Multotec Australia’s new sand plant health checks offer customers a way to maximise return on investment through tweaks that do not break the bank.
Jason Hartmann has seen many trends come and go in the Australian quarrying sector, but since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a growing desire from operators to get more from their existing assets.
Rather than investing capital expenditure in new plant equipment, quarry operators are evaluating how to get more from their existing equipment.
Hartmann, who now serves as vice president of product management at Multotec Australia, told Quarry that the shift had been noticeable.
“Around Covid and just post-Covid, sand plants, in terms of new sand plants, went bananas. There were lots of decent plants going in all over the place,” he said.
“That’s settled right down, and now people are probably looking to sweat their assets more rather than putting in new plants.
“With an existing plant, you’ve already got your sunk costs and your CapEx invested, plus it’s already operational, you’re getting material, and you’re able to wash it, so it makes a lot of sense to maximise the production from your current set-up.”
Across Australia, several key factors are influencing market demand.
In certain markets, longstanding resources are reaching exhaustion, reducing capacity.
Elsewhere, quarry operators are facing lengthy processes for development applications in some states, which can make upgrading to a new plant harder.
“It is pretty hard to switch to a new plant when demand rises if you haven’t already planned that out four or five years in advance. So that’s where sweating your existing assets can be beneficial,” Hartmann said.
Given that more customers are looking to make their existing plants work harder rather than replace them, Multotec’s team of field experts often seek ways to help their customers achieve a greater return on investment without incurring significant capital expenditure.
As a starting point, Multotec’s team will go on-site with the customer and take a hands-on approach to inspecting the existing plant.
By walking the plant, Multotec’s team can assess its performance in real time.
Hartmann said this attention to detail could mean the difference between tweaking a cyclone’s geometry for better performance and installing a new cyclone with bigger capacity.
“A lot of quarry operators know how their plant works very well, but they don’t necessarily have the broader experience to understand the tweaks that can make their plant sing a little better,” he said.
“For instance, looking at their cyclone’s performance, is it potentially roping, fanning or not operating in the optimal range? Whenever that’s happening, you know material is being misplaced somewhere.
“Or, in some cases, some sites spend an enormous amount of time digging out coarse material from their tailings dam that should never be there in the first place. And because they spend money digging it out, they’re also spending money recovering it as well.”
As resources become exhausted and the grading specifications around infrastructure projects can become tighter, quarry operators can face a conundrum. New specifications do not always account for the old plant’s capabilities, and as resources get further exhausted, product quality can diminish.
When it comes to helping older plants hit high-value specifications, Multotec leans on its industry experience to advise customers on the best course of action.
This could range from tweaking screen apertures and cyclone geometry through to altering reactive agents for thickeners.
Hartmann said it is important to consider the full scope of production when advising a customer.
“If you make a change in isolation without understanding what’s happening overall, that’s potentially going to be a pitfall,” he said.
“When our team goes on site, whether it’s a salesperson or a process person, we look at everything, even if it’s not directly within our scope. Because we have the industry experience, we’ll be able to give pretty good guidance in those areas.”
This is part of a new service Multotec is offering its quarry customers, called the sand plant health check. The company will support its customers through a technical partnership that includes data collection and expert advice to identify inefficiencies in the existing circuit and turn it around to deliver a profitable return on investment.
Through this collaborative approach, Multotec’s customers can access the full extent of the company’s knowledge and up-to-date data which helps the customer make informed decisions around their plant.
“Quarry operators know their plant in unbelievable detail and how it responds. But they might not see some of the things they can change through a more holistic approach,” Hartmann said.
“It’s a new initiative for us, and we’ll work with those customers on a case-by-case basis to go a little bit deeper with things like sampling material and measuring various flow rates.
“It will help operators get a handle on what optimal processing for their plants could look like and how they can go about achieving it.”
While the sand plant health check is an emerging space for Multotec, the company has moved away from “one-off” visits with its customers in favour of a deeper, long-term partnership.
“We’ve got a lot of people in our team that are quite broadly experienced in the industry, and this new initiative will help us provide more value to our customers,” Hartmann said.
“It is an emerging space for us, but we’re looking forward to working with our customers through this new partnership.” •
For more information, visit multotec.com
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