Electra Mining welcomes Weir ESG and AI solutions

At Electra Mining Africa, running from 2-6 September in Johannesburg, Weir has highlighted the value of energy and water efficiency, important components of mines’ bottom line costs and strategic sustainability goals

This year’s Electra Mining is one of the largest today, welcoming more than 850 exhibitors across six exhibition halls and four large outside exhibit areas. Described as a ‘5-in-1 trade show’, it incorporates several shows to put a spotlight on a range of critical sectors from mining and manufacturing through to trucking and transport.

At the show, Weir has highlighted its sustainability focus which underpins the company’s support for its customers’ strategic environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, according to Weir’s process and products director, Mufaro Muzvondiwa. The event was another important opportunity to display Weir’s leading role in helping mines to reduce consumption of energy and water – and to reduce carbon emissions.

“At Electra Mining Africa, we were able to remind visitors how seriously we take sustainability across all our products,” said Muzvondiwa. “We displayed our WARMAN pumps with innovative WRT impeller and throatbush combination – for improved hydraulic profiles, reduced turbulence, extended wear performance and lower power consumption.”

He noted that, while Weir’s WRT upgrade for WARMAN pumps is not new to the market, many visitors were still discovering the value that this technology could deliver on their operations. The WRT parts are retrofittable in the WARMAN AH range of horizontal slurry pumps and delivers improved hydraulic profiles, reduced turbulence, extended wear performance and lower power consumption.

Weir's water solutions

Water conservation was also a growing issue for many of the mining visitors to Weir’s exhibition stand. Muzvondiwa pointed out there is more awareness that mines today must increasingly balance their water demands with those of communities and other local stakeholders.

“This also created plenty of interest in our CAVEX 2 hydrocyclones, which offer up to 30% additional capacity and improved separation efficiency, while delivering water and energy savings in mineral processing applications,” Muzvondiwa said.

Operational efficiency

Alongside the ESG focus, visitors at Electra Mining Africa were as usual looking for ways to optimise their processes for greater productivity, Muzvondiwa explained. This is where Weir’s digital tools are playing a crucial role in facilitating smart mining.

“The only constant on mines is change; they are dynamic operations, with constantly changing geological and metallurgical conditions,” he remarked. “This makes it vital that the performance of our equipment is being continuously optimised – by modifying parameters to suit variables such as rock hardness, abrasiveness and chemistry.”

Building on its existing digital solutions, Weir is developing new capability to not only monitor equipment condition but to facilitate more real-time optimisation. This applies across the product range from WARMAN pumps to ENDURON HPGRs (High Pressure Grinding Rolls), he said.

“We are using our deep knowledge of our equipment and processes – built upon decades of research, development and field experience – to take advantage of the latest analytical capabilities in digital technology,” Muzvondiwa explained. “This will revolutionise how we run equipment and what the landscape of sustainable mining looks like.”

Muzvondiwa highlighted the virtuous circle that can be leveraged as equipment that is optimally run will, firstly, achieve a longer lifespan and, secondly, deliver the best throughput and recovery results. The challenge has always been that real-time optimisation must take into account many different factors, which are difficult to consolidate and analyse quickly.

“With the advent of AI, it is now possible to gather the relevant data and process it rapidly, so that valuable and precise recommendations can be generated and applied,” Muzvondiwa added. “We have been working very hard to commercialise these solutions, and we will soon be able to share with customers the exciting opportunities which will be available to them.”

Breaking new ground

Weir’s embrace of technology is enabled by skills initiatives which raise the bar for company staff and its customers. Mill Circuit University, for instance, is a key resource which ensures that skill levels are keeping up with technological advancement. More than that, technical staff understand more about the operating context of their specific equipment range.

“This enhances the quality of conversations between our frontline staff and customers, and improves the levels of collaboration we achieve,” Muzvondiwa commented. “While some courses can be done online, we also bring our teams together for training from around the globe; we also conduct regional training events for customers’ staff – even on their sites when required.”

In addition to learning about these services from Weir, Electra Mining Africa visitors were able to witness a modular wheeled plant solution – a fully mobile crushing and screening plant that can be transported by trailer.

“Visitors from the mines were also impressed by the extent of Weir’s local manufacturing capability, as this is an important ESG imperative for the mining sector,” Muzvondiwa concluded. “With some 95% of our sales being supplied by our South African plants, we are proud to support the local economy and offer customers a secure supply chain.”