Eramet’s Comilog SA has awarded Mineral Technologies Ltd a contract for the supply of a fully-equipped spiral concentration pilot plant at its Moanda operations in Gabon.

This plant will be used to recover manganese from tailings produced by Comilog’s various facilities over the years, Eramet said.

“The installation of this unit will be the first step towards Comilog’s training and testing center in Moanda,” it added.

Unveiled in 2014, the Moanda Metallurgical Complex produces two products: silicomanganese, an alloy used in the steel industry containing 69% manganese; and manganese metal, which is found in high-grade steels and electronic devices such as batteries.

The ore is extracted from an open-pit mine on the Bangombé plateau. After extraction, the ore is processed in a facility where it is crushed, ground, washed and sorted, before being shipped to the Moanda Industrial Complex for enrichment.