Weir Minerals Africa has demonstrated its commitment to the ongoing upliftment of skills in the South African mining industry with the recent donation of a cyclone and slurry pump to the School of Chemical and Minerals Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. The cyclone and pump have been made available for the use of the Masters students. “The 1.5/1AH Warman slurry pump and 100CVX Cavex cyclone which were donated will effectively introduce the students to Cavex and Warman technology while they are still studying,” JD Singleton, product manager: cyclones and engineered systems at Weir Minerals Africa, says. “Having this technology readily available will provide the students with invaluable hands-on experience giving them a genuine advantage when they ultimately enter the industry as professional engineers.”

Offering end-to-end solutions for all mining, transportation, milling, processing and waste management activities, Weir Minerals Africa has accompanied the donation with a pump curve and capacity chart for the cyclone, featuring various vortex finder options, and has made its technical team available for assistance and consultation should the university require this. “Cavex cyclones offer a unique solution for slurry applications in the mining and mineral processing industry and have been designed to deliver maximum efficiency and capacity, while providing longer wear life than conventional designs,” Singleton says. “These cyclones provide enhanced dewatering and desliming efficiency, reduced product loss, improved product recovery and increased circuit capacity by minimising the quantity of material escaping to the underflow or overflow streams.

“Their distinctive design provides a natural flow path for slurry material. The unique shape has no sharp edges, no square corners and allows the feed stream to blend smoothly with the rotating slurry inside the unit, minimising localised wear on the feed chamber and vortex finder. These design improvements result in lower operating costs and fewer cyclones required for a given duty. The end result is greatly reduced turbulence creating more even wear, longer life and more efficient classification.”