PROCESS & MECHANICAL REPORT

of PHOSPHATE ROCK DRYERS at

DRAFT

November 2006
Prepared by: Mike Weinecke
 FEECO International
November 2006

Key Personnel Met:

Home Office –

Mine

Mine Manager
Head of Dryers Section
Head of Handling Maintenance
Maintenance Manager

Mine

Mine Manager
Engineering Dept. Manager
Maintenance/Mechanical Eng.
Maintenance/Mechanical Eng.

Mine

Mine Manager
Manufacturing Manager
Head of Handling & Dryer
Mechanical Eng.

BACKGROUND

FEECO International was hired by to perform a mechanical and process

audit on their dryers at the Mines. Since time was available the dryers at the Mine
were also included. The ultimate goal of the audit is to determine the condition of the dryers and
to make recommends to on how they can improve both the mechanical and process
operation of the units.

mining phosphate rock at locations in . At the Mines two types

of ore are mined. The first type only requires crushing and removal of the approximately 8-10%
contained moisture in the dryer. Some of the finest particles are entrained in the gas stream in
the dryer and not caught by the multiclone after the dryer. This is desirable since it removes the
finest particles that are low in phosphate and provides some beneficiation of the material.
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The second type of ore mined contains soil that is removed by washing and beneficiation by
Krebs cyclones. This material has a moisture content of about 18%. In both cases the desired
moisture of the product leaving the dryers is 2%.

At the Mine a third type of phosphate rock is mined. This material contains silica, which is
removed in flotation cells and partially dewatered in filter presses. The dewatered feed to the
dryer contains around 20% moisture.

The mines at have been in production since about and the economic reserves are
limited. At the 2005 production rate of million mt for and million mt for the has
a useful life of years and a useful life of years. I also learned that employees of can
retire at years of service. This has put a tremendous strain on the work force at these
two mines by allowing most of the experienced people to retire.

The reserves at the Mine are much larger and since it is a newer mine it does not seem to
be experiencing the problems created with the loss of experienced people.

MECHANICAL

All of the dryers that were inspected were in good to very good mechanical condition except
for the seals at the feed and discharge ends of the dryers that were in good to very poor
condition.

Dryer Shell:

Several of the dryers inspected had holes in the shell due to what appeared to be corrosion.
Figure 1 shows such a hole in Dryer # at Mine.

Figure 1

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The shell on the # dryer at had recently been replaced due to shell corrosion. The # dryer is
scheduled to be replaced soon. The dryers at had little or no insulation remaining on the
shell although it appeared that they were all insulated at one time.

The heat lost through the shell in a dryer is a small percentage of the total heat requirement.
Generally dryer shells are not insulated for heat loss especially in a warm climate. The reason
that the shells are/were insulated is believed to be due to the high sulfur content of the fuel oil.
When the sulfur in the fuel oil is burned, sulfur dioxide (SO2) is formed. A portion of the SO2 is
converted to sulfur trioxide (SO3.) Sulfur trioxide and water vapor combine to form sulfuric acid
(H2SO4). Sulfuric acid has a dew point than can be as high as 150 °C (300 °F.) The acid will
condense on any surface that it comes in contact with that is below 150 °C (300 °F.) Carbon
steel will be corroded and holes will form over time due this attack. Thus by keeping the dryer
shell insulated the chance of the steel going below the sulfuric acid dew point is greatly reduced.
This applies to all carbon steel surfaces such as the dryer discharge hood and the ducts that may
come in contact with the dryer gases.

Further indication that sulfuric acid is causing the corrosion is seen at the mine where both
dryer shells are fully insulated. An inspection of the interior of the dryer shell showed that after
10 years of operation that there was little or no evidence of sulfuric acid attack.

After time the carbon steel will become thinner and holes can be occur in the shell. These holes
are patched until there are too many and the shell is replaced.

It was reported that the burners on the dryers are sometimes left on maximum when there is no
feed to the kiln. This can lead to deformation of the dryer shell if rotation is stopped. At least
one of the dryers at had deformations in the shell in an area of the kiln shell that had been
previously replaced. This is seen in Figure 2.

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Figure 2

Gear & Pinion:

All the gears and pinions looked to be in good shape with no sign of excessive tooth wear or
misalignment of the gear and pinion. However many of the gears and pinions at the were
not sufficiently lubricated. Figure 3 shows the pinion of a dryer . Contrast this with the
Figure 4, which is of a dryer at .

