South Africa-based furnace component engineering and production company Thos Begbie, has, in this quarter, supplied three Australia-based smelting projects of mining giant BHP Billiton and minerals and metals processing technology companies Outotec and Xstrata Technologies, with various furnace components.

One of the many components supplied was a 9 t copper splash block and Thos Begbie CEO Edwin Dreyer believes it is one of the largest single copper castings ever manufactured, with a cast mass of over 13 t.

He says the water-cooled splash block’s function is to freeze any liquid metal that splashes to the top of the furnace.

“[This component] is part of the roof of the structure. High-temperature molten metal splashing up over the top of the furnace can cause severe damage to equipment and people,” he adds.

Members of Xstrata’s Brisbane-based head office approached Thos Begbie in April about the urgent manufacture of the splash block for a copper mine in Peru, in South America, when it became clear that the component had to be replaced urgently.

Copper splash blocks can last up to five years in a furnace, but Xstrata’s copper splash block lasted only two years before it burned out earlier than expected. However, as Dreyer points out, splash blocks are wearing components, like tyres on a car, which makes it difficult to predict how long each will last.

Dreyer and his team had a maximum of six weeks to manufacture the new splash block and had to ship it to Peru, as the dimensions of the product were too large to transport by air. The shipment left South Africa in June, and should arrive in Peru in August, ready for installation within five months of the component failure.

At that time, BHP Billiton was also securing an order with Thos Begbie for water- cooled copper components, including walls and tapping blocks, destined for the Olympic Dam mine expansion in northern South Australia.

The mine, 560 km north of Adelaide, produces 12-million tons of ore a year and contains the world’s largest uranium deposit, with a production capacity of 4 500 t/y of uranium oxide (U₃O₈), which will increase by 14 500 t of U₃O8 _{once expansion has been completed. Olympic Dam is also the world’s fourth-largest copper mine, with a production capacity of 600 000 t/y, which will increase by 1.8-million tons a year after expansion. Overall production will, therefore, increase by 60-million tons a year, with a combined output of 19 000 t of U3O8 a year and 2.4-million tons of copper concentrate a year.}

The Olympic Dam site also boasts sig- nificant quantities of gold and silver.

As part of the expansion, BHP Billiton is upgrading Olympic Dam’s flash furnace and slag cleaning furnaces by using Thos Begbie’s components.

The mining major ordered 80 items and Thos Begbie started delivery in mid-July. The final load will be delivered by the end of this month.
Meanwhile, Thos Begbie has been supplying similar water-cooled copper components for BHP Billiton’s Nickel West mine, near Kalgoorlie, on Australia’s west coast.

BHP Billiton directors met with Dreyer in South Africa at the beginning of May to ensure that Thos Begbie was committed to the project and would be able to ship the order in time and in accordance with strict specifications. Dreyer secured the order and is currently overseeing the manufacturing and shipment.

“We have already supplied some of the units, but they couldn’t all be delivered in a single shipment – there is no plane that is big enough,” says Dreyer.

He adds this particular order will take longer to complete than some of the other projects – between 8 and 16 weeks – as the complexity of some components vary and patterns have to be made from scratch.

“During those 8 to 16 weeks, Nickel West’s furnaces are not in use, which is a massive cost to BHP Billiton; therefore, the quicker we can manufacture the components and get them to Australia, the quicker contractors can install them in the furnaces and get Nickel West back on line.”

To speed up the process, Dreyer and his team have made themselves available 24/7, throughout the year, enabling any mining company to submit drawings and specifications for what they require. Thos Begbie can, therefore, manufacture goods on an emergency basis – a service that Outotec recently took advantage of.

Situated near Melbourne on the country’s east coast, the company commissioned Thos Begbie to manufacture furnace components for the Tsumeb smelter, in Namibia.

Outotec, which had previously designed custom water-cooled copper coolers for its lead furnaces at Tsumeb, experienced a failure at the site, resulting in Thos Begbie having to supply the components as speedily as possible.

Dreyer tells Mining Weekly that Thos Begbie immediately started manufacturing the necessary components after Outotec approached the company in May. By the end of July, all of the components had been delivered to Outotec’s Namibian site.

Around-the-Clock Service
Thos Begbie is on the emergency list of some of the biggest mining majors in 20 countries worldwide, says Dreyer, who attributes this success to the company’s ISO 9001 rating and South African Bureau of Standards accreditation, as well as the team’s around-the-clock availability.

“A simple phone call gets us going immediately and we’ll be in full production within hours, especially if we’ve manufactured similar items before and have the patterns and designs on hand,” he states.

This ability to process emergency orders is what gives Thos Begbie a competitive edge, says Dreyer, adding that the company is focused on providing additional services for the industry to maintain an advantage over competitors based on the Asian rim.

“Places like China and Malaysia are a threat to us because they are able to supply components faster,” he says, as their geographical proximity to Australia places Thos Begbie at a significant disadvantage.

Dreyer says the company does what it can to outshine these competitors. “We have to be in contact [with the clients] continuously, which means physically being in Australia, meeting with clients and prospective clients, as well as ensuring that we are up to date with new technology. We need to stay ahead of international trends.”

Dreyer adds that, as far as possible, Thos Begbie quotes clients on a single shift basis, especially when planned maintenance orders are placed. However, the company employs a multiple shift system when an emergency order has been secured.

This is no easy feat, though, he says, as the company needs to comply with South Africa’s labour law and obtain permission from the Department of Labour for its employees to work excessive overtime.

“There is a lot of red tape associated with meeting these deadlines and obligations, but safety always comes first. We never compromise on safety to increase the speed of manufacturing and delivery.”