A solid reputation, as the preferred supplier for transfer points on diamond operations, has seen South African OEM, Weba Chute Systems, service the mines in Botswana for the last fifteen years.
Werner Baller, founder and ceo of Weba Chute Systems, says that the company does not rest on its laurels and he attributes its success to this philosophy of continuous improvement as well as its in-depth understanding of material movement across the full range of commodities.
“The ability to fully understand the complexities of crushing systems enabled our technical team to provide a fit-for-purpose solution in a retrofit application on one of the mines recently,” Baller says.
Explaining the application itself, Baller says that the transfer point operates between a crusher and material stockpiles, and over the years’ various challenges have been encountered including high impact on the belt and excessive dust and spillage with associated high maintenance costs.
In this section of the plant some 3 500 tph of kimberlite is transferred from the open pit to the stock pile, and although several modifications were done over time the plant stoppages caused by the ineffective transfer point had become a major problem.
“Due to our standing in this particular industry and our close relationships, Weba Chute Systems was called in to investigate and provide a long term solution,” Baller says. The company’s team of skilled engineers visited the site with mine personnel to get a complete picture of the situation.
Significantly, Weba Chute Systems is also known for resolving complex and challenging transfer point issues; again, something Baller believes is because of the depth of experience and expertise that resides within the company.
The solution provided was a custom transfer point engineered to meet specific application requirements.
Baller says emphasis during the design stage was to mitigate the major issues of the past, one of which was the very high drop of 15 metres which the material has to transverse before reaching the belt.
Weba Chute Systems’ pragmatic approach to the dynamics of bulk materials handling not only eliminates the problems so often associated with conventional transfer chutes, but also results in significant savings. Baller explains that this is why it is extremely important to understand how the material flow will function, in all conditions including wet and dry.
“Uncontrolled drops such as this result in high impact on the belt. It is through the absolute control of the material flow that we are able to reduce the impact of the product when it reaches the conveyor. This not only reduces wear on the belt but also reduces spillage and dust,” he says.
“Because each Weba Chute System is tailor made for its specific application, we are confident that the plant stoppages at this mine will become a thing of the past,” Baller concludes.
