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Commercial activities

Mintek’s commercial activities comprise participation in operating companies and joint ventures, sales of equipment and technology licensing

agreements. Mintek also actively promotes the establishment of mineral-based

development projects that could utilise its technologies.

Participation in operating

companies

Mintek participates in four operating

companies — Apic Toll Treatment

(Pty) Ltd (Atoll), Mogale Alloys (Pty)

Ltd, Musuku Beneficiation Systems

(Pty) Ltd and Tollsort (Pty) Ltd

— through its wholly-owned local

holding company Mindev (Pty) Ltd.

Mintek’s participation is by way of

shareholder loans as well as equity

contributions structured through

licences for Mintek’s technologies

and related expertise.

Atoll is a joint venture between

Mintek and Bateman Titaco that was

formed to market and exploit the Apic

jigging technology. During 2004, Atoll

acquired the Mabofo shareholding

in the Hernic Ferrochrome metal-

recovery operation. Atoll’s toll jigging

business in South Africa has reached

a sustainable critical mass, and

the company is looking at several

overseas opportunities.

The Mogale Alloys consortium is

made up of Mindev with a 25 per

cent shareholding, Atoll (20 per cent),

PGR Investment (25 per cent), and

Sebeso (30 per cent). During the

year under review, the company

produced 12.3 kt of ferrochromium,

23.1 kt of nickel-chromium alloy and

38.3 kt of silicomanganese. Forecast

production for 2005 is approximately

40 kt of nickel-chromium-containing

alloy and a further 30 kt of silico-

manganese. In 2005, Mogale Alloys

purchased the Palmiet Ferrochrome

plant from Samancor Chrome for

R78-million.

Musuku Beneficiation Systems

operates the Virginia gold refinery

and beneficiation centre. Mindev

has decided to exit this prospect,

but Mintek will continue to provide

technical assistance to the refinery

and market its gold beneficiation

technology independently.

The Tollsort Company has made

major breakthroughs in treating

gold waste dumps and UG2 ores by

optical sorting. The technology was

fully proven in a small commercial

tolling operation treating low-grade

(0.3 g/t) material at Kloof Gold

Mine, although the operation was

suspended in September 2004

due to the low head grade. Tollsort

will remain non-operational until

commercially viable optical sorting

projects have been identified.

The Tollsort optical sorting plant at Kloof Gold Mine

DNA double helix, target for anti-

cancer drugs

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Mintek business development projects

Mintek’s business development

activities are aimed at promoting

economic development by furthering

the beneficiation of South Africa’s

most important mineral resources.

The AuTEK projects for the use of

gold catalysts in respirators and

other applications are still in the

developmental and testing stages.

The possible commercialisation of

these projects will be considered in

the 2006/2007 financial year.

The commercial development of

the project to recover platinum from

chromite dumps has been delayed

due to the differing commercial

interests of the project partners.

The Innovation Fund will provide

R15-million over three years

to support the development of

technology for the recycling of PGMs

from reject autocatalysts. Mintek

is currently exploring business

development alternatives.

Ferrous metals. Mintek has

evaluated an opportunity to develop

an alternative or gas-based hot

briquetted iron project. However, a

study of the current economics of the

gas supply concluded that the project

would not be economically viable.

Mintek is nevertheless confident that

there is an opportunity to develop a

new steel project based on low-grade

Sishen ore fines using a coal-based

process.

The viability of producing ferronickel

at Coega is being investigated, and

Mintek is exploring the sourcing of

nickel ore from various locations.

The production of primary

magnesium is in the final stages

of development, and piloting of the

Mintek Thermal Magnesium Process

has been successfully completed.

Mintek is exploring alternatives

to demonstrate the technology

commercially.

Industrial minerals. A pre-feasibility

study for a 20 kt/a electrolytic

manganese dioxide production facility

in South Africa was completed by

Nexant Inc, Hazen Research and

Mintek, funded under a US Trade

and Development Agency grant.

The study concluded that the capital

cost of a greenfield plant would be

high compared to the expansion of

existing facilities elsewhere in the

world.

Process optimisation

Mintek is a world leader in the

development and application of

control and optimisation strategies

for mineral processing circuits. These

strategies, now integrated on the

StarCS platform, are undergoing

continual improvement and

expansion.

The MillStar™ milling control

strategy, on the StarCS, was installed

on the new SAG-ball milling circuit at

Industrias Peñoles’ Fresnillo-Proano

silver-gold-lead-zinc mine in Mexico.

