allmineral is an acknowledged global leader in wet and dry mineral processing technologies including air-pulsed density separation, fluidised bed technology for density sorting, magnetic separation and jigging. IM Editorial Director, Paul Moore, recently caught up with Richard Monteiro Ferreira, Director of Business Development.
The company now has a well received ore sorting solution in the market – the allsort XRT sorting system is a sensor-based sorting solution for dry processing. How does this solution fit into allmineral’s overall offering? Ferreira: “We see it as a complement and extension to our existing product range. If we are looking at a full processing plant, we can already do it on a complete wet or dry basis. Everything we do with wet jigging today using the alljig, we can also do dry – allair is a dry jig based on air-pulsed density separation. We have two main types of jigging machine overall designs – an under bed pulsed machine for higher capacity applications and then side pulsed machines for medium capacity By adding the XRT allsort technology, we are also able to do the main ore sorting and finer sorting on a dry basis.”
Richard Monteiro Ferreira, Director of Business Development, allmineral
He added: “And then of course, through HAZEMAG we can also handle the front end crushing as well as conveying and screening. The type of crushing technologies vary by application and could range from an impact crusher, a sizer or a feeder breaker, which are all in our line-up. So, it allows us to put everything together on a turnkey basis while maximising the strengths of our group portfolio. Where we can’t do something in-house, then we can incorporate elements from third-party suppliers – this would include things like pumps and thickeners. Overall, we offer really diverse options for mining customers which really puts us in a unique position.”
In recent years, allmineral has also been supplying dense media separation solutions in addition to jigging plants, reflecting customer demand in the coal and critical minerals industries. “We have incorporated that in our offering – and we have already delivered two custom-built DMS plants for  coal preparation in Indonesia plus we have another one going to a metals mining customer in Portugal. All of these involve us supplying a crushing system a well as the DMS part. For Portugal, it is a first-of-a-kind hard rock lithium processing plant. This project represents a significant step forward for the European lithium value chain – and it showcases allmineral’s deep expertise in testing, designing and delivering advanced mineral processing solutions.”
allmineral engineered and designed the complete pilot plant, which is now being delivered on a full EPC basis. This turnkey approach Ferreira says underlines its capability to manage complex projects end to end from concept to commissioning.
So in what applications does DMS come into play versus jigging? “We conduct  engineering feasibility studies in-house for clients where we look at the trade-offs and decide what would be the best option in terms of recoveries, yields and capacities. While in the past, we have been primarily well known for alljig jigging solutions, today we are also becoming established in the fixed plant DMS market as well – and that can mean in conjunction with spirals for a fine circuit; and in some instances down to flotation cells as well.”
He continued: “For spirals, we work with third party partners. For flotation cells we have our own flotation technology in house as well – allflot – which features an innovative new ventilation concept crafted by our engineers and offers the maximum possible flexibility in terms of the volumetric throughput rate. It’s a fairly unique flotation technology, so working on pneumatic flotation unlike traditional column flotation systems.” He says the allflot technology has been offered for about six years and has applicability in areas such as PGM and lithium processing.
The full allmineral suite of solutions includes not just alljig, allair allflot allsort, allflux and allgauss and our DMS plant solutions – are all of these typically being deployed in isolation or paired or grouped as part of a complete plant offering? Ferreira: “It all depends on the application. We have large turnkey jig plant operations with just an alljig, for example. And then we have supplied other operations where the alljig is working with an allflux – such as in the sand and gravel sector; or alljig together with allgauss.”
He adds: “For example, in iron ore processing, the use of alljig sees the material initially fluidised with pulsed water and the grains then graded by density with the jigs separating the lighter yield from the heavier ore in the stratified material bed; this can then be followed by flexible and precise magnetic separation with allgauss. We have a number of iron ore references using alljig and allflux together as well – in South Africa, Australia and in India. We have all these pieces of innovative equipment within the portfolio or toolbox if you like that we can then adapt and adjust to the specific application.”
Overall, wet jigging still represents the majority of allmineral’s revenue and remains the technology it is most famous for in the market. “You are right in that we would definitely say alljig is still the foundation of allmineral and remains the predominant technology in terms of sales and installed base – followed probably by allflux. alljig is very strong in iron ore but also coal, manganese, slag and the recycling market.”
Ferreira went into more detail on the capabilities of parent company HAZEMAG, especially relating to crushing circuits and also the ability to work with them to deliver projects on an EPCM/EPC basis. “We can offer a full beneficiation plant design, development and engineering solution. HAZEMAG since 2017 has been 59.9% owned by Chinese company Sinoma International – itself part of building materials giant CNBM – so through that relationship we have access to vast civil and electrical engineering experience and resources as well.”
From the allmineral side Ferreira says it often enters into full service level agreements with clients which can extend to us operating and maintaining the plant for them. “If you are looking for full turnkey supply, we can manage that whole process for a client and keep it in one package. For some this works as they just work with one contractor and don’t have to worry about multiple contacts. From the service and post commissioning side, I think that’s really a big benefit. Even for third party companies like the pump supplies, we at allmineral would coordinate with them, facilitate the parts supply, and set up warehouses where we hold stock of the parts for the end user.”
He says these types of projects are becoming more common – and they include the mentioned projects in Indonesia and Portugal plus others in Georgia and Spain. What is a typical route to market? “Because we have quite innovative sets of technologies in our offering, sometimes a consultancy or engineering house will come to us needing a specific piece of equipment from our portfolio for their flowsheet. Then at the other end of the scale we can directly handle large projects where we’ll do everything on a turnkey basis. We have single processing equipment than can handle 1 t/h up to 500 t/h But we handle every project with the same detail and attention. That means dedicated testwork campaigns, in depth analysis of results, proof of concepts etc.”
He also detailed a typical testwork timeline: “We’ll first look at the application and apply an initial concept after discussions with the end user on what we agree would be a good fit. From there, we then break it down to a first tier of testing with batch test work – typically sample sizes of about 300 kg. This allows us to start doing some analysis, understanding how the material will behave in the chosen process route. We’ve also developed pilot machines for all of our main technologies so we can also put them at the customer site and run them for three months, see how the ore  behaves inside the machines and then go from there.”
He continues: “The next phase is bulk testing with about two tonnes this allows us to simulate the production environment, in our lab and after this we can offer onsite pilot plants,  running at 10 to 20 tonnes per hour, so not massive plants, but supplied on a rental basis. The principal testing hub is in Germany at our Global Testing & Research Centre in Dülmen where together with HAZEMAG we can deploy the group’s collective expertise in crushing and processing. This is complemented by test facilities run by our group offices in India, South Africa and North America.”
allmineral states: “The technical expertise and specialist knowledge of our staff helps take the work at our Global Testing & Research Centre to the next level, enabling the efficient implementation of application-based customer requests and research-related topics. Transparency is a vital part of operations at the centre, with partners and customers able to observe the tests in person so as to enhance their practical knowledge. This open exchange makes it possible to tackle global problems together and identify collective solutions.”
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