Looking back on our many bulk mineral installations, there are a few that stand out as having been particularly enjoyable for the APT team.
The first was a 20tph alluvial chromite module on the Great Dyke in central Zimbabwe. The client had little knowledge about the business and no experience, but we designed and built him a simple, no frills plant based upon the RG200 scrubber and sixteen spirals. These plants are pre-built and assembled in our Johannesburg facility, so they go up very quickly on site, three days in this case. The client was so excited that they dived in immediately and there was a lot of jubilation and partying when the shiny black chromite began pouring out.
Chromite recovered on a mine using APT’s RG200 Scrubber.
The second plant was of the same capacity, but far more complicated as the target this time was lead carbonate in a hard rock form. The plant was in Bosnia, next to a delightful little town with three restaurants which we came to know well. The first wave was the APT installation team headed by our mechanical engineer Brett, who became an adopted member of the local community. Nobody spoke English and we didn't speak Bosnian but despite the team on the ground having no experience in plant construction, the plant went up miraculously. Our second wave was the metallurgical commissioning team and they had great fun doing the optimisation on this rather specialised plant designed to avoid sliming of the brittle cerrusite mineral. It came together nicely and we received a great reference from their CEO - always a cherry on the cake!