Sepro is celebrating 35 years of Falcon Concentrators in 2023. Falcon Concentrators was started from scratch by Steve McAlister in 1987 and officially branded in 1988. Falcon Concentrators later merged with Sepro Mineral Processing International to become world renowned experts in gravity concentration and continues to innovate today.
Appropriately in this anniversary year, Sepro Systems is in the process of completing the world’s single largest order ever of gravity concentrators. Sepro was granted the order of 48 Model SB5200 Falcon Gravity Concentrators for the recovery of fine gold from copper ore at the MOF-3 mining complex located in Uzbekistan, which is being advanced by mining group Almalyk MMC JSC.
Sepro states: “After a competitive selection period, Sepro was awarded this project which represents the largest single award ever in the history of fluidised concentrators. Falcon Concentrators have a long and favourable track record within Uzbekistan. The Falcon Gravity Concentrator represents lower fluidisation water demand compared to the competitor, making it an ideal choice for the MOF-3 project which is the world’s largest plant currently in construction.” Sepro will be fulfilling the order in four separate shipments, which are set to be completed in 2023.
Falcon Gravity Concentrators are trusted in major projects around the world, such as the Blackwater Project of Artemis Gold. But Sepro is not standing still with gravity concentration innovation – its latest technology development is the Sepro Frontier Bowl which it says represents the most significant improvement in gravity gold recovery in over 20 years.
The Sepro Frontier utilises the concentration mechanisms from both the Knelson™ and Falcon concentrators. The concept behind the parabolic riffle profile was to create a bowl with riffles on both sides of the dynamic slurry face. “We wanted a smooth path for slurry flow up the bowl wall. The bottom riffles begin with a relative angle of 30 degrees and progressively decrease in angle until the top riffles are vertical. The bottom riffles are exposed to the slurry flow, creating an eddy current zone of high turbulence. The top riffles are not directly exposed to the slurry flow, creating a non-turbulent zone of particle separation and recovery. In between is a transition zone where the angle of the bowl wall is equal to the angle of the dynamic slurry face.”
Sepro says this design dramatically improves overall gold recovery across a range of ore types, gold grades, and particle sizes. It adds compared to the Knelson concentrator it has seen 20% higher recovery on high-grade ore with coarse gold particles; 50% higher recovery on low-grade ore with fine gold particles and 47% reduction in cyclone overflow grade in industrial trials.
