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The machine is being manufactured in Cologne, Germany and
remains on track for delivery to site before the end of the year.
Novo captured the market’s imagination in late 2017 with its
discovery of a potential conglomerate-style deposit just outside
of Karratha.
“The orebody spans over vast areas, it’s not concentrated in one
deep pocket where you can just go and mine in one space, even
though, as far as I understand, it’s not very deep underground,”
van Zyl said.
“It’s not an exceptionally high-grade area either, but it’s easy to
get to and you can easily recover the gold nuggets with an ore
sorter. ore sorting into their flowsheets, often at the request of
“STEINERT are incredibly excited about this opportunity. I end-users,” van Zyl said.
believe Novo’s plan is to run the ore sorter for 12-18 months and
then look to further expanding their infrastructure.” “There’s also a couple of small engineering companies who are
now specialising in building ore sorting plants, so that’s quite a
The resurgence of the iron ore price has also spilled over to big change in ideology from a couple of years ago.”
STEINERT with two of the company’s ore sorting machines
selected to play a key role in the processing of existing iron ore
stockpiles at the Frances Creek mining centre, about 250km
south of Darwin, Northern Territory. Gideon van Wyk (WA Regional Manager) will be
It is the first time STEINERT ore sorters have been contracted to STEINERT Australia’s representative at Diggers & Dealers.
a commercial iron ore operation in Australia. Please contact Gideon on +61 488 900 450 or
“This is a totally dry process, different to any other iron ore vanwyk@steinert.com.au to arrange a meeting
if in Kalgoorlie.
operation in the country, being that it is the only one using ore
sorters to commercially produce iron ore,” van Zyl says. Non-attending delegates are encouraged to contact
Peter Fenby (Senior Business Development Mining)
“What makes this really interesting is that up until now most on +61 417 437 230 or fenby@steinert.com.au or
of the successful operations using ore sorting has always been Johan van Zyl (Managing Director) on +61 400 987 860
high-value base metal operations. It’s a really exciting time for or vanzyl@steinert.com.au
all concerned.
“I think over the longer term there will be a lot of iron ore
producers that keep an eye on that project to see how it’s going. AbouT STEINERT AuSTRAlIA
We’ve done trials in the past with the large consortiums, but With a rich history dating back 130 years, this German family-
they always felt ore sorters didn’t quite have the throughputs owned business is a world leader in sensor sorting technology
required to make it commercially viable. Now that it’s been and magnetic separation for the mining, waste and recycling
proven, it will be interesting to see if they come back for another sectors.
STEINERT’s Australian headquarters and manufacturing facility
look.” in Melbourne, Victoria and test facility in Bibra Lake, Perth bring
STEINERT has also been contracted to supply all the dry drum cutting-edge technology to the Australian market. Our team of
and dewatering drum magnetic separators for Fortescue experts in mining, waste and resource recovery work alongside
Metals Group Ltd’s Iron Bridge project in WA. It is the largest specialist service engineers to support you in a rapidly changing
order the company’s Australian division has ever received. industry.
Our extended capabilities include the supply of products and the
Growing interest in ore sorting opportunities prompted customer service in Australia for Allmineral, specialising in gravity
STEINERT to establish a second Australian office and testing separation using wet/dry jigging and classification technology.
facility in the Perth suburb of Bibra Lake early last year. For more information please go to www.steinert.com.au
“We have invested a significant amount of money into
growing our service capability locally in Australia,” van Zyl
says. “We are now fully operational and independent
from our parent company in Germany, as far as our
test plants and R&D is concerned.”
While the uptake of ore sorters has been slower than
van Zyl would have liked – notwithstanding the
challenges of operating through a global health
pandemic – he believes interest in the technology
is as strong as ever.
“In the last 18 months to two years, we’ve seen
more engineering houses starting to incorporate

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2020 Page 45