The fine (minus 1 mm) coal from the Witbank No. 4 seam is very difficult to beneficiate and spirals are not capable of yielding the required quality of product when used to process this coal. As a result, large tonnages of fine coal are currently being discarded. To address this problem, a study was conducted as part of the CoalTech 2020 collaborative research program, aimed at re-evaluating the potential of using dense-medium cyclones to process the fine coal from the No. 4 seam. The study showed that dense-medium cyclones could beneficiate the coal to the required quality of 28 MJ/kg. A 25-ton per hour dense-medium cyclone pilot plant was constructed to test the process on a practical scale. A number of South African equipment suppliers contributed to the program by supplying equipment for use in the plant. The pilot plant was constructed in modular form, which allows it to be transported to different test sites.
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