Bateman Engineering N.V.Delivering Innovative Solutions to Unlock the Value of Natural Resources

Delivery Excellence

ProcessingPlatinum GroupMetals (PGMs)

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Bateman Engineering

With its more than ninety year heritage as a leading engineering-project house andequipment supplier, Bateman Engineering N.V. serves a range of industries worldwide.Our focus is on delivering innovative solutions to unlock the value of natural resources,through converting them into marketable products. Client access and projectmanagement services are provided globally through Bateman’s network of permanentinternational offices located in Australia, China, India, Russia, North and South America,Southern Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Services offered include, butare not limited to, process engineering, specialist niche technologies, equipment supplyand related services, procurement, project finance facilitation, contracting and projectmanagement. Bateman is committed to Delivering Excellence in everything that it does.For more information on Bateman, visit www.bateman.com.

Platinum Group Metals (PGM) Processing

Bateman provides the full range of capabilities to� Convert run-of-mine (ROM) ore to saleable products.� Integrate engineering and process know-how in development and optimisation of

plant designs. � Deliver processing facilities to global environmental standards.

Project Services� Consulting: Ore-body, production and market evaluation assesses project viability.� Feasibility studies: On-site and pilot-plant studies.� Project management: From inception through design and construction to commis-

sioning, maximising success and profitability of the venture.� Comprehensive spares and after-sales back-up.

Facilitation of Project FinanceBateman structures, negotiates and secures optimal and cost-effective financial packagesfor projects of all sizes.

Flexible Contract StructuringTurnkey, reimbursable, EPCM, lump-sum, fixed fee, joint ventures or any combination tosuit client needs.

PGM Track Record

Bateman has designed, engineered, procured and construction-managed process facilitiesfor most primary PGM producers worldwide. It is the only independent contractor to havesuccessfully installed all types of PGM process plants: concentrators, smelters andprecious metals refineries.

Processing Technologies

For processing platinum group metals (PGMs), Bateman liaises with suppliers andevaluates equipment to make unbiased selections of the best equipment for the job.

For stockpiling, materials handling, environmental protection and waste disposal,Bateman draws upon its comprehensive in-house and licensed range of engineeredtechnologies or selects the most appropriate equipment from other suppliers.

Delivery Excellence

Flotation tank circuit, Aquarius Platinum’sKroondal plant, South Africa.

Modikwa Platinum, South Africa.

CAD rendering of reagent plant, Impala Platinum,South Africa.

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Ore Handling and Preparation

Bulk Materials HandlingBateman designs and supplies materials handling systems to transport PGM bearing oresand tailings.

� Conveyor systems to move ore and tailings to, from and within the processing plant.� Stockpile systems for efficient, effective and economic stacking, blending and

reclaiming of ore and safe disposal of tailings.� Plants to process tailings and extract coarse material for use as backfill.

ComminutionBateman designs comminution systems that take into account specific requirements ofdownstream metallurgical processes.

� CrushingAll forms of crushing circuits including in-pit, primary, secondary, tertiary andquaternary crushing systems.

� Grinding CircuitsLarge autogenous grinding (AG) and semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) circuits, aswell as rod and ball milling.

� Fine GrindingTower mills, stirred mills and ISA mills for flotation concentrate re-grinding.

Pre-concentrationPhysical separation processes prior to flotation, upgrade flotation feed making use ofdifferences in the physical properties of ore and gangue minerals.

� Dense-Media Separation (DMS)DMS is very successful in processing PGMs and to remove waste from concentrator-feed streams.

� Gravity Separation– Spirals to recover chromite concentrate from PGM flotation feed. – Jigs to recover metal from slag.– Centrifugal separators to recover precious metals from milling circuits.

� Magnetic SeparationUse of magnetic separation to concentrate PGM from slow-cooled converter matteinto a magnetic fraction.

Conveyor transporting ore to feed the mills, BlueRidge Platinum, South Africa.

Primary and secondary mills, Blue Ridge Platinum,South Africa.

Primary ball mill,Bafokeng Rasimone,

South Africa.

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Flotation cells, Blue Ridge Platinum, South Africa.

Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum’s Ultrasep thickener,South Africa.

First full scale Bateman Pneumo-Drier to be usedin the platinum industry.

