Trolex, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of gas sensors and sensing systems, has recently re-affirmed its long-term commitment to the South African mining market by further improving service through a series of key appointments within the company.
Trolex has demonstrated its commitment to its core business in coal mining and to its clients by investing in its South African company, improving service, quality of product and personnel by carrying out a complete corporate restructure. Ashley Erasmus, engineering manager, has recently been appointed as head of Trolex South Africa.
Commenting on the restructure, Erasmus said, “Trolex has 50 years’ industry experience and has had a presence in the South African market for over 27 years either through a distributor or through the Trolex South Africa subsidiary. The company is now run by experienced South African technicians and engineers who understand the South African market, enabling Trolex to continue as the market leader for sensing systems in the country. Gordon Schophaus has been appointed as senior field engineer to manage all technical aspects and provide expert technical knowledge and Gerrie du Toit is now field engineer, based in Secunda (where many of the mines are located) in order to provide quick service and response to our clients.”
Trolex South Africa has recently provided its Sentinel methane-recovery monitoring system to the Gold Fields-owned Beatrix mine, a large, well-established gold mine in the Free State province. The system is used to capture methane gas at various locations underground and transport it along a methane extraction column to the surface where it will be flared and also used to generate electricity. The Trolex system is installed at strategic locations along the extraction column to monitor the condition of the gas being transported.
Commenting on the use of the Trolex system, Dirk van Greuning from Gold Fields said, “The Sentinel system was selected as the preferred specification for application in the Beatrix mine to measure and monitor the emission and utilisation of methane gas for CDM purposes. As the market leader of environmental and conditional sensing systems in South Africa, Trolex has the necessary experience and high-quality products required by the CDM.”
Trolex has also provided a condition monitoring system to JOY Mining Machinery, global leader for the manufacture of underground mining machinery for use in longwall and pillar mining operations. Trolex provided JOY Mining Machinery South Africa with water flow and pressure sensors as well as gas sensing and dust-monitoring equipment for use on the longwall shearer product.
Customised gas-monitoring systems have also been supplied by Trolex to Sandvik, world-leading producer of stainless steels, special alloy materials and advanced value-added products, and to the South African coal, oil and gas corporation, Sasol.