Building a Small Scale Wash Plant: the APT RG30

The APT RG30 Wash Plant is one of the highest quality, compact and efficient small scale mineral processing plants out there! The plant is capable of up to 3tph, and takes you from alluvial ore through to a gold concentrate in an hour. The unit is available in either a frame mounted configuration, or trailer mounted for optimal mobility. Included is the RG30 Scrubber with built-in trommel screen, one or two APT GoldKacha Concentrators and GoldMasta Scavenger Sluices (depending on the client’s requirements), a water supply pump with internal water piping, a 200l water drum, and the required electrical cabling and DOLs. The plant is shipped in it’s fully assembled form, allowing for an easy and quick installation process once on site.  

The RG30 Wash Plant was originally designed by APT in the early 2000s, and has been optimised over the years to ensure it remains at the forefront of it’s kind. All components are manufactured to excellence in APT’s Warehouse located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Once the RG30 Wash Plant has passed its final quality control check and dry-run test, it is then ready to begin its journey to one of our client's gold mine sites!

Please contact us here for further information.

The Importance of our Mineral Processing Background | Mineral Processing Plant Engineers and Manufacturers

Did you know APT are first and foremost minerals processing engineers? We understand minerals, how they behave and how to separate them from the waste rock. We have a large department that deals with ongoing Research and Development, because without proper knowledge how can you make proper equipment? APT was founded through a mineral testwork laboratory which has been operational since 1984, doing work for a range of customers from small start-ups to some of the largest companies worldwide. Mineral testwork is imperative to make sure the plant you are considering is correct for your ore.

A small variety of mineral specimens in a nook at our APT Head Office.

APT has been in business for a long time and during that time we have worked to become better and better. Equipment doesn’t just happen – this is not just about cutting and welding steel, it is about the correct design, the smart design, so that when you use that equipment, it recovers minerals.

Please contact us here for further information, or email us on info@aptprocessing.com and we will respond to you shortly.

Behind APT's Expertly Engineered Mineral Processing Plants

APT has been in business for an established time period and during that time we have worked to consistently improve. Equipment doesn’t just happen – this is not just about cutting and welding steel. It is about the correct design, the smart design, so that when you use that equipment maximum mineral recovery is achieved through the most efficient means. 

APT was initially formed after years spent in a mineral testwork laboratory. Our whole company was, and still is, based upon a thorough understanding of minerals and metals. Pair that with our thorough knowledge in engineering, and you have a power house. As such, APT are first and foremost minerals processing engineers; we understand minerals, how they behave and how to separate them from the waste rock. We not only work closely with our clients where required, we also have a sizeable department that deals with ongoing Research and Development. We know how our plants work in various situations from mathematically to in the field, because without proper knowledge how can you make proper equipment? 

The mineral testwork laboratory mentioned above remains a key player in our industry today, to make sure the plant you are considering is correct for your ore. This laboratory has been operational since 1984 and has done work for companies all over the world, including the largest ones. 

When you purchase APT equipment, you are safe in the knowledge that we are the source of the best solutions, not by accident, but through science and knowledge. 

Please contact us here or email us on info@aptprocessing.com for further information and quotes. We look forward to assisting you!

Fun With Bulk Mineral Plants | Mineral Processing Plants

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!

Small Scale Bulk Mineral Processing Solutions

Bulk minerals recovery, for example tin, tantalite and chrome, differs from precious metal recovery, such as gold and platinum, in that there is more of the concentrate to catch.

 In most cases bulk minerals are heavier than the carrier rock, so it is possible to use simple gravity methods. The concentrating equipment you use needs to be able to take a bigger amount of concentrate, for example spirals or a shaking table.

This sort of plant is standardly more expensive, however an affordable, entry-level option to bulk mineral recovery is to use two of APT's GoldKacha concentrators side by side. Two concentrators fill up with the heavy mineral quicker, so while you are emptying the one the other one keeps on catching. The GoldKacha is in fact called the 'TinKacha' by some of our clients who have used it successfully for tin recovery.

