With an established track record in the international mining and construction sector, engineering solutions provider Weir Minerals Africa (WMA) used bauma CONEXPO AFRICA as a platform to promote its products to the local construction sector while gaining traction in other sectors.

“bauma CONEXPO AFRICA provided an opportunity for us to showcase our products to visitors from the construction and associated sectors in the region,” says WMA comminution GM Vernon Steenbok.

He adds that participating in the event and exchanging ideas with the local and international community has given the company a chance to be regarded as the one-stop shop of the aggregate market.

WMA process director JD Singleton highlights that the company is traditionally a mining industry supplier; however, in 2014, the company acquired a crushing and screening portfolio, the Trio comminution range, to serve the construction industry. The most recent bauma CONEXPO AFRICA was the ideal platform to engage with clients and show the competencies and features of the range.

According to Steenbok, WMA has dedicated significant skills to making the Trio comminution range a WMA brand. “The range incorporates world-class design and engineering to provide solutions for crushing, screening, washing and materials handling.”

The company displayed the Trio TP Cone Crushers, designed for the demanding crushing and grinding processes in the mining and construction industries, at the expo.

During the event, the company also displayed the Weir Minerals sand wash plant, which WMA created by combining its products into a solution which has proved reliable and cost efficient for local industry leader Oranje Mynbou & Vervoer (OMV). The plant is designed for the sand and aggregate industry, with application in the road and building construction operations.

In sand and aggregate operations, performance and profitability depend on the reliability of equipment. According to WMA, the sand plants are custom-made, total solutions built to deliver supreme wash quality and increased productivity. The plant incorporates the best technology on the market.

WMA’s range of sand plant solutions on show at the expo included the 100 tph sand wash plant with an Enduron VD1538 dewatering screen that provides optimum moisture reduction and a Cavex 500CVX hydro cyclone that increases sand production, while the Linatex feed hoses are matched to the efficient Warman WHB100 pump in terms of power consumption and hydraulic performance resulting in less maintenance in terms of replacing parts.

Significantly, the Warman pump components achieved a life span 15 times longer than previous components used by OMV and, as a result of the longer wear life, the wash plant increased uptime and production from 41 t/h to 65 t/h, which meant a 35% increase of saleable product while using the same footprint and at a lower operating cost, which resulted in a direct positive impact on the customer’s bottom line.

Singleton tells Engineering News that the plant was designed to deliver 75 µm clean and refined washed sand, with a single point feed of up to 6.7 mm crushed sand.

Ranging from 50 t/h to 200 t/h, the single product modular washing solutions help remove slimes and excess fines to deliver clean, low-moisture washed sand.

Steenbok and Singleton are confident that the local and international construction industry recognised WMA’s capabilities which will expand its client base.

The company is now looking forward to Electra Mining Africa in September, which will be held at the Nasrec Expo Centre, in Johannesburg.