A favourite among Africa’s miners, Weir Minerals Africa’s Envirotech pumps remain a popular choice on mining and industrial sites. The success of these pumps has been enhanced by leveraging the company’s technology base in design, engineering, materials and linings.
According to Marnus Koorts, GM pumps at Weir Minerals Africa, Envirotech pumps are especially popular in the gold mining sector, where up to 200 of these pumps can be found on a single site. He says there are three ranges in the Envirotech line-up, which Weir Minerals Africa acquired in 1994 and continues to develop and support.
“The Envirotech C5 range of metal pumps has always been a favourite for dirty water applications, and is widely used in mine dewatering,” says Koorts. “Its high-pressure capacity of 6900 kPa makes it ideal for high head applications.”
The Alpha range of Envirotech pumps is rubber-lined to resist abrasion, while the Envirotech ME pump with metal expeller and Envirotech MG pump with metal gland are unlined. All the ranges benefit from ongoing research and development and are available in the various materials of construction offered by Weir Minerals Africa.
“When selecting and sizing their pumps, customers can choose from our range of metal alloys including our Ultrachrome and Hyperchrome alloys,” he says. “There is also a wide range of rubber linings on offer, from our R55 premium grade elastomer to butyl rubber formulations.”
The technology incorporated into Envirotech pumps make them a valuable part of Weir Minerals Africa’s engineered-to-order solutions and pontoons, where they are integrated with other products like Linatex hoses and Isogate valves. Koorts also highlights that the company’s Synertrex smart analytics platform can be applied to Envirotech pumps, for remote monitoring of equipment health.
Among the most important aspects of its expertise that Weir Minerals Africa has applied to its Envirotech pumps is its Wear Reduction Technology (WRT), which gives them not only longer wear life but also higher operating efficiencies.
“Many of the Envirotech pumps are now coming out with WRT components as standard,” he says. “This delivers massive value to customers, as the energy saving from the high efficiency is substantial.”
In a recent highly abrasive application, the WRT impeller in the Envirotech pump delivered double the lifespan of a replicator’s impeller. More importantly, the Envirotech pump consumed almost a fifth less electricity each year, saving the user many times more than the value of the component itself.
“We continue to evolve and upgrade the Envirotech pump range in the same way as all our products, giving customers a modern and responsive solution to their pumping needs,” he says.
The Envirotech pump range is cast and manufactured in South Africa, and supported through the company’s extensive branch footprint throughout Africa and the Middle East.