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Figure 3 Figure 4

It was indicated to me that all of the gears at had been repaired due to cracks in the gear.
Since the gears are spring plate mounted it is not obvious why the gears cracked. The spring
plate mounting should accommodate any forces that otherwise might be put on the gear. Our
only thought is that the gears may be cast which makes them more brittle and subject to cracking.

Tyres & Trunnions:

Most of the tyres and carrying rollers appeared to be in very good condition. One exception is
for Dryer # at where the wear pattern on both of the tyres and all four of the trunnions shows
that there is not complete contact between the tyre and trunnion. This is shown in Figure 5.

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Figure 5
However, I was told that this dryer shell, tyres and trunnions would be replaced soon.

A similar problem is seen in Figure 6 that shows that the roller is making full contact with the
tyre but that that the roller has a concave shape.

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Figure 6

Thrust Rollers:

The thrust rollers on most of the dryers appear to be in good condition and do not show any sign
of excessive thrust as would be seen by a wear pattern on the tire where it contacts the thrust
roller. The exception is for dryer # at the mine. This is discussed in the mine section.

Lifters:
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There were no major problems reported with the lifters on any of the dryers at the Mines.
None of the dryers at the were inspected from the inside. However at the Mine the
internals of the two dryers were inspected and a problem was seen with the lifters in the feed end
of both dryers. This is discussed in a later section.

Combustion Chamber:

Several of the dryers were not operational because repairs were being made to the combustion
chambers. In one instance it was reported that the repair was being made due to poor quality of
the brick. It was also reported that at times oil would continue to flow through the burner and
onto the combustion chamber floor when there is no flame. There is no operating flame safety
system to stop the oil flow if there is loss of flame.

It is my impression that repairs are made to the combustion chamber bricks much more often
than required. A primary cause of this may be the vanadium content of the fuel oil. Vanadium
pentoxide will attack refractory materials and lower their melting point. Then when the brick is
cooled and reheated the refractory will spall and a portion of the brick will come off. Repeated
cycles of this phenominum will eventually cause the brick to fail. A probable area of vanadium
attack is shown in Figure 7.

A typical analysis of the fuel used by is shown in the Appendices. Although the
amount of vanadium contained in the fuel oil is only 26 ppm, at 10 l/min of consumption the
total vanadium is about 400 g/day.

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Figure 7
The location of this attack may be an indication that oil atomizer is not operating correctly. It
may mean that oil is being sprayed directly onto the refractory and combusting on the wall.
Spalling can also be the result of frequent cycling (heating and cooling) of the combustion
chambers and of the rapid heating of the combustion chamber.

Figure 8

Figure 9 is a picture of a curve located in the Mine control room. This curve appears to be a
recommended heat up schedule for the combustion chamber bricks. The top curve is used when
the combustion chamber has not cooled below 300 °C and recommends a heat up rate of 125
°C/hr. For a combustion chamber that has been allowed to cool or has been repaired the
recommended heating rate is 50 °C/hr. This type of heat-up schedule should be used when
heating any of the dryer combustion chamber. Heat-up requires that the dryer operator be able to
control the feed to the dryer. As the combustion chamber increases in temperature the
temperature of the gases going to the dryer will increase. At some point feed to the dryer will
need to be started to prevent overheating of the dryer shell. Upon further increases in

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combustion chamber temperature the dryer feedrate should be increased to obtain a constant
dryer exhaust gas temperature. This method of combustion chamber heat-up is difficult at the
Mines because the dryer control room operators have no control over the dryer feed rate.

Fuel Usage:

It was reported to me by Eng. that the fuel consumption per ton of product at the was
l/mt. This was determined by measuring the amount of fuel consumed in a day and dividing it
by the number of tons produced in a day. The only use of fuel is for the dryers. This number
is over twice the amount that the dryers should be using.

A well operated dryer drying wet material from 20% moisture to 2% moisture should consume
less than 20 l/mt of fuel . This indicates that the dryers at are using about 26 l/mt more
fuel than is required. I understand that the production at mt/day of product, which means
that about 60 mt/day of fuel is being wasted. At of fuel there is a possible yearly
savings, based on 300 operating days per year, of almost 4,000,000 . As will be seen in a later
section the dryers at the are operating with much lower fuel consumption than at the Mine.

