Overview October 2013

OverviewOctober 2013

Mintek - situated in Randburg, on the northern outskirts of Johannesburg

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• is one of the largest and oldest mineral and metal technology institutes in the world (80 years old in 2014)

• is a state-owned Science Council, governed by an Act of Parliament, with a board appointed by the Minister of Mineral Resources

• focuses on all aspects of minerals processing and beneficiation, with the exception of iron- and steel making and coal processing

• has a permanent staff of about 750, including 250 engineers and scientists

• undertakes R&D and furnishes commercial testwork and consultancy services to clients worldwide

• Has an annual budget of about €50 million:

– 50% funding from state sources, focused on research– 50% commercial income, derived from various services to

industry (Over 700 commercial projects last year)

Mintek ……

Mintek operates in the latter stages of the Mining Value Chain

Exploration Mining Concentration Refining Value Addition

Pyrometallurgy

Hydrometallurgy& Biotechnology

MINTEK

CGS CSIR

Mintek’s activities

ClientsState

Mining and metallurgical

companies

Engineering companies

SMMEs

Gold & uranium

Platinum metals

Ferrous metals

Industrial minerals

Non-Ferrous

OutputsSpecialised Services

Products

Routine Services

IP / Know-How

Fields

International projects account for half Mintek’s revenue

Asia; 8%

Australia; 4%

Europe; 12%

North Amer-ica; 21%

Africa; 49%

South Amer-ica; 6%

Mintek’s extensive R&D underpins its commercial services

• Mintek spends €25m annually on applied R&D (~50% of its budget)

• These R&D outputs are transferred to industry either in the form of commercial service work or, on occasion, technology licences

• Mintek undertakes over 700 commercial projects annually, evidence of the high regard industry has for our technology

Mineral Processing DivisionCompetitive strengths – PGM processing, HPGR, ore sorting

Pyrometallurgy Division

Competitive strengths – DC smelting, laterite, ferroalloys, beach sands, magnesium

Hydrometallurgy Division

Competitive strengths – uranium, PGM and gold processing, IX, Resin in pulp

Biotechnology Division

Competitive strengths – Tank and heap bioleaching, biosynthesis of metal nano-particles and surfactants

Advanced Materials Division

Competitive strengths - metal-based value added products in the following areas:

Biomedical : metal-based drugs for HIV, malaria & cancer (commercial HIV-1 integrase assay kit developed)

Catalysis: precious metals (gold & platinum-group metals) based catalysts & pilot plants (AUROLite™ catalyst range)

Nanotechnology: devices in health and water

Metallurgy: products and services

Often the site work is conducted in very difficult conditions!

Copper heap bioleach test facility in Iran

These test facilities are operated at industrial scale

Tapping of Mintek’s test DC furnace

Extensive re-configuration is required to demonstrate specific technologies

Mintek test facility for magnesium production

Mintek sometimes supplies technology on a turnkey basis

Turnkey gold refinery using Mintek Minotaur® technology

79-year track record of technology transfer

Historically ….• Uranium recovery in the 1940’s

• Pebble- and run-of-mine milling in the 1950’s

• Carbon-in-pulp in the 1970’s

More recent developments .... • DC smelting for Koniambo FeNi , and SA beach sands

• METRIX® resin-in-pulp for uranium recovery

• ConRoast® smelting technology for high-Cr platinum

• Cyanoprobe® on-line cyanide monitoring equipment

• Minstral® furnace electrode and FloatStar® flotation control

• Heap leaching design data for a very large Chilean copper project

• Milling/flotation process for UG2 platinum ores

Thank you

[email protected]