Flotation and Dewatering

FlotationDuring flotation, surface chemistry recovers valuable minerals or rejects gangue materials.

� Flash FlotationIn circuits employing multiple stages of milling, flash flotation cells recoverliberated mineral species after each stage, in order to prevent overgrinding.

� Conventional FlotationDesign of banks of conventional flotation cells, and supply of proprietary cells.

� Tank CellsBateman has completed several installations of large tank cells in recent years.

� Column CellsColumn and Jameson cells, including pumping of high air content frothsassociated with fine grinding of concentrates.

� Reagent PlantsPackaged reagent plants, either as stand-alone or as part of concentrator plants.

DewateringBateman designs and supplies unit processes to dewater flotation concentrate and tailingsstreams, before transfer to the next process.

� ThickenersConventional, high-rate, ultra-high rate and paste thickeners to dewater bothconcentrate and tailings streams.

� Vacuum FiltersDrum, disc and belt filters.

� Filter PressesRecessed chamber and membrane presses to generate concentrate cake for saleand dry tailings for storage in arid locations.

� Continuous Pressure FiltersHorizontal plate pressure filters for both concentrators and refineries.

Delivery Excellence

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PGM Extraction – Pyrometallurgy

Pyrometallurgical plants process a high percentage of non-ferrous metal flotation concentrates.

SmeltingElectric-arc furnace technology, as well as other technologies such as flash smelting,Noranda and Tenienta processes, and top submerged lance furnaces.

ConvertingConventional Pierce-Smith converters, top-blown rotary converters and top-submergedlance furnaces.

PeripheralsProprietary engineered systems.

� Belt, chain and pneumatic conveyors for furnace feed, sluices, etc.� Metal, matte and slag tapping and granulation.� Off-gas scrubbing.� Baghouses. � Electrostatic precipitators.� Acid plants.

PGM Extraction – Hydrometallurgy

Hydrometallurgical processes are more favoured than smelting for the treatment of PGMore, concentrates and mattes.

FlotationBateman has wide experience of leaching processes and designs to process ore,concentrates and smelter mattes.

� Tank Leaching: Acid and alkali leach processes carried out in trains of agitated tanks. � Medium-Pressure Leaching: Strong process group for autoclave design to process

high-grade sulphide ore, concentrates and converter mattes.� High-Pressure Leaching: Design of leach processes utilising titanium-clad autoclaves

operating at 240 °C and 47 bar pressure.� Emerging Technologies: Heap leaching, including bacterial heap-leach processes,

and novel leach processes, such as the Galvanox™ atmospheric leaching process,hold potential for PGM processing.

Residue and Impurity RemovalBateman has wide experience of leaching processes and designs to process ore,concentrates and smelter mattes.

� Neutralisation: Neutralisation of the slurry or solution between leaching and down-stream purification, which can be coupled with iron removal using a variety of reagents.

� Clarifying, Thickening and Filtration: Counter-current decantation (CCD), counter-cur-rent filtration (CCF) clarifiers, pinned-bed settlers and sand filters.

� Precipitation and Cementation: Precipitation processes that minimise operating costand maximise metal recovery.

� Other Processes: Solvent extraction (SX), ion exchange (IX) and molecular recognitiontechnology (MRT) to remove minor impurities from solution streams before routing thesolution to electrowinning (EW) circuits.

Converter aisle at Hartley smelter, Zimbabwe.

Impala Platinum’s converter-slag granulation plant,South Africa.

Tank farm, Impala Platinum Limited, South Africa.

Concentrate leaching circuit, Impala PlatinumLimited, South Africa.

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PGM Purification

PGMs can be selectively separated by ion exchange (IX) technologies.

Bateman has wide experience of impurities removal by purification or cementation andclassical precipitation techniques.

Ion Exchange (IX)One stop solution combining several IX technologies.

Through an exclusive agreement with Mintek, Bateman offers traditional fixed-bed orfluidised bed technology, as well as novel resin-in-pulp (RIP) technology.

The Mintek application base, combined with a testwork capability, enhances delivery ofeffective process solutions.

RIP is successfully used to replace expensive solid-liquid separations prior to metal recovery.

