WITH an extensive range of pumps, Weir Minerals Africa welcomed the opportunity to give visitors to the company’s stand at Electra Mining Africa more insight into pump innovation.
“Having a very broad spectrum of cutting-edge pump options at our disposal allows us to offer our customers exactly what they need,” says general manager pump products at Weir Minerals Africa, Marnus Koorts. “It also allows us to leverage technological advances from one brand to another.”
Among the innovations on display at the Weir Minerals Africa stand, for instance, was the Warman pump’s WRT technology, which improves wear life and energy efficiency with no additional capital cost requirement. This, he says, has also been applied to the company’s Envirotech range, another strong slurry pump brand in Africa and the Middle East.
The Warman range includes slurry pumps, heavy duty mill circuit pumps, submersible pumps, dewatering pumps and process slurry pumps. Also in the range are GEHO positive displacement pumps, known for long distance pumping of high-density tailings for distances of 200 to 300 km.
“Electra Mining Africa gave us the chance to expose our customers to other aspects of our portfolio,” he says.
“Most customers deal with the product lines relevant to their daily responsibilities – so it is exciting when they can see other aspects of our solutions that could add value.”
Another eye-catcher at the exhibition stand was a 50 kW unit from the Warman SSB submersible slurry pump range, using the wear technology already present in the industry-proven high chrome alloys used on slurry pumps, again leveraging technology from different brands. This unit boasted a high chrome impeller associated with its well-tested A05 material, with the motor encapsulated into the shell.
“We have also fine-tuned the ergonomics related to handling these pumps, based on our extensive experience in the field,” says Koorts. “These units are moved around a lot, so lugs that are aligned sideways tend to break off if there is impact. We innovate even in small ways, by putting the lug facing upwards to avoid damage.”
In addition to continuous innovation, he highlights the critical importance of the company’s global infrastructure to support its wide range of pumping equipment. This gives customers confidence that service levels are consistent wherever the pumps are working.
“Whether our customer moves from Rustenburg to the Middle East, or from Canada to West Africa, they will find the same extensive range of our pumps supported to the same high standard,” he says. “This sense of consistency is important to our customers, especially given the amount of geographical movement of people in the mining sector.”