Is It Worth It Paying Extra for a Good Mineral Processing Plant? | Finding the Correct Mining Equipment

It is very tempting to buy a cheap mineral processing plant, but beware it will probably cost a lot more. Here are the reasons:

 COMPLETE OFFERING

When you buy bits and pieces of cheap equipment you may be missing some important parts. You will then need to go and find all the pieces before you get into production and start earning money from that investment. Remember a mineral processing plant that isn’t operational is nothing more than scrap metal.

APT plants are provided complete and you are informed of what you need to supply, like a generator or water supply, so there are no surprises.

CORRECT SPECIFICATION

If the plant you buy is not the correct plant for the type of material you have, you may have wasted every cent you have spent, no matter how cheap it was.

APT does not just sell plants, we sell solutions. We have qualified and highly experienced personnel who ask you questions to find out what you have and ensure we supply the correct equipment. If you need testing we make sure we advise you of this, and we have our own associate laboratories with decades of experience to find out the correct answer.  We are not just interested in selling equipment, we are selling success.

LONG LIFE

The equipment we sell is top quality, manufactured by APT, and for the few items that we may outsource, we vet our suppliers carefully.

All equipment wears out some time, but APT offers original quality spares to keep you in operation month after month, year after year. If your plant is no longer usable because you cannot repair it, from that second onward it is just scrap metal. Remember too that when your plant stops because of frequent breakdowns, your overheads do not stop – you still have to pay salaries, money for vehicles and other expenses.

BETTER RECOVERY

APT understands minerals. We design our plants to get the maximum possible recovery which means higher profits. For example let us say that a cheap 3 tonne per hour gold plant cost $60 000, but an APT high quality plant costs $100 000, but gets an extra 30% recovery. The difference is $40 000. At today’s gold price of $61.82 that $40 000 equates to 647 grams of gold. Now let us assume that the cheap plant recovers 3 grams of gold per tonne, but because of its better efficiency the quality APT plant recovers 30% more as per our example, then it will get 3.9 grams of gold per tonne, or 0.9 grams per tonne more than the cheap plant. If you operate 8 hours per day that equates to 0.9g/t x 3t/h x 8h/d = 21 grams of gold per day extra. At $61.82 per gram that is $1335 dollars per day extra. So the $40 000 you paid for the better plant will be reached in about one month. For every month thereafter you will also make extra gold, so your investment will not only be paid off, but continue to make you higher returns.

Contact us here or email us on info@aptprocessing.com to find out more.

APT’s New GK-X Centrifugal Concentrator – Nothing Short of a Revolution | Medium Scale Centrifugal Concentrator

It is not often that one sees something new in the world of centrifugal gravity concentration, it is mostly just the same old copies of redundant models. APT’s new GK-X centrifugal concentrator brings a number of refreshingly new developments, all designed to overcome a problem from the past and move things forward.

The GK-X is targeted at the middle ground and is rated for 20tph solids feed in a slurry that can range from 30 to 60% solids. Application is either alluvial, hard rock or tailings and the feed is optimal at -2mm, although -3mm is acceptable and will allow more nugget like gold recovery in alluvial applications.

The first major departure of the GK-X from the conventional units is that the GK-X is a fluidized concentrator but does not incorporate a water jacket. The fluidization water is fed to the fluidizing nozzles via an exo-skeleton of fluidization pipes which gets the water straight to where it is needed. Without the water jacket, the rotating weight is kept to a minimum saving energy from swinging all that water. Line velocities are also kept high, avoiding the problematic settling out of any silt that may be in the fluidization water. Each fluidizing water line (after feeding it’s group of fluidization nozzles) terminates in a silt exit nozzle that ejects the silt directly with no chance of settling out under the g-force and slower velocity in a water jacket.

