In the latter half of 2021, engineering project house Consulmet secured its largest ever diamond process plant – by value nearly twice as large as its largest and most recently completed contract. This not only cements the company as the African leader in diamond project delivery, but demonstrates the company’s capabilities to deliver large, world-class projects, which in the short-term future includes lithium, cobalt, copper, tin, iron ore and zinc.
Situated in West Africa, the lump sum turnkey diamond project covers just the first phase of what will be an open pit kimberlite mine with a minimum lifespan of 55 years.
The project will be designed to process 1 500 tph with the inclusion of new technology introduced upstream and downstream of the milling circuit.
The addition of XRT technology is a given with Consulmet, which is a strong advocate for the technology. Due to the size of this project, the XRT portion will be on a larger scale than ever implemented before on any kimberlite processing plant.
The fines diamond recovery circuit will still use the standard Consulmet tried and tested DMS module. Consulmet has designed, fabricated, and installed over a 100 of these modules over the past 16 years.
Having recently completed a R700 million diamond process plant in Zimbabwe that featured similar technologies and modularity, Consulmet were perfectly positioned to deliver on this West African project.
Once the plant has been commissioned, Consulmet is able to offer a full operations and maintenance contract for the plant – another area the company is looking to deploy its expertise in.
The company is also looking to assist in other areas of the project including a potential hydro or solar power supply, as well as consultation on effluent control and slimes dam design.
3 x 200 tph DMS modules being installed on a recently completed R700 million Consulmet diamond project.
3 x 200 tph DMS modules being installed on a recently completed R700 million Consulmet diamond project.