News 2022-01-10 13:12 ET - News Release
Mr. Arno Brand reports
GRATOMIC ANNOUNCES NEXT STEPS FOR AIR CLASSIFICATION EQUIPMENT AT ITS AUKAM PROCESSING PLANT IN NAMIBIA
Gratomic Inc. has initiated manufacturing on the air classification units for its Aukam graphite project processing plant in Namibia. The secondary enrichment program completes engineering on the upgrading circuit on the refining section of the plant.
Air classification is a unique feature of the Aukam processing plant. This allows the company to take advantage of the singular properties of vein graphite in a very effective and ecologically friendly manner, upgrading the carbon content at both the feed-end of the plant and at the final upgrading circuit postprocessing.
This technology is patented (application pending) under U.S. patent 63/286,005, and the construction drawings for the required units were commissioned to D.E.N.M. Engineering in Toronto, Ont. This air classification technology was designed and developed by Robert Rice. Mr. Rice is a very accomplished metallurgical engineer, with over 50 years of experience in the development of many mining and milling engineering projects. He has created equipment design and applications for a very wide variety of minerals. His development of the air classification system was designed to eliminate the screening process. Screening of crushed ore has been around for over 100 years but the process is limited to material size. Having the ore separated by size is only one part of the process. Air classification separates the ore by size, weight and shape, allowing for the fully disseminated minerals to be released and separated from the waste material. The inclusion of the full-sized air classification systems at the Akum project is a first for the mining industry. The system has two main objectives: first, at the front-end of the mill, to separate out waste material and remove any free flowing material (ready-for-market material); and second, at the finishing-end of the mill, to raise the purity of the graphite to the industry standard for anode material.
The manufacturing process will take place in parallel with the wet commissioning phase of the crushing and flotation circuits.
Armando Farhate, chief operating officer and head of graphite marketing and sales, says, "Air classification is one of the many things that surfaced from the out-of-the-box thinking mentality of our team, and will help set us apart from the pack in the graphite community."
"Technological advances in mineral processing continuously shape the way in which graphite is economically upgraded into commercial specifications. We consider that this air classification technology will revolutionize Gratomic's approach in further industrializing assets around the world in an environmentally friendly manner," states Arno Brand, chief executive officer and president.