Dryer Capacity:

There are five dryers at Mine that are used for drying wet feed. I understand that this plant
produces mt/day of product or about mt/hr. This capacity can easily be obtained with two
dryers that are operated at design conditions. Dryers and were designed to produce so it is
possible that only one dryer need be operated to achieve the desired output. It may be the most
economical to concentrate on the maintenance and operation of only 2 or 3 of the 5 dryers and
not try to keep them all operating. This is especially true since the life of the mine is limited and
production is not expected to increase.

Instrumentation:

Very few instruments in the dryer control rooms are operating. It was reported that at one time
better maintenance was done on instrumentation but that now there are no qualified people to
maintain the instruments. Also the control room operator has little or no control of the key dryer
operating variables such as the pressure in the dryer or the burner firing rate.

In a dryer there are three key parameters to measure and control to achieve the highest capacity
with the least amount fuel. These are:

• Dryer Pressure
• Dryer Exhaust Gas Temperature
• Combustion Chamber Exhaust Temperature

The dryer pressure is maintained by controlling the speed of the ID Fan or by the ID Fan damper.
The pressure in the kiln should be maintained slightly negative with only enough suction to

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prevent process gas from being blown out of the combustion chamber or the kiln seals.
Typically the pressure in the kiln is maintained at -.02 mbar (-0.05 in wc).

The temperature of the gas leaving the dryer is a good indicator of how dry the product is. When
the product moisture is at the desired level the exhaust gas temperature should be noted. This
temperature is used to control the burner firing rate. However when a sulfur containing fuel is
used the exhaust temperature should be maintained above the sulfuric acid dew point. Typically
this is in the range of 140-150 °C (~280-300 °F).

The third control loop is the combustion chamber exhaust temperature. In order to achieve the
maximum dryer production the combustion chamber exhaust temperature should be as high as
possible without affecting the material to be dried. Typically this temperature is 1000 °C (~1800
°F)

Since the dryer exhaust fan dampers are operating at 100% open, the suction within the dryer is
much higher than it should be. This high suction combined with bad seals means excessive
ambient air leaks into the dryer. Leakage at the feed end of the dryer lowers the temperature of
the gas from the combustion chamber and reduces the dryer capacity. The dryer pressure at the
feed end should be measured and controlled either automatically or manually by the control
operator.

The highest dryer efficiency is achieved when the highest combustion chamber exhaust gas
temperature is maintained. For these dryers that temperature is around 1000 °C. A higher
temperature may result in the local overheating of the phosphate rock. At a lower temperature
the dryer capacity will be reduced. The control room operator should be able to control the
amount of tempering air to the combustion chamber in order to control its outlet temperature.

Kiln Seals:

Many of the kiln seals at both the Mines were in need of repair. Figure 10 shows a seal
that is not performing well. A large gap can be seen between the seal and the dryer shell
particularly at the bottom.

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Figure 9

The exception was the # dryer at that looked to be in very good condition. The function of
the kiln seals is to limit the amount of leakage air into the system. Leakage at the uphill end of
the kiln will cool the gases from the combustion chamber. This will reduce the maximum
capacity of the dryer. Since the dryer is essentially a heat exchanger it is governed by the
following equation:

Q=U*V*LMTD

Where Q is the heat transferred

U is the overall heat transfer coefficient
V is the volume of the dryer
And LMTD is the log mean temperature difference.

Thus when the temperature of the gas entering the dryer is lower, the LMTD decreases and the Q
is less. This means that less heat is transferred and the dryer capacity is less.

Leakage at the discharge end of the dryer will have two major impacts on the dryer operation.
First it will increase the volume of air going to the ID fan, which may limit the amount of

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material that can be dried. Second, the dilution air will cool the gases leaving the dryer and may
cool them to below the sulfuric acid dew point.

Since the dryers are being operated with the ID fan damper fully open, the draft in the dryers is
higher than required. At dryer # the draft in the discharge hood of the dryer was measured to
be about 0.12 mbar (-0.3 in wc). I calculate than with this level of suction and a 25 mm (1 in.)
gap around a (10 ft.) dryer the leakage through the gap would be about 0.5 m3/s (1000 ft3/min).
This is only 1-2% of the total ID fan capacity. This number should be multiplied by 2 to account
for leakage at the feed end seal and there is leakage at feed and discharge points too. However
this calculation shows that with a large gap between the kiln and housings and a high suction the
leakage is not a huge number. This does not mean that good seals are not important since the
lack of good seals can prevent a dryer from reaching its rated capacity.

