Valve Solutions For The Mining Industry
Leading valve manufacturing and maintenance specialist Mine Track and Tool continues to evolve its range of high-performance industrial valves and components to meet the ever-growing production requirements in mining and mineral processing applications. The company’s locally manufactured ranges are widely regarded as industry benchmarks thanks to their careful design and manufacture for African mining conditions. This is further enhanced by resilient casting materials that withstand the rough treatment mining equipment faces in harsh remote environments.
Unlike European and other imported flow control devices, the valves manufactured at the Randfontein factory on the West Rand are specifically built to endure the demands of African mines, says Mine Track and Tool’s director, Vincent Mulder. “Our mines and plants have different operating procedures and processes. As a result, valves need to work reliably without constant maintenance and must withstand the punishment they inevitably face during transportation to remote sites and during operation.”
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“That is where we take a different view. We have been working closely with mines for more than 30 years and understand that when a valve fails, production can grind to a halt, maintenance costs escalate and safety can be compromised. We view each of our valves as critical and they are engineered to play a vital role in the long-term success of an operation,” says Mulder.
He explains that this philosophy has shaped the company’s evolution into one of Southern Africa’s most respected manufacturers and suppliers of high-performance industrial valves.
With a wide range available for different applications its main specialisation lies in mining and slurry handling, where abrasive materials and corrosive environments demand products specifically engineered for the task.
This specialisation allows the company to focus rather than attempting to compete across every industry sector. It has also enabled the team to concentrate its expertise on solving flow control challenges encountered throughout mining operations. Its valves are commonly used in platinum, gold, and copper mines, as well as in tailings facilities, concentrators, mineral processing plants, slurry pipelines, water treatment plants and numerous other process applications where reliability is critical. This extends to customers across Southern Africa, including neighbouring countries as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Ghana.
“Our business is built on long-term relationships. We work closely with customers to understand their operational challenges and recommend valve solutions that improve plant performance rather than simply selling a product out of a box. We also don’t walk away once we’ve sold a product and we remain committed to supporting every stage of our valve’s lifecycle from specification and installation through to maintenance, refurbishment and ongoing technical support. “This partnership approach is exactly what mining customers need. It enables them to operate efficiently with equipment that is reliable and well maintained through our team’s active engineering advice and maintenance programmes.
This applies across our entire portfolio of mining valves including our flagship WM diaphragm valves, SGV slurry gate valves, pinch valves, knife gate valves, butterfly valves, ball valves, gate valves, globe valves, check valves and control valves. These are complemented by refurbishment, pressure testing, maintenance programmes, condition assessments and on-site technical support tailored to each mining application,” says Mulder.
Valve highlights
Mine Track and Tool’s flagship products include the WM diaphragm valve which recognised for its innovative design that reliably handles abrasive slurries and aggressive process conditions while maintaining dependable sealing performance. It requires advanced expertise in elastomer technology and materials engineering to manage pressure and flow dynamics, with every aspect from diaphragm design and body geometry to material selection – it is engineered to maximise service life and reduce maintenance needs.
One of its biggest advantages is that it is designed as a fully inline repairable valve allowing wearable components to be replaced without removing the valve from the pipeline. “This saves our customers enormous costs and is one of the biggest reasons for the product’s success.”
Similar philosophies apply to the company’s other ranges where the task at hand directly influences the materials selected during manufacture. This is why ductile iron is used instead of the standard cast iron employed by other manufacturers. Ductile iron provides greater strength and durability under harsh mining conditions.
“Cast iron simply doesn’t last. On traditional imported valves we often find that parts like handwheels and bridges break while flanges crack because of the way equipment is handled in our industry. That is why we pride ourselves on manufacturing robust valves designed for the African mining environment rather than the European water market. This is one of our biggest selling points when visiting plants. During walkarounds with customers the practical benefits become clear when we identify damaged valves and broken handwheels and then demonstrate that the cost of replacing failed valves often exceeds the price difference between a robust engineered valve and a lower-cost alternative. Combined with our ability to refurbish old valves it’s a strong proposition for new customers to consider,” says Mulder.
Service orientated
While engineering remains central to the business, Mulder believes customer service has become an equally important differentiator. “We don’t sell products we sell service.”
He argues that too many suppliers have become little more than distributors moving products from warehouses without providing meaningful technical support, repairs or breakdown assistance. Mine Track and Tool has deliberately taken the opposite approach.
Extensive stocks of manufactured valves and spare parts are maintained to support rapid turnaround and a team of experienced technical personnel regularly visit customer sites to monitor valves and to check on their evolving requirements. Another differentiator is the company’s operating model as the company does not operate through dealer networks but instead services customers directly using its own technical sales team and delivery fleet as well as service personnel based at its West Rand headquarters.
According to Mulder this allows the company to maintain close customer relationships and respond more quickly whenever assistance is required. Many mining customers are visited weekly, while strategic operations receive several visits each week as part of ongoing service programmes. “This kind of interaction and service is what sets us apart in this competitive market and is the reason we keep growing from strength to strength. We understand that a valve is never simply another piece of equipment and our customers rely on us to ensure a smooth flow of production,” Mulder concludes.
Mine Track & Tools,
+27 (0) 11 412 4536
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