Case Study
Mining & Mineral Processing
Bulk material handling engineered for South Africa’s mining and mineral processing sector
From abrasive concentrates to fine, dust-prone powders, mining and mineral processing operations put bulk handling equipment through some of the harshest conditions in industry. Flexicon designs conveying, bagging, and bulk bag handling systems built to move these materials safely, cleanly, and without the downtime that comes from equipment not suited to the job.
As South Africa’s mining sector scales to meet growing global demand for critical minerals, reliable, locally supported bulk handling has become essential — not just for throughput, but for safety, compliance, and beneficiation capacity. Flexicon Africa brings that engineering expertise to Southern African producers, backed by Flexicon’s global manufacturing and systems integration experience.
Additional Case Study
Bulk Bag Filling Overcomes Abrasive Mineral Sands at Scale
Qube Bulk — Picton, Australia
When mineral sands producer Cristal decommissioned its in-house bagging operation, logistics provider Qube Bulk saw an opportunity. Its Picton facility needed a way to bag highly abrasive mineral sand concentrate — material that wears through standard equipment quickly and demands both speed and durability to keep pace with production.
Qube Bulk partnered with Flexicon Corporation (Australia) to engineer a purpose-built bulk bag filling solution. The system was designed specifically around the abrasive characteristics of the material, filling up to 10 bulk bags per hour while automating weighing and fill accuracy to reduce manual handling and operator strain.
The result was a fully programmed, repeatable filling process that Qube Bulk’s regional management credits with consistently strong accuracy — turning a decommissioned in-house operation into a dependable, scalable outsourced service for one of the region’s key mineral sands producers.
Why it matters for African operations: mineral sands, chromite, and other abrasive concentrates are core to Southern Africa’s mining output. This case demonstrates how purpose-engineered bulk bag filling — rather than off-the-shelf equipment — solves the wear, speed, and accuracy challenges producers face when abrasive materials meet high-volume packaging.
Read the full case study on flexicon.com →
Note: Flexicon.com does not currently list a South African–specific mining case study. This global case was selected as the most directly relevant to abrasive mineral concentrate handling — a challenge shared closely by South African mineral sands and chromite producers.
Additional Case Studies
Heavy-Duty Bulk Bag Filling for Abrasive Zircon and Rutile
Tronox’s Western Australia operation gravity-separates mineral sands into zircon and rutile concentrate, then relies on a heavy-duty Flexicon bulk bag filling station built to withstand continuous exposure to abrasive granular material.
Bulk Bag Filler Triples Capacity at a Netherlands Mineral Supplier
TOR Processing & Trade B.V., a major hydrated alumina producer, upgraded its bagging line with a Flexicon bulk bag filler to triple output capacity while maintaining fill accuracy.
LKAB Minerals Convey Wet, Abrasive Mica Pneumatically
To improve worker safety around heated processing equipment and withstand abrasive wear, LKAB Minerals in Derby, UK replaced mechanical conveyors with a Flexicon pneumatic conveying system for wet mica powder.
JOHNEX Manufactures Mining Explosives Safely Using Flexible Screw Conveyors
JOHNEX uses custom-length Flexicon flexible screw conveyors to deliver precisely measured explosive powder to a multi-tube filling carousel — a safety-critical application for mining explosives manufacturing.
Automated Bulk Bag Filling System Packages Copper Concentrate
Vale Canada integrated a dual Swing-Down™ bulk bag filling system into its copper concentrate line, packaging 24–32 tonnes per hour of dewatered concentrate for shipment to third-party smelters.