Figure 10 Figure 11

Figures 11 and 12 show a leaf seal that is commonly used on dryers. This seal consists of a
series of spring steel plates mounted to the stationary dryer housing. There is a slight overlap to
the plates that ride on the rotating dryer shell. Often a wear ring will be mounted on the kiln
shell on which the seal segments make contact with the rotating shell. A budgetary price for this
type of seal on a 3.2 m (10 ft.) diameter dryer is $6500 USD. This is for the leaf seals and
mounting hardware only, installation is not included.

Dust at

There is a dust pollution problem at when “dry” or unwashed material is fed to the dryers.
This dry material still contains the fines that are removed during washing. The result is that the
fines may be too small to be captured by the dryer cyclones and are emitted to the atmosphere.
Figure 13 shows a plot of the distribution for both the wet and dry feed and product. This data
was supplied by Eng. . Figure 14 is the same data for samples received by FEECO and
screened in our lab in Green Bay.
Figure 12

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Figure 13
It is understood that the product samples include the material caught by the dryer multiclones.
Thus the difference in size distribution should be the fine material not captured by the
multiclones and vented to the atmosphere.

Figure 14 shows that there is less fine material in the dry material product as expected. However
the missing material is still large enough that it should have been captured by the multiple tube
collectors. , the manufacturer of the dryers indicates that the pressure drop across the dust
collectors should be 6 mbar (14.5 in. wc). The pressure gauges at the plant were not working so
it could not be confirmed if this was the pressure drop across the dust collectors.

If the pressure drop is less than this design value then the dust collection efficiency will be lower.
There are two possibilities that can contribute to lower than expected pressure drop. First, the
gas flow through the unit may be less than the design flow. If this is the case and the lower flow
is expected to be the normal operating value then a portion of the multiple tube collectors can be
blocked off so that there is no flow through them. Second, there may be holes in the tube sheet
or in the collectors themselves that allow the dust laden gas to bypass the collectors. This can be
determined by inspecting the dust collectors for signs of corrosion.

I did not visually inspect any of the dust collectors from the inside. However the temperature of
the gas exiting the # was measured to be very low, lower than the sulfuric acid dew
point. This may indicate that sulfuric acid corrosion is occurring inside the dust collectors.

Dryer # has a simple wet scrubber that is said to control dust very well. It consists of a series
of water nozzles spraying down and countercurrent against the dust-laden gas. This unit was not
operational during my visit.

A bag type filter after the cyclones would be highly effective in removing the remaining
particulate in the gas stream. The ID fan for Dryer # at is rated for 40 m3/s (85,000 acfm).
Using a rule-of-thumb of $2.25/acfm for the cost of a bag filter the equipment only cost would be
about $200,000. Installation of the bag filter would be additional. However if the wet scrubber
is performing adequately and sufficient water is available then it would be the less expensive
option.

Figure 15 shows the wet and dry feed going to two dryers at . The wet feed is on the right and
the dry on the left. Figure 16 shows the stack emissions from the two dryers.

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Figure 14 Figure 15
The stack on the left is from the wet feed dryer and the plume appears to be mainly water vapor.
The stack on the left is from the dry feed dryer and the high dust loading is evident. As I was
standing near the dryer processing the dry material there was a constant “rain” of fines. This
made for a difficult working condition.

General Housekeeping:

Figure 17 shows at picture of the inlet to the combustion chamber fan for Dryer # .

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Figure 16
This is not a good situation. First, the material is very close to the fan inlet and if drawn into the
fan can lead to build-up on the fan impellers and wear on the fan and possibly the burner. But
more importantly the dam that is used to hold back the material is blocking a portion of the fan
inlet. This will reduce the fan performance and affect dryer operation.

Natural Gas:

It was indicated to me that natural gas might become available in the future to replace the heavy
fuel oil used to fire the dryers. The indicates that this conversion was scheduled to occur at
the plant in . The reason for the conversion is that natural gas is now cheaper than the fuel
oil. In addition to saving money on fuel, natural gas will have several other advantages over the
fuel oil that is currently being used. These include:

• Natural gas burners are much simpler than heavy fuel oil burners and require very little
maintenance.
• Natural gas does not contain vanadium so vanadium attack on the combustion chamber
refractory will be eliminated.
• Natural gas typically contains very little sulfur so the formation of sulfuric acid and its
condensation onto bare metallic surfaces will be of little or no concern.

