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Turner's Advanced Modular Gold Plant Creates Strong
Community Welfare
Excerpts taken from Mining Weekly
Created By: Mariaan Webb
19th August 2005
In conjunction with development fund partners operating under the Tanzanian
government, South African local mineral-processing company Uhuru Mining Ventures
(UMV), specializes in the procurement of modular gold plants for Tanzania. Former
UMV Owner, Director, Chief Processing Engineer and gold processing plant Inventor
Stuart Turner tells Mining Weekly that the Matinje gold project involved the supply
of modular gold plants to the small-scale mining industry in Tanzania. He says that
the first plant, was self-sustainable modular gold plant with a processing
capability of between 15 t/h and 20 t/h, was completed and was transported to
Tanzania. UMV's modular gold and diamond plants are small process plants
incorporated into several standard structures conforming to shipping container
dimensions. Each container is designed to provide core skills development,
including crushing, milling, separation and gravity recovery. “The objective of the
solution is to reduce operating costs and to raise gold recovery without toxic
chemical use and disposal issues,” Turner comments on the usefulness of the
company’s environment-friendly mineral-recovery plants.
When chemicals are used for recovering minerals, the efficiency is in the order of
98%, as opposed to the 75% efficiency obtained with the gravity-concentration
concept. The main advantage, however, lies in the fact that it does not pollute the
environment, he says. The Matinje project has a strong community-development drive
as it will enable small-scale miners to process minerals. Turner reports that
self-powered gold plants will be used to supply the surrounding community with
electricity and clean water – something it never had.
UMV was one of the first small- medium-macro enterprises (SMME) in South Africa to
enter into a joint venture with the Tanzanian government,” he claims. Apart from
procuring and commissioning the plants, UMV oversaw all the training for the
modular gold plant [MGP] operations. Today this role is carried out in its entirety
by Resources Mining Technologies, USA, where Turner today incorporates all the
previous UMV core skills and design philosophies into the Modular Gold Plant (MGP)
technology worldwide from RMT’s base in Florida.
Edited by:
Mariaan Webb and Stuart Turner
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