealership will give black-owned enterprises greater access to equipment, financing and training which will enable them to tender more effectively on road construction projects managed by Sanral.

Santos, Executive Head: Construction, Rental & Used at Barloworld Equipment.

The Memorandum of Understanding, sets out future cooperation between Sanral and Barloworld Equipment across a broad range of activities, including providing small contractors in the Sanral supply chain access to equipment, financing and training.

Barloworld Equipment will set up structures which will enable contractors to

benefit from options to lease or rent equipment. The company will also offer training to owners, employees and maintenance staff. Together, Sanral and Barloworld Equipment will promote partnerships in the fields of training, fleet management, marketing and communication.

Barloworld Equipment www.barloworld-equipment.com

“This will open up the industry to new participants and remove many of the barriers that prevent companies owned by black, women and youth entrepreneurs to compete effectively against the entrenched players in the construction sector,” says Skhumbuzo Macozoma, CEO of Sanral.

Emmy Leeka, CEO of Barloworld Equipment southern Africa says this is an opportunity to contribute to the empowerment of emerging contractors in the construction industry. “We have built valuable partnerships with black-owned enterprises through the years and this initiative will take our activities to a higher level.

“This will enable us to deliver on our incubation and empowerment commitments and work with Sanral towards the greater goal to transform the engineering and construction sectors,” says Vasco

46

BULK HANDLING TODAY

Sanral Barloworld Equipment Southern Africa executives from left to right: Lefa Mallane, Thabiso Malahleha, Ismail Essa, Skhumbuzo Macozoma, Emmy Leeka, Ramasela Ganda, Vasco Santos and Makhosini Nyoni

November/December 2018

High securtiy welded mesh

Pallisade

Gates

Gate Automation

Razor wire and more ....

What is High Security Weld Mesh HIGH Security Weld Mesh is wire fused and welded at a Horizontal distance of 76.2mm and a vertical distance of 12.7mm also known as 35B/3510 where 3 denotes 3”(distance between vertical wires), 5 denotes 0.5” (distance between horizontal wires), and B or 10 denotes gauge of wire

Salient Features • Difficult to Climb: The spaces between the Horizontal wires are too narrow for fingers to have grip • Impregnable: Extremely difficult to cut with a hand cutter as the beak of a wire cutter will not be able to penetrate the horizontal wires • Excellent Replacement option to Solid Wall as: 1. More economical than a solid wall 2. Faster to install than a solid wall 3. CCTV Camera has a clear view • Further upgrade possible with electric security system • Anti-corrosive & low maintinance

Standards

• Manufactured according to BS EN 10016-2 • Wire Sizes in accordance with BS EN 10218-2 • Tolerance on Mesh Size in accordance wiht EN 10223-7 • Tolerance on Panel Size in accordance with EN 10223-4 • Welding Strength in accordance with BS EN 1461 • Zinc Coating in accordance with EN 10245-1 • Anti Corrosion in accordance with BS En 3900 E4/F4

Tensile Strength • Wire has a tensile strenght of min 550 MPA

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