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Mine Dryers

Thrust Roller:

The thrust roller on dryer # has a bad wear pattern that matches the wear pattern in the side of
the tyre. This can be seen in Figure 19.

Refractory:

Figure 18 is a picture of the refractory bricks that are believed to be used in the combustion
chambers. The brick is KX70 supplied by Refratechnik. A data sheet for this refractory is
included in the appendices.

Figure 17

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Figure 18
This wear is caused by improper alignment of the carrying rollers. The carrying rollers should
be aligned so that the drum floats between the thrust rolls, imposing a minimum load between
the roller and the side of the tyre.

Lifters:

A large fraction of the lifters are missing from the uphill section of both dryers. The missing
lifters are in the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the dryer. Figure 20 shows a section of the dryer where the
lifters are missing.

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Figure 19
In most cases the lifter mounting supports are still present. Even some of the bolts remained
attached to the lifter supports. Since the lifters are bolted to the mounting supports it appears that
the bolt holes in the lifters may have become enlarged allowing the lifters to come loose.

It is not clear why the boltholes would become enlarged, however the dryer lifters are made of
AR steel over the first 8 m length of the dryer. This is almost one-half of the liftered length of
the dryer so it is clear that not all of the AR steel lifters are being attacked. A possible
explanation may be that chlorides in the feed material are corroding the boltholes. Since this is
occurring in the feed section where the material is the wettest it further suggests that chlorides
may be the problem. It is possible that this problem is slowly corroding lifters down the length
of the dryer as the feed remains wet further into the dryer. This may occur more readily in the
AR steel since it is more brittle and the creation of the holes may have caused microscopic
cracks.

The two FEECO dryers at the Mine appear to be in good mechanical condition. However
this mine also has problems with the bricks in the combustion chambers. Along these dryers
operate continuously for longer periods of time than at the other two mines, frequent heating and

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cooling of the bricks is most likely the cause of the failure. It was also mentioned that at times
the oil atomizers did not work correctly and would spray oil directly onto the bricks.

The major difference between the dryers at and at the other two mines is how they are
operated. At the dryers are operated much closer to their design conditions. This along with
control of the oil going to the burner allows the dryers to use much less fuel per ton of product.

Most of the process data transmitters are working. The control room operator records process
data from the dryers every hour and copies of this data is kept in the Production Managers office.
A typical copy of the Dryer Log Sheet is shown in the Appendices. Daily records are also kept
for the amount of fuel consumed and the amount of product produced so that fuel consumption
per ton can be monitored.

Finally the control operators are experienced and degreed and they appear to have a very good
understanding of the process operation.

CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

The conclusions are shown in regular typeface immediately followed by the corresponding
recommendation in italics.

• The single most important conclusion is that it appears that the dryers at the Mine and most
likely at the Mine are very fuel inefficient. They could be using two times or more the
amount of fuel that is required. This is caused by a combination of poor instrument maintenance,
poorly trained and/or unqualified operators and lack of supervision.

I recommend that the fuel consumption and product produced at the Mines be tracked
starting immediately. This will allow the fuel consumption per ton of product to be calculated
and tracked. With this data the potential fuel savings can be calculated. I believe that it will be
a large number, large enough to justify significant investment in the dryers despite the limited
life of the mines.

The mines should upgrade their control systems to be PLC and PC based such as is used at
All of the original variables that were measured should be included in the operator display. In
addition weigh belts should be added so that the feed rate to each of the dryers can be seen and
changed by the control operator.

Of course upgrading the control system without having the instrument technicians to maintain it
and the properly trained operators to run it would be of little value. A plan for proper
instrument maintenance and operator training must be included in the control system update.

• At all of the mines it appeared that the maintaining the refractory in the combustion chambers
is a continual problem. This appears to be the result of two problems. First, I was told that
burner spare parts are expensive and not always available. Thus burner maintenance is not
always performed when it is required. This causes fuel oil to be atomized incorrectly and spray

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onto the refractory. The vanadium in the heavy oil reacts with the refractory and lowers its
melting point, which results in spalling of the refractory.