The next major revolutionary change is that each of the exit nozzles sprays it’s fluidizing water via a stainless steel jet that metres the flow to exactly the volume required at the recommended line pressure. The main feed routing is big bore right through to the jet, so there is nowhere for solids to get stuck, contributing to another major advantage over the past systems. The need to restrict or set the line flow to try to achieve a set pressure is thus negated, the jets do that for you. Line turbulence is therefore eliminated and so is the tendency for small particles to block the jets as they are forced through.

Cleaning the fluidization system is the third major departure from the old days of needing to remove the cone. Cleaning is as simple as back-flushing each of the eight lines, one at a time, by removing the silt exit nozzle for that line and attaching the pressure back-flush hose. The back-flushed material is ejected through a dedicated port so you can see when the line is clear and move to the next one. Should a jet be blocked it is as simple as removing it with a screw driver and replacing it, which also solves the problem of enlarged jets over time that plagued the previous generation.

Because of the accurate water metering to each part of the cone with even distribution, it has proved possible in practice to reduce water requirement. The standard 2mm jets use 6 cubic metres of water per hour at 2 bar line pressure. For fine gold applications and where finer feeds allow less water we recommend changing out to the optional 1.5mm jets, a quick and easy operation that does not require the cone to be removed. The GK-X cone can therefore be ‘tuned’ to the application you have and easily adjusted for future changes in application.

All GK-X wetted surfaces are either poly or stainless steel for corrosion free life. The standard rotating water union is brass but can be changed out for a stainless steel unit upon special request. All slurry contact surfaces are lined and replacement liners are incorporated in high wear zones. The inlet and exit pipes are standard sized poly, not only making for easier sourcing of replacements upon wear, but also fitting standard poly fittings available universally.

The GK-X launder shape is somewhat revolutionary too, and easily recognizable by it’s inverted bowl shape. This is entirely by design, so that the tailings slurry, now expanded by fluidization water and at a lower velocity, has more room to flow away. This has resulted in a squatter design for the launder, making for easier installations.

The GK-X comes in a standard manual flushing option as well as an automated flushing option. An operation platform is also available that incorporates a slurry header tank with bypass valve to enable flushing of concentrates as well as two concentrate tote boxes to hold a shift’s worth of concentrates. A dedicated water pump is also supplied with the platform package to ensure correct pressure to the fluidisation jets.

Contact us here or email us on info@aptprocessing.com for further information.

New Knelson CVD42 For Sale and In Stock | Mining Equipment South Africa

Here at APT we currently have a brand new Knelson CVD42 for sale and in stock.

The Knelson CVD42 is suitable for tin, chromite, tantalite and more. It includes all of the required components including the automation piping, control box and full ICS package.

Please contact us for further details either here on our website or via our email address on info@aptprocessing.com.

A Look Into our Warehouse Entering 2022! | APT Small Scale Mining Equipment

Entering 2022, we are proud to say that we have had a brilliant and intensely productive start to the year. We are currently working on a large order of GroundBreaker equipment, which is APT’s range of small scale mining equipment best suited to either small scale mining or mineral exploration purposes.

Seen here is just a fraction of the equipment we currently have in our warehouse. Our manufacturing team has been working around the clock on a multitude of these GroundBreaker plants and it is quite a sight to see! It also gives us inspiration for the year ahead and to push forward doing what we do best.

Thank you to the APT team, this is a brilliant way to start the year. Wishing everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous 2022!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year | A Note from our CEO

As the year draws to a close many of you are probably grateful for the chance to wish another challenging year farewell. Despite all of the problems, mineral demand has remained fairly healthy and prices on the whole have been buoyant, so it is fair to say that we are in a good industry that weathers storms well. Our part in the grand global play is to just keep going, churning out the goods that everyone needs no matter what their persuasion.

We at APT have had a good year, catering especially to the artisanal mining sector, and indeed we are in the process of delivering our largest order ever. We thank all of our valued clients for their faith in us and pledge to continue delivering of our very best for you. There will be some exciting new developments early in the new year, so stay tuned.

I wish you all the very best for a prosperous and happy 2022, may all your dreams come true.

Mr K. Peacocke, CEO of APT