A leading limestone producer based in Kati, Mali, has taken delivery of a FastPlant™ from Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions. Central to the buying decision was the short lead time of the Sandvik FastPlant™, which allowed the operation to expand production sooner, especially given the fast-tracked nature of this project.

Hubert Kwesi Essel, Sales Engineer at Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions based in West Africa, explains that the customer has been running an existing Sandvik fixed plant for years, but increased demand required a different solution. Given the urgency with which the company wanted to expand its capacity, the Sandvik FastPlant™ concept was the ultimate solution to add capacity within a short period of time.

“The customer opted for a 200 tonnes per hour (tph) two-stage FastPlant, which is a range of pre-defined crushing and screening modules made for the most common quarrying and mining applications. Delivery of a Sandvik FastPlant generally takes about 10 to 12 weeks, as opposed to double or thrice the timeline for a custom-built plant,” explains Essel. “This particular plant, however, took about 20 weeks due to shipping and logistical delays from Europe to Mali.”

The plant comprises a full suite of Sandvik equipment including a grizzly feeder, a jaw crusher, a horizontal shaft impactor (HIS) and a four-deck screen. With a 100 mm closed side setting (CSS), the Sandvik ST1263H vibrating grizzly feeder, which takes a top size of up to 700 mm, ensures efficient scalping and fines removal, significantly improving the throughput of the primary jaw crusher, the Sandvik CJ411.

“With a close side setting (CSS) of 100 mm, the Sandvik CJ411 was chosen for its high capacity. The crusher’s deep symmetrical crushing chamber and optimised nip angle maximises size reduction and production capacity,” says Essel.  

From the jaw, material goes into a surge bin, which in turn feeds the Sandvik CI722 horizontal shaft impactor (HIS) secondary crusher with a 25 mm CSS, the first ever Sandvik HSI in West Africa. The CI722 is the perfect secondary crusher for non-abrasive material such as limestone. The working principle of the Sandvik CI722 HSI encourages material to break along its natural cleavage planes, and it produces stress-free cubical-shaped products.

From the HSI, material is directed into a four-deck Sandvik SA2164 screen, with a 25 mm top deck and a 19 mm bottom deck. The other two decks are 13 mm and 5 mm respectively. The screen produces four different product sizes from 0 to 5 mm up to 19 to 25 mm.

Apart from the fast delivery time, the flexible nature of the Sandvik FastPlant™ was a major appeal for the customer, says Praveen Kumar VG, Sales Support – Global Plant Solutions at Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions.

“If production requirements change in future, it is simple for the customer to just add a couple of modules to increase production or take out a few modules to reduce capacity in line with market requirements,” says Kumar VG. “In addition, the FastPlant’s minimal footprint bodes well for the space-constrained site, while the minimal civil works translated into a major cost benefit for the client.”

Safety, adds Essel, was also a major factor in the client’s decision. “The client was strict about access and the FastPlant™ addressed the concerns through spacious walkways, as well as ample space in the chute aeras for ease of maintenance,” concludes Essel.