2013 has been a great year for FLSmidth Knelson, not only in Zimbabwe but in Southern Africa particularly, and in Africa as a whole. Peacocke & Simpson, who represents FLSmidth Knelson in Zimbabwe, has so far this year concluded the sale and/or installation in the country of 1 KC-CD10, 5 KC-CD/XD20s and a KC-QS48. The QS48 is destined for Metallon Gold’s Shamva mine, where it will replace the last surviving competitor machine in the group, which a few years ago had competitor machines on all of its 5 mines.

Metallon, Zimbabwe’s largest gold producer, purchased the KC-QS48 on the strength of excellent results produced by a similar-sized KC-XD48 at its How Mine. Kenneth Mekani, until recently the Group Metallurgical Manager for Metallon, stated: “The KC 48 Concentrator installed on one of our operations has resulted in a 3 fold increase in gravity gold recovery which has translated to 3% increase in overall plant recovery. We are so happy with the performance of the KC 48 that plans for the purchase of another unit for our second biggest operation are at an advanced stage”.  The purchase has now been concluded and the KC-QS48 will arrive at the mine site in early September.

Further afield, FLSmidth Knelson recorded a major win at First Quantum Minerals’ Kansanshi Mine in Zambia. Kansanshi is a copper mine, but it also produces US$ 180 -200 million per annum in gold revenue, from gold produced solely by gravity concentration. FLSmidth Knelson has supplied 6 fully-stainless-steel KC-XD20VG machines into Kansanshi in the past 2½ years, to a mill that previously used only competitor concentrators. On the back of this significant penetration, FLSmidth Knelson has also been awarded the contract for supply of 1 x KC-XD20 and 8 x KC-QS48 machines into the new Kansanshi S3 plant which is currently under construction.

Kansanshi has also recently placed an order for 3 x FLSmidth Knelson Automated Tabling Systems, bringing to 6 the number of ATS’s at the plant site.  Due to high copper levels and related cyanide problems, Kansanshi cannot use intensive cyanidation for treatment of gravity concentrates, but has had good success with the Knelson-designed tabling systems, which maximise recovery by maximising tabling recycles.

In Namibia, FLSmidth Knelson has won the contract for supply of 4 x KC-QS48 machines and a ConSep Acacia CS8000 intense cyanidation reactor to B2 Gold’s Otjikoto project. The low-grade Otjikoto ore contains significant gravity gold that can occur in relatively large nuggets, so maximum gravity effort is planned for recovery, with 100% of mill circulating load treated by gravity.

Moving further north in the continent, teams from FLSmidth Knelson have recently commissioned 2 x KC-QS40 machines at Randgold’s Tongon Mine in Cote d’Ivoire and are presently commissioning a KC-XD30 at Endeavour’s Agbaou Mine in the same country.

Next on the commissioning list are 2 x KC-XD30s in Mauritania (Kinross Tasiast), 3 x KC-XD30s and 2 x Acacia CS3000s at Bulyanhulu in Tanzania (African Barrick Gold), 2 x KC-QS40s at Banro’s Namoya in the DRC, and 2 x KC-XD48s at Randgold’s Kibali Mine, also in DRC.

All-in-all, a very busy year for the commissioning teams, and an outstanding year for FLSmidth Knelson sales in Africa, where the company continues to hold and increase its significant majority market share.