For environmental clean-up, RIP systems� Clean effluent streams and recover trace elements without costly ultrafine filtration.� Extract acid and recover metal from mine leach solutions.

Metals RecoveryBateman offers expertise to extract trace amounts of metal contaminants from large volumesof solution flowing at many bed-volumes per minute, in a form and concentration worthprocessing further.

� Copper recovery from in-situ mine-leach solutions and refinery bleed streams.� Production of cathode-quality copper from acid mine drainage streams at high flow-

rates.� Iron, aluminium, zinc, copper and manganese recovery from acid mine-drainage and

waste streams.

Platinum purification section, Impala Platinum Limited Refineries, South Africa.

Resin-in-pulp pilot plant.

Base metal refinery, Hartley Platinum, Zimbabwe.

Delivery Excellence

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Solvent Extraction (SX)Bateman has wide experience of SX processes.

� Bateman Reverse-Flow Settler®: Provides substantial operational benefits overtraditional mixer-settler design and enables side-by-side orientation of pump mixers,reducing capital costs and providing improved access for operators and maintenance.A coalescence enhancement channel and other design aspects provide higher processefficiencies and reduced organic loss.

� Conventional Mixer Settlers: For processing PGMs, copper, cobalt and zinc.

Electrowinning (EW) Bateman designs tankhouses from small heap-leach operations to large-scale, automatedsystems for EW and electrorefining (ER).

� Electrolytic Cells: Bateman’s redesigned cells provide improved catholyte distributionflow patterns around each cathode, resulting in improved cathode quality.

The design also accommodates anode bags and / or a close-capture aerosol / gas emis-sion system, providing a safe working environment.

� Tankhouse Layout: Low-cost manual and automated-strip plants.

� Electrowinning, Melting & Casting Technology: Network of EW technology suppliersfor refinery projects.

Acid PlantsBateman has expertise in drying installations and acid plants. It holds licence agreementswith Noram Engineering and Constructors, Canada, The Sinopec Nanjing Engineering and Constructors Incorporation (SNEI), based in China, and Sulphurnet, based in theNetherlands.

PGM Refining

Bateman designs leading edge processes to first separate PGMs from base metals (nickel,copper and iron sulphide minerals) and then to process individual PGMs (Pt, Pd, Rh, Ir,Ru, Os), as well as gold.

Base-Metal RefiningLeaching, SX, IX, MRT, distillation and precipitation techniques to separate individualPGMs, and remove residual impurities.

Anode Slimes and SecondariesPyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes to recover PGMs and gold fromanode slimes generated in copper electrorefineries, or from secondary, PGM-bearingmaterials such as autocatalysts or electronic scrap.

Molecular-Recognition Technology (MRT) and strong-base resintechnologyMRT is applicable to PGM refining. Strong-base resin technology is applied to removeiron from copper electrolyte.

Cobalt solvent extraction circuit, Hartley Platinum,Zimbabwe.

Typical cobalt EW circuit.

Converter for sulphuric acid facilities.

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+27 11 899 9111enquiries@bateman.com

More information is available atwww.Bateman.com

Delivery Excellence

Process Modelling

Bateman utilises simulation programs for front-end modelling of chemical and physicalprocesses.

Steady-State SimulationLimn, Metsim®, Aspen and Pyrosim models for a range of unit operations commonly usedin comminution, flotation, hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy operations. JK-SimMet forexamination of comminution circuits.

Dynamic SimulationSysCAD models transient operating conditions, providing upset analysis, surge verificationand downstream debottlenecking. When interfaced with actual control hardware, it is atimesaving control system for debugging and an excellent training tool.

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)FEA and CFD are applied in design of furnace components and a wide range of otherprocess and mechanical equipment. The response of structures to loads and flowcharacteristics of fluids and gases is determined without the need to build and test costlyprototypes and to conduct lengthy field trials.

Engineering Design and DraftingProprietary and in-house developed software to develop cost effective designs.

� 2D and 3D drafting provides a balance of cost effectiveness across the design office,fabrication shops, construction site and operator training requirement.

� 3D-modelling packages.

FEA of a DC furnace lining predicting the thermalgradients and wear pattern.

CFD modelling of particle tracking in a slaggranulation sump.

Furnace roof with twin electrode arrangementand central feed port.

Delivery Excellence