As well as a segregated ore feed

control module, which prevents mill

overloads and enables operation

at a higher and more consistent

throughput, MillStar now incorporates

Model Predictive Control for effective

circuit stabilisation and particle size

control.

The MillStar stabiliser and optimiser

were implemented at Anglogold

Ashanti’s Obuasi operation in Ghana.

The MillStar implementation utilises

the latest MillStar tools to control the

SAG and ball mills in such a way that

maximum throughput and optimal

downstream recoveries are achieved.

A FloatStarTM flotation stabiliser and

optimiser, incorporating circulating

flow control and mass pull control,

was also installed.

MillStars were purchased by

Lonmin’s Karee UG2 and Mixed

plants, and Eastern Platinum’s

C Stream plant after successful

Ferro-nickel slag tapping

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trial installations. New areas of

application include crusher control

— implemented at CMT, where a

MillStar is installed on a trial basis

— and the control of a dry milling

application (on trial at Foskor).

FloatStarTM flotation control on the

StarCS was installed at Fresnillo and

at the Collahuasi Expansion project

in Chile, on the world’s fourth largest

copper mine. At the end of the year

under review, BCL placed an order

for stabilising and optimising control

of their flotation circuit. The FloatStar

Flow Optimiser was also installed on

a trial basis at Lonmin’s Karee 4 and

Karee UG2 plants.

The expansion of StarCS into the

Australian market continued, with

new installations at Perilya Broken

Hill, Zinifex Century mine, CMT,

and Sally Malay. Service contracts

were concluded with various mines,

including LionOre Emily Anne,

Century, and Newcrest Cadia-

Ridgeway.

Version 2 of the Cynoprobe online

cyanide analyser was launched in

the second half of 2004. The new

PLC-based instrument is much more

configurable, handles higher cyanide

concentrations, and can incorporate

pH measurement if required, as

well as multiplexing. The analyser

has been installed at gold plants

in South Africa and in Australia. An

online WAD Cynoprobe, which is

able to measure the concentration

of both free and WAD cyanide, is in

the final stages of development, and

plant trials will be

completed in the

second half of 2005.

Real-time WAD

cyanide analysis

assists plants in

complying with

the International

Cyanide Code,

and can be used to

control and optimise

cyanide destruction and recovery

processes.

LeachStarTM, Mintek’s leach circuit

control suite, has been installed at

a gold plant in South Africa. The

LeachStar system compensates for

variations in the leach feed rate, and

tightly controls the cyanide profile

across the leaching circuit, thereby

reducing cyanide reagent costs by

up to 20 per cent, as well as reducing

cyanide levels in the tailings stream.

Cynoprobe online cyanide analyser

Mintek’s sulphide flotation pilot plant, which underwent a major infrastructure upgrade in early 2005

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The latest FurnStarTM system is a

collection of furnace control modules

and applications that runs on the

StarCS control platform, and modules

can be added or updated depending

on individual plant requirements.

Eight furnaces are now running

under the FurnStar system and many

more updates are planned. A control

module, based on information from

the Arcmon arc monitoring system, is

currently being developed. An online

electrode temperature profiler is also

expected to be available shortly as a

FurnStar module.

Equipment sales

During the year under review,

three 42 kg/h Minfurn carbon-

regeneration furnaces were

installed at gold operations in South

America. In response to industry

requests for Minfurns with a larger

capacity, a 125 kg/h unit was

designed and manufactured for a

gold project in Brazil.

Partnerships and

technology alliances

Links are maintained with

professional bodies, especially

ECSA, MQA, NSTF, the other

science councils, all relevant

government departments and

the SET community (EU FP6,

World Summit on Sustainable

Development and many

others). Mintek plays a role in

various bilateral agreements

by interacting with diplomatic

staff and hosting personnel from

Algeria, China, the DRC, France,

Finland, Germany, Sweden,

Russia, the United States and

the United Kingdom.

Mintek and the University of

Cape Town signed an agreement

to explore new opportunities

for collaborative research and

human resource development

in the areas of mineral and

metallurgical technology.

The DST has approved

collaborative projects with Japan

and Belarus under the relevant

bilateral S&T co-operation

agreements.

CIP circuit plant at Kloof Gold Mine

A 125 t/h capacity Minfurn carbon-regeneration furnace under construction at

Mintek

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