Labtech Africa, the sole South African distributor for the FLSmidth range of Essa sampling and sample preparation equipment, is preparing one of the biggest orders the company has received in recent months — an extensive crushing and sampling system for a gold mine in Russia. “We’re working closely with the FLSmidth team in Perth, Australia on this order that requires a 750 kg ore sample to be crushed to smaller than 2 mm particles in less than an hour,” Jan du Plessis of Labtech Africa, said. “After crushing and splitting, a 2 kg sample of this crushed ore will be sent to a laboratory for analysis. The order includes five jaw crushers, five conveyors, two bins, one rotary pipe splitter, two vezin samplers and all supporting structures, chutes and hoppers. For an order of this size, we rely heavily on FLSmidth in terms of process and design support.”
The Essa product line, acquired by FLSmidth in 2011, is a leading range of automated mineral sampling and sample preparation systems offering bulk material quality and process control technologies including particle sizing and metallurgical laboratory equipment. Labtech Africa supports this range by importing and exporting sampling and laboratory equipment, as well as installing and commissioning new equipment and providing after-sales service. Other services include maintenance, on-site repairs, emergency repairs, remanufacturing of critical components, technical support and the supplying of consumables needed to support the life of the equipment. Labtech Africa offers a total package of sample preparation solutions that cater to a range of demanding requirements from complete laboratory installations and mobile or containerised units, to specialised applications, including crushers, rotary sample dividers, ball and ring mills, riffle splitters, vezin samplers, drying ovens, dust collectors, work stations and pulverising mill bowls. “Our company supplies Essa equipment to the mining, exploration and associated service industries and the needs of these customers vary along different points of the mining cycle from exploration, mining and crushing, through to stockpiling and shipment,” says du Plessis. “We’ve maintained growth and market share by being active across a wide range of mineral commodities including gold, lead, iron ore, nickel, aluminium, copper, coal, platinum, zinc and silver. As a result, we have business in all the major mining regions on the continent including the Sudan, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana, Guinea, South Africa, Madagascar, the DRC and Zimbabwe.”
Labtech Africa operates from a 3,000 m2 site in Spartan, Gauteng that incorporates a 200 m2 warehouse, a maintenance area and a section where all equipment is assembled and tested before being dispatched to customer sites. The company supports FLSmidth’s Essa equipment with customer training to ensure these products deliver optimum performance. “There’s a real depth to our engineering expertise and we’re able to supply an entire solution to the market,” du Plessis adds. “If customers want to test our equipment before purchasing, they are invited to bring their product to our factory and we’ll process the sample. We also offer equipment to customers on a trial basis. However, our primary competitive edge in the African market is having the backup of a massive global organisation like FLSmidth. Working in co-operation with FLSmidth, we’re able to develop complex design work in any given field of sampling and sample preparation, specific to African conditions. We have excellent and rapid communication channels with FLSmidth on a 24/7 basis and a lot of information sharing takes place between our two companies.”
