Gambling on a test plant
Tony Wilkinson
General Manager
Nagrom
“
However the newfound prominence managed to attract
the attention of the major iron ore players. We won our first
large-scale pilot (LSP) tender from a major iron ore producer in
June 2012, following six months of hard negotiation.
“
The following nine months of construction, commissioning
and program execution involved over 1,000 tonnes of variability
testing. This event transformed our work horizon from months
to years,” explained Tony.
An advantage for Nagrom and its clients is that all significant
pilot plant pieces are manufactured in-house, with extensive
fabrication and mineral analysis rounding out a multifaceted
company operation. Consistency and reproducibility in plant
flow measurements, afforded by multi-point rotary sampling
and flow data logging, facilitates high quality test outcomes for
an LSP project.
“
Our
push
with
large-scale piloting has
continued through 2013,
and we are now running
high capacity screen
tests up to 90 tonnes
per hour (tph) and have
installed a production
testbed utilising a ten
inch desliming cyclone,”
said Tony.
With a good reputation
and
connections
to
the big end iron ore
producers, Nagrom has
managed to endure the
challenges faced by
the resources sector
during 2013, and looks
forward to continuing
its longevity in the
WA mining industry.
6
tph fines wash plant used to
generate downstream process feeds
Setting parameters for the 3tph
dense media separation plant
A small family company, operating out of Kelmscott in Western
Australia, has come of age after 40 years endeavour in the
sometimes-turbulent mining services sector. The single site
operationhas evolved frombeing a fringe player in themetallurgical
testing arena, through a transitional period of 15 years as a major
processor in the world tantalite supply chain, on to being a quality
provider of a comprehensive range of metallurgical services.
“
Nagrom’s 40-year journey reflects the volatility and change
that is ever-present in the world of mining. You have to be a risk
taker to play in this game,” remarked Tony Wilkinson, Nagrom’s
General Manager.
“
Even during the global financial crisis, we gambled on
acquiring a new iron ore test plant and were rewarded when the
iron ore miners began augmenting their direct shipping (DSO)
product with less accessible material requiring beneficiation.”
Tony also commented that the processing exposure gained in the
rejection of rare earth mineral gangue from tantalite concentrate
in the early 2000s had delivered a set of skills that have been
invaluable to Nagrom a decade later with the emergence, in its
own right, of the rare earth mining industry.
“
From the GFC to late 2010, we continued to gain prominence
but this did not translate in to any improvement in our three-
month to six-month work horizon,” said Tony.
Risk and reward holding true
Minesite 2013
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