ADP, a Lycopodium business, commenced operations with the design and supply of modular diamond plants in 1997. Over the ensuing years it has expanded its capabilities to deliver all traditional and specialised project services for the mining industry across a range of commodities, including diamonds, fluorspar, gold, graphite, iron ore, lithium, mineral sands, platinum, rare earth minerals, rubies, tin, uranium, copper and zinc.
Modular plant designs have been developed for crushing, milling, gravity separation, dense medium separation, ore sorting and final product recovery circuits of various capacities. Whilst maintaining a suite of tested modular plant designs, each plant remains unique due to differences in ore mineralogy, resource grades and client preferences.
A recent innovative project saw delivery of a 1,500 t/h track-mounted mineral sands Dry Mining Unit. The customer is the French group Eramet and its Grande Côte mineral sands operation (GCO) in Senegal, which is the largest single dredge mineral sands operation in the world. Over an expected mine life of at least 25-years, GCO will primarily produce high-quality zircon and ilmenite as well as small amounts of rutile and leucoxene.
ADP was awarded the contract to design and supply the unit in April 2021. The machine was fabricated, trial assembled and pre-commissioned and was delivered to Senegal in May 2022. Thereafter, it was transported to site, re-assembled and commissioned. ADP told IM that key success factors include its mobility, with a robust twin track design making it easily manoeuvrable in the mining environment. It is also much safer for personnel than conventional skid mounted plant and is remotely operated via a pendant control removing the physical human machine interface.
The Dry Mining Unit allows for precise feed control with a feedback loop for slurry density control and flow control. All components of the machine are tried and tested in the mining environment and are robust and reliable enabling impressive operational availability. The unit is fed by Komatsu WA900 front end loaders.
The unit is all electric with 33 kV primary power supply. Onboard transformers bringing the installed 1.4 MW of power to the onboard users at the required voltages. The unit is equipped with onboard hydraulic power generation and an onboard diesel generator. The generator is available for instances when shore power is not available and for power when tracking the Dry Mining Unit on long relocation moves.
Fabrication of the unit was done in Cape Town, South Africa with the machine being sea freighted to Dakar, Senegal on time and within budget. The Dry Mining Unit was commissioned two weeks after mechanical completion and achieved nameplate throughput during commissioning, entering continuous operation immediately thereafter.