The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Southern Africa (IOM3) has acknowledged Spike Taylor, Managing Director of Multotec Rubber, for the significant role he has played in the industrial rubber industry since 2002, Multotec says.

At the 24th IOM3 National Rubber conference, held in Cape St Francis, in April, Taylor was awarded the John Tallant Medal for Outstanding Merit for this contribution.

The local arm of the international IOM3, established more than 60 years ago, is made up of representatives of the South Africa industrial rubber sector.

Taylor, who has a BSc in Engineering Metallurgy, began his career at De Beers and, in 1985, joined Multotec as a Sales Engineer. He progressed through the organisation and, in 2009, was appointed as the MD of Multotec Rubber.

Multotec Rubber is primarily focused on the local manufacture of rubber and rubber composite grinding mill liners. It established its local manufacturing plant in Spartan, in 2000. The company can point to more than 400 successful mill and scrubber liner installations across Africa, it said.

This, Taylor says, does not include those installations in countries outside of Africa.

Referencing recent installations, Taylor said these include an AG mill lining on a diamond mine in East Africa, a lining in a secondary ball mill on a platinum mine on the South Africa western Limb, two scrubber linings on a phosphate mine in North Africa and a SAG mill lining for a Zambia copper mine.

“In addition to these, Multotec Rubber has significantly increased its footprint in West Africa with the installation of three ball mill linings and a SAG mill lining at gold plants in this region,” he said.

In all instances, the Multotec product replaced competitor lining, according to the company. Taylor attributes this to the focused approach of the Multotec Rubber team to leverage mill liner technology to ensure customers receive the benefit of the company’s extensive knowledge, facilitating optimum recoveries.

“By maintaining the high road when it comes to product quality and product consistency, we have been able to prove to customers that those who accept inferior product because of lower pricing do inevitably pay for this over the long run with production issues,” Taylor concluded.