The second problem is with the method that the combustion chambers are heated. Refractory
suppliers typically recommend that refractory be heated slowly and steadily over several hours.
If heating is performed too quickly the refractory can crack and spall. It is probable that the
combustion chambers are being cycled often without the recommended heating time.

Vanadium in heavy oil is something that can’t be changed unless the dryers are switched to
using natural gas. However the effect of vanadium can be greatly reduced by properly
maintaining the burner atomizers so that oil does not come in contact with the refractory.

I doubt that there are many plants in the world where the operators heat up the refractory
according to the manufacturers recommended schedule. Most operators want to start feed to the
dryer as soon as possible. However if the dryers are operated continuously with only periodic
shut down for regular maintenance, the refractory life will be much longer. It should be the goal
of to operate the dryers for weeks or months at a time without shutdown of the combustion
chamber.

• Many of the dryers are no longer insulated although at one time it appears that they were. The
main purpose of the insulation is not to save heat but rather to keep sulfuric acid from
condensing on cool surfaces. The high sulfur content of the fuel oil used will produce sulfuric
acid which will corrode carbon steel surfaces it comes in contact with if that surface is cool
enough to allow the acid to condense. This is likely the cause of the thinning shells observed on
the un-insulated dryers.

All of the dryers that are operating on heavy fuel oil should be insulated to minimize sulfuric
acid corrosion. This includes the dryer housings, cyclones, ductwork and ID Fans.

• In general the mechanical maintenance of the dryers is very good. The tyres, caring rollers,
gears, pinions and reducers are in good condition. No abnormal heating of the bearings was
observed. There were a few indications that the bearings were not “trained” correctly. This is
seen as abnormal wear on the several of the carrying rollers and in one instance a very usually
worn thrust roller.

On the dryers where abnormal wear is seen the carrying rollers may need to be aligned to obtain
the correct distribution of forces. In most cases this will require that the abnormal surfaces be
ground smooth. However in some cases once the dryer has “found” its operating point no
further problems will occur as long as no additional wear is occurring . Therefore correction of
the misalignment may not be a high priority item if the surfaces are smooth and shiny.

• Seals at the feed and discharge ends of the dryers were in general not in very good condition.
There were a couple of exceptions. Good seals are an important but not critical part of dryer
operation. If the gaps are too large then leakage can reduce dryer capacity and/or lower the
exhaust gas temperature to below the sulfuric acid dew point. Just as important as good seals is
to operate the dryer with only a slight suction. Operating with suction higher than needed will
result in greater air leakage particularly when the seals are not in good shape.
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should consider replacing the rubber/fabric seals with leaf seals. The leaf seals are more
forgiving and may have a longer life. Most if not all of the dryers with current seals can be
retrofit with leaf seals. But more importantly, the dryers should be operated with a minimum
suction to limit in-leakage no matter what seals are used or what condition they are in.

• Lifters

There is some phenomena that is causing the lifters at the feed end of the dryers to become
detached from their supports. The mechanism is not known but it may be related to the chloride
content of the feed material and possibly the AR steel used for the first section of lifters. When
the boltholes were made in the AR steel, microscopic cracking may have occurred. These cracks
may be allowing the chloride to corrode the steel until the hole is large enough for the lifter to
fall off.

The dryers appear to be achieving design capacity despite the loss of the lifters. This
indicates that above design capacity can be achieved if the missing lifters are replaced

A periodic count of the lifters lost should be made and recorded to determine how quickly they
are being lost. Any lifters that are caught by the grizzly at the discharge of the dryer should be
examined to determine if the boltholes are enlarged and if this is the cause of failure. If enlarged
boltholes are the cause of failure then a test section of carbon steel lifters in the feed end of the
dryer could be tried to determine if they have a longer life.

• Capacity

of the operating dryers at are used to process wet material. However the daily
production of phosphate rock is less than mt/h or about the capacity of the highest capacity
dryer. It appears that only two or three of these dryers are actually required to achieve the
required capacity. Since the life of the mine is limited and the output is decreasing this required
capacity may not increase in the future.

should consider taking at least two of the wet material dryers out of service at .
An upgrade to the control system could then be made to only two or three of the remaining
dryers, which would limit the upgrade costs. By operating fewer dryers maintenance could
concentrate on keeping them running at peak efficiency with the likely result that maintenance
costs will decrease especially for the repair and replacement of the combustion chamber
refractory.

