Elmarie Pieters presented her final project presentation as a bursary student at the technical meeting in November 2018. Her presentation titled “Coal Benefication” covered the dry beneficiation of -13.2mm +0.5mm South African coal using an air dense medium fluidization bed.

The main aim of her study was to investigate the influence of operating parameters (PSD, coal to medium ratio and vibration) on the performance of an ADMFB coal separator when feeding -13.2mm South African ROM coals.  Her full presentation can be obtained from Johan de Korte on johan.dekorte@sacoalprep.co.za

Kevin Roelofse from Weir presented a paper on “The Application of Centrifugal Slurry Pump Sealing” which discussed that  specific attention is drawn to the various sealing options in centrifugal slurry pumps i.e. pumps that transfer slurries which in this case will be pumps installed in the various DMS (Dense Media Separation) plants and thickener underflow applications.  He also stressed the importance of using the most suitable sealing mechanism in a centrifugal slurry pump which is
of paramount importance.

The July 2018 technical meeting of the Southern African Coal Processing Society was held at the Colliery Training College (CTC) in Emalahleni on Thursday 26 July 2018 at 14h00.  The presentations that were given on the following topics were:
‘High Efficiency Slurry Pumping System’ presented by Cobus Raubenheimer (EPF Systems) – a video snippet of his presentation is given below.  His presentation covered a slurry pumping system, he discussed the Triplex slurry pump which is capable of delivery 600 cubic metres of slurry an hour.  There are two systems – a clean water system and the slurry pumping system which is energy efficient.

The second presentation concerned the ‘Rhovol Particle Density Unit’ and was presented by Mohamed Fofana and Tinus Steyn of the De Beers Group and covered the Rhovol machine which is used to measure the density of ore samples and can be used for coal, De Beers has two machines available, one called the Fine machine and the other is the coarse machine which can take large particles to measure and these machines can be used as analytical tools.  De Beers can be contacted with regards the cost of the service.

The third presentation titled ‘X-ray Transmission Investigation on Coal Samples’ which was presented by Nico van Zyl of the De Beers Group and covered coefficients of correlation and calorific value of coal samples.

The next Technical Meeting of the Southern African Coal Processing Society will be held at the Colliery Training College (CTC) in Emalahleni on Thursday 26 July 2018 at 14h00.  Presentations will be given on the following topics:
‘High Efficiency Slurry Pumping System’
Presented by Cobus Raubenheimer (EPF Systems)
and
‘Rhovol Particle Density Unit’
Presented by Mohamed Fofana and Tinus Steyn (De Beers Group)
‘X-ray Transmission Investigation on Coal Samples’
Presented by Nico van Zyl (De Beers Group)

The SACPS Technical Workshop has been confirmed for 29 August at the Dome, at the Ridge Casino, Emalahleni. The focus will be on DMS and topics to be covered include coal marketing, coal geology, large plant operations, equipment, screening media, pumps, cyclones, etc. Provisional programme and costs of workshop will be available soon. For more information please contact Gerda Craddock at info@sacoalprep.co.za