Instrumentation for Botswana diamond mine

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Jan 2000 Flow Measurement & Control

Endress & Hauser -

Endress+Hauser has supplied a number of instruments to the Orapa 2000 project at the Orapa Mine in Botswana. The De Beers project is the biggest of its kind with a total value of more than R2 billion and extends the existing Orapa open-pit diamond mine to double its present size with an output of 12 million carats per year.

Over 140 HART Smart Promag 30 and 35 electromagnetic flowmeters were installed on water and slurry systems throughout the plant, which includes the automated recovery and extraction process utilising X-ray technology to produce a concentrate with a high diamond content. The instruments are required to operate under harsh environmental and process conditions including ambient temperatures from 0-50°C and humidity up to 90%. Promags were also installed on the primary and secondary scrubbing and screening systems, the well fields, slimes waste disposal and water reticulation systems.

In addition to water balancing applications, the electromagnetic flowmeters are used for the measurement of abrasive slurries with a density of 2,6 and a high flow rate from 2m/s to 3m/s. The nature of the slurry called for the units to be equipped with ultra soft rubber liners. The plant's jet sump was fitted with Magphant flow switches while more than 70 HART-based PMC 731 pressure transmitters were installed on the jet sump pumps as well as the dense media separation (DMS) system, water services, diamond recovery plant and ultraceps.

More than 60 Omnigrad TMD 833 temperature transmitters are used to monitor the temperature of critical bearings in the scrubber plant. The units are fully programmable incorporating HART technology for added reliability and easy parameterisation using a HART configurator.

Says Abri de Wet, Chief C&I Engineer, Debswana Projects, "At this stage we are very pleased that all of the Endress+Hauser instrumentation is meeting our expectations."

Endress+Hauser has a track record with Anglo American Corporation that goes back more than 10 years. Its products have been used previously for Orapa's No. 1 Plant as well as for Letlhakane and Jwaneng diamond mines and have established a reputation for reliability, backed by strong service and support.

Endress+Hauser

(011) 444 1386

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Flow Measurement & Control

Instrumentation for Botswana diamond mine

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