• Dust

The dryer material fed to the dryers contains fines that are removed during the washing of the
wet material. The wet scrubber used at the Mine appears to be an inexpensive and
satisfactory solution for the removal of the fine dust that is otherwise emitted by the dryers.
None of the dryers had working differential pressure gauges across the dust removal
multicyclones. The pressure drop across a multicyclone can be a good indicator of its operation.
A pressure higher than the design level indicates that some of the multiclones may be plugged.
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A lower than design pressure may indicate that gas (and dust) is bypassing the multicyclone,
perhaps due to a hole in the tube sheet.

The least expensive method to reduce the dust emissions when processing dry material is to
install a wet scrubber similar to the one already in use. A bag filter will do an even better job of
dust collection but it is the more expensive option. In addition another fan would need to be
added in series to overcome the pressure drop of the bag filter.

All operating multiclones should have their differential pressure measured and displayed in the
control room. The multiclones should be inspected regularly as part of a scheduled maintenance
program to determine their condition. Specifically signs of plugged multicyclones or corrosion
of the internals of the multicyclones should be looked for.

SCHEDULE

Friday, September 29, 2006

Arrive in the evening. Met at the airport by . The combustion analyzer was left at
the airport since at deposit was required. Greeted at the hotel by the Director of
and also met with .

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Travel with to.

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Examined the dryers at Mine. Dryer # has a wet scrubber for dust removal. The shell on
dryer # was recently replaced with one fabricated in . The quality of the shell appears very
good.

Monday, October 2, 2006

Go to Mine. Took a tour of all the dryers. Dryers # and # are units and are used
for dry feed. Neither unit was operating. The reducer on dryer #1 was being replaced.

Dryers # are grouped together. Dryer # was bumping once a revolution due to gear pinion
misalignment. The following morning maintenance fixed the problem by moving the downhill
carrying roller on the drive side 1.2 cm.

Tuesday October 3, 2006

Visit the Mine control room for dryers # . Very similar to the one at , Not many
instruments working and no automatic control. It is said that many operators cannot read or
write.
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November 2006

The product leaving the #3 dryer is hot (i.e. >100 °C) and loading of the product discharge belt is
low. The dryer feed bunkers are loaded by a front-end loader and a weir controls the feed rate to
the dryers. The engineer indicated that if he were to open the weir the operator would close it
after he left.

Measured the suction in the feed and discharge ends of #4 dryer and was found to be high.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Go to to meet with the retired director of the mines who is being used as a consultant,
Go to to talk with and get data on dryer operation including size analyses.
Attempted to measure the pressure in the discharge end hood of the # dryer first with just the fan
on, then with the burner on. The battery on the combustion analyzer died before the suction
could be measured with feed going to the dryer.

Leave for the Mine after dinner. Arrived around 9pm. Dryer # is operating but will be shut
down in several hours when feed is depleted. (The beneficiation plant is down.) Noticed a slight
positive pressure at a port at the front of the combustion chamber. Air was coming out of the
port but it was cool.

Toured the control room, most of the instruments are working and data is recorded hourly on
sheets. The operators appear very knowledge about the dryer and its operation.

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Met with Geologist .) He supplied copies of past operating logs and copies of
daily reports on production and fuel usage. Fuel per ton is much lower than at the Mine.

Friday, October 6, 2006

Took pictures of the dryers at . Downhill thrust roller has made a very bad wear pattern in the
riding ring of Dryer # .

The gear lubrication is much better than at the other mines.

Went inside Dryer # first. Lifters are missing primarily in the feed end. The feed chute is in bad
condition near the bottom because the protective refractory had fallen off.

The refractory bricks are starting to show some spalling. There are small areas around the
tertiary air inlets that are darkened and show evidence of slagging, These are not too bad and are
not a major concern. They may result when there is not enough primary and secondary air so
that the tertiary air ports like a burner.

Dryer # shows much the same pattern for lifter damage. Both dryer shells look to be in good
condition with no sign of corrosion. The feed chute is in much better condition since the
refractory was intact.
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November 2006

The bricks in the combustion chamber for Dryer # were in much worse condition than in #3.
There is a lot of evidence of refractory attack and spalling.

Ate dinner Friday night with , a consultant with a company based in , and with a
project engineer from .

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November 2006

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