Modular Plants are on the rise in the South African Mining Arena
In recent years the world has started to move towards modular construction of equipment, plant and buildings. This philosophy has become increasingly popular and found its way into the South African mining industry as well. The main project benefits that modular plant construction offers include:
- Speed of construction: projects can be delivered 30-50% times quicker than before.
- Minimal client impact: most construction activities are carried out off-site. Modular construction removes up to 80% of activities on site.
- Safer construction: The construction process is easier to control, which enjoys the benefits of bringing higher safety achievements.
- Quality control: Fabrication, assembly and testing are completed in a controlled environment.
- Sustainability: the manufacturing process generates less material waste, reduces energy consumption and in turn reduces a company’s carbon footprint.
The lack of proven local specialists with a track record in modular process plant construction has historically necessitated the outsourcing of the design, manufacture and build of these projects to other countries, or resulted in the local mining houses executing the projects in a traditional manner.
We provide modular process solutions to the international market and are the market leaders in the use of the iso (40ft) shipping format. We are a vertically integrated, specialist modular process plant supplier based in Johannesburg, that started constructing modular process plant solutions in 2012. These projects were all built for international projects to stringent country, industry (oil and gas) and client specifications. The individual modules were built and tested in Johannesburg and shipped to locations such as Canada, South America and Russia.
Clients and operators of the modular plants complemented us on the quality and operability of the units, at times remarking that the modular process plant supplied from South Africa was on par or even exceeded the units supplied from first world countries. They also praised the professionalism of the engineering, design and manufacturing team responsible for producing the product. This feedback spread, resulting in us producing modular plants first for African mines, north of South Africa and eventually for local operations as well.
These projects initially started out as small-scale, skid mounted reagent systems. Clients enjoyed the benefits that these modular plants presented them, requesting additional modular plants. This resulted in us designing a standard range of some reagent plants. When modules from the standard range are selected, project time-lines can be reduced even further, as the design time can be cut down in the overall project schedule. Furthermore, selecting reagent systems from the standard range supplies additional peace-of-mind to an end-user as this module design is already operational. Clients keep returning to us for many years, requesting the same modular process plant to satisfy their production expansion needs.
Once a mine has experienced the practicality of working with modular plants from a proven modular process plant specialist, they venture out to employ this project methodology in other areas of their operations as well. The units we supplied internationally generally had to conform to standard maritime shipping container dimensions for transportation purposes. In many instances the modular process plants were destined for remote locations, with minimal infrastructure. In these cases, instead of constructing buildings to house the plant on site, the containers were modified to be permanent plant enclosures instead. This approach was also employed for South African end-users, and as such ProProcess has supplied multiple compressor and fire systems housed in shipping containers. The end-user off-load the unit, connect electricity and water (if required), fill with chemicals (if required) and start operating the modular plant.
We soon identified the benefit of adding industrial automation to the portfolio and from this the birth of ProProcess Automation and Electrical (PPAE). It started with small, integrated control panels for our skid based solutions. The quality, craftmanship and robustness were noticed by numerous end users and very soon after more challenging enquiries emerged. PPAE became leaders in the modular construction of Containerised MCCs, E-Houses and Skid-Based MV and LV distribution centers. These days PPAE is a vertically integrated company, inside a vertically integrated group. PPAE has become the preferred complete modular electrical solution supplier for South African mining service and equipment supply businesses.
Having built a track record, both locally and internationally, of being a trusted modular process plant supplier in South Africa, culminated in one of our biggest local flagship projects. In August 2020 we were awarded the Engineering, Procurement and Construction Contract for the Fines Flotation Mobile Pilot Plant for Anglo American. This world class test facility for platinum concentrate flowsheet optimisation was designed with maximum road transportability in mind, as this pilot plant is earmarked to be moved around various concentrator sites owned by Anglo. To this end the entire plant consisting of 40+ flotation cells, a mill, ~30 tanks, ~50 pumps, etc were fitted onto 16 road transportable ISO frame skids conforming to 40ft marine container dimensions. This modular plant utilised many individual items supplied by renowned local OEMs. Co-incidentally, when we supply modular process plants internationally, these OEM suppliers also provide their equipment to these projects.
