50 Tons of Earth yield 50 Grams of Platinum
NETZSCH delivers the largest mill
of its kind to South Africa / Machine uses as much power in one hour as a large porcelain factory
Selb - It's a "bit cold" in Germany, says Dr. Giacomo Canepa, who has just returned to his adopted country
from a vacation in his Italian homeland. But when he starts talking about business, Canepa's chill quickly passes.
Full of pride and with eyes shining, the Managing Director of NETZSCH Feinmahltechnik explains that his company
has just completed the largest mill of its kind. Destination: South Africa. Job: Extraction of platinum. Fifty
tons of earth per hour are devoured by the jaws of the giant mill. If all goes according to plan, 50 grams of platinum
are what is left from these 50 tons. Not much? One gram of the rare precious metal costs about 21 Euros, so the
mill spits out the equivalent of 25,000 Euros a day.
Canepa and his technical director, Udo Enderle, believe that the mill should have paid for itself within four months.
That is why they foster the hope that the South Africans will order more mills from Selb. This is understandable:
the NETZSCH mill has an average life expectancy of 20 years; as a rule, mining a platinum mine is worthwhile for
only half that time.
NETZSCH has nothing to fear from the competition on the world market for this type of mill, explained Giacomo Canepa.
"Here, we are the absolute leaders with our technology and our know-how." The secret lies in grinding
the soil into the finest particles possible. These particles measure in the micron range when they exit the mill
at the end of the platinum extraction process - 1/100th the size of a grain of sand. In other areas of application,
for the pharmaceuticals industry for example, the result must be a thousand times smaller. According to Enderle,
the advantage of fine grinding with the NETZSCH agitator bead mills lies in the fact that more precious metal is
extracted in the subsequent "floatation", as the separation process is called. In simple terms, an agitator
bead mill operates as follows: an agitator is located in the grinding drum, which very rapidly stirs the grinding
beads - here only two millimeters in size. Water is added and the product is ground down into the micron range.
At the machine outlet, the ore is separated from the grinding beads with the aid of centrifugal force and then
undergoes a chemical process. All of this must take place with an acceptable amount of abrasion and with the greatest
possible energy supply, said Canepa. This is the only way to guarantee optimum efficiency. For technology development,
NETZSCH has worked with Mount Isa Mines (MIM), a competent and innovative partner, for many years. The company
owns the largest copper mine in the world in Australia. Canepa knows, "Where copper occurs, there is usually
zinc, lead and silver as well." NETZSCH, along with the Australians, has succeeded in taking a "revolutionary
industrial step" in the extraction of zinc. Success of the pilot project was so great that even the Prime
Minister of Australia spoke of the "development of the century" at the opening of the MIM Mine.
After gold, in Australia as well, came the order for the attempt to extract platinum with the aid of NETZSCH mills
at a location near Johannesburg. The grinding chambers of the first mills had a volume of 3,000 liters, recalled
the Managing Director. After successful testing, the 10,000-liter mill followed, weighing 65 tons and costing 1.5
million Euros.
Could it be even larger? "10,000 liters is the technical limit" said Canepa, "from a mechanical
standpoint and because of the electric motors that have to agitate the mass of grinding beads." It requires
2400 Kilowatt per hour - about as much as a large porcelain factory. NETZSCH Feinmahltechnik also has considerably
smaller machines in its product line. There is a demand for 10-liter mills, for instance, for products of the pharmaceutical
industry, that must reach into the nano range and can also cost around 300,000 Euros. The greatest rate of increase
is presently being achieved by the NETZSCH branch, for which Canepa takes responsibility, in business with China.
"Up 35% compared to last year, distributed over all areas of industry."
NETZSCH Feinmahltechnik has 210 employees in the region, divided by about half between the locations in Selb (administration,
engineering, sales) and Tirschenreuth (production). Worldwide, the branch employs about 500 people, who achieve
an annual turnover of 60 million Euros.
In comparison: the entire NETZSCH Group brings it to 2100 employees in 17 branches in Europe, Asia and America
- with a turnover of 210 million Euros.
Canepa has been with NETZSCH for over 30 years. "I'm proud of that", he said. "Most of all of my
team, that has an average age of 40, but three-fourths of whom have been with the company over 10 years."
Several model Ferrari cars are displayed on Canepa's bookshelves. "Do you drive a real one?" He laughed.
"No, no", he said and joked, "Ferrari and NETZSCH are actually quite similar." It's just that
Ferrari got a German and NETZSCH got an Italian.