CV of George Annandale
Qualifications: B.Sc. (Eng) (Chem) University of Pretoria 1965
M.D.P. University of South Africa 1978
A.E.P. University of Pittsburgh 1980
M.B.L. University of South Africa 1984
Experience:
Independent Contractor From January 1995 to Present
Merameta Gold - April 2000 to Present
Contracted to identify, purchase and re-locate a Gold Recovery plant for Merameta. Plant was identified in Australia, acquired and is in the process of being re-located to Tanzania.
Balla Balla Vanadium Project – July 1999 to June 2000
Contracted by Thiess Contractors as consultant to oversee and review the design, construction and commissioning of a 6000 tpa Vanadium recovery facility to produce fused flake from a titaniferous magnetite containing 0.75% V2O5. Process covers the mining , beneficiation and recovery of the vanadium. The vanadium recovery includes roasting with a kiln to solubilise the vanadium, leaching, counter current washing, precipitation , calcining and fusion of the vanadium. Also included are the environmental issues and infrastructure.
Feasibility study was completed by end March 1999
Project scheduled to proceed on obtaining financing.
Bulong Nickel Project – January 1998 to May 1999
Contracted by Bateman Engineering to review design of Nickel Project followed by commissioning planning and finally managing the commissioning of the Bulong high pressure acid leach nickel recovery project.
The Nickel processing plant treats 500 000 tonnes/year of nickel laterite ore through an autoclave operating at 45 bar using concentrated sulphuric acid pressure leach to bring the nickel and cobalt into solution. After the acid leach, counter current washing, solvent extraction and electro-winning is used to recover the nickel and cobalt as LME metals.
Commissioning was completed on production of first in grade nickel metal in April 1999.
NCP Malic and Tartaric Acid Project - June 1996 to November 1997
Contracted by National Chemical Products as Project Manager to design, construct and commission a unique Malic/Tartaric Acid plant from pilot plant data with a scaling up factor of 100.
Process included high-pressure reactors, Fumaric acid filtering, and purification by ion exchange, evaporation to concentrate acid prior to granulating the product to produce solid water soluble food acids.
Project was completed in November 1997
NCP Sodium Chlorate Facility – January 1996 to March 1996
Undertook a feasibility study to establish a 100 tonne per day sodium chlorate facility backed up by a 200 tonne per day Chlorine unit at Richards bay.
NCP Ferric Chloride Project - January 1996 to January 1997.
Contracted to design, construct and commission a Ferric Chloride plant using scrap metal and liquid chlorine to produce ferric chloride for drinking water purification. A Canadian Company supplied the technology but all detail design and equipment sourcing was done in South Africa.
Continental Holdings UK January 1996 – November 1997
Prepared feasibility study to process canned and diced tomatoes for the European market.
Also investigated the feasibility to start a match factory in competition to the current monopolistic supplier. Resulted in Continental Holdings taking over Tau Match in Botswana and successfully entering the South African market.
Bateman Materials Handling : From January 1991 to December 1995
Bateman Group. Highlights of this period are the following:
Was employed as Managing Director to head the materials handling division of the company.
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Ran the company responsible for all materials handling for the group. Technology included overland conveyors, stacker/reclaimers, pneumatic transport, electrostatic precipitators and baghouses. Technologies included in house developed systems as well as technologies sourced from overseas such as Germany, United States, Canada, Denmark and the UK to name only a few..
New technologies were negotiated and included in this range such as ceramic filtering for high temperature gas streams, new gold effluent cleaning systems and others..
Merged 4 companies into one viable, profitable and effective company. Bateman Materials Handling took over Brandt Engineering, Iron and Steel Technologies and Pneutech..
Is the co-holder of a patent on the Pneumodryer used in the diamond mining..
Took BMH from a R20 to R120 million/annum turnover in a 4 year period.
Independent Contractor: January 1987 to December 1990
NCP-Chlorine and caustic Soda – January 1987 to July 1988
Designed, constructed and commissioned a Chlorine facility using Japanese membrane technology to produce 220 tpd liquid Chlorine and equivalent caustic soda. The process
produced ultra pure NaCl by precipitating Ca and Ba out of a saturated brine solution. The solution is then filtered through a precoated filter to reduce solids to less than 1 ppm.The solution is then passed through ion exchange columns to reduce metal contaminants to ppb levels.
The ultra pure brine solution is circulated through the membrane cells and electrochemically broken down into caustic soda and chlorine gas. The caustic soda is concentrated by evaporation to a 50% solution. The chlorine gas is dried through a concentrated sulphuric acid scrubber and then compressed and refrigerator cooled to liquefy and stored in pressure vessels
NCP-Chlorine Facility - July 1989 to July 1990
Upgraded the above facility to produce 300 tpd Chlorine and equivalent caustic soda.
NCP- Hydrochloric Acid – July 1989 to July 1990
Designed, constructed and commissioned a !00 ton/day HCl plant using German technology
NCP – Maleic Anhydride – July 1988 to July 1989.
Designed, constructed and commissioned a Maleic Anhydride plant using Scientific Design technology from the United Stares This 200 tpd facility was completed in 13 months.
SABreweries (Prospecton, Durban) - July 1989 to December 1989
Designed ferment storage vessels, bright beer filters and the bright beer cellars for a 400 hectoliter per day brewery. This was part of a R500 million expansion.
Process and Mining Consultants (PMC) - January 1988 to January 1989
Designed a V2O5 facility. This was on the same scale as the Balla Balla facilty. This was done for a feasibility study but has not progressed to project status yet.
Built and commissioned 2 minor gold processing plants, one in Nelspruit and one in Pelgrimsrust, processing 100 000 and 200 000 tonne/month ore. The Nelspruit unit recovered gold via CIL/carbon elutriation/bullion production. It also incorporated a carbon regeneration facility.
African Exploration - January 1987 to July 1987
Designed the process for this V2O5 facility for African Exploration. The facility was built and commissioned by IMS. Consequently IMS used this information and their experience at Vantech to build the Rhovan facility as well.
Rhombus-Rhovan August 1989 and again in July 1990
Did a due diligence on Rhovan process for USCO. Also reviewed the Rhovan design for Lurgi when they submitted a tender to design and build the Rhovan Facility. They lost the bid to IMS.
Willards Foods : January 1984 to January 1987
As Production Director of Willards Foods Snack and Fruit Juice facility, was responsible to produce 100+ product variants and distribute the products to 28 depots strategically placed over South Africa to service the whole country.
Was responsible for product development and capital expansion. During this period the labour productivity was doubled and a computer controlled distribution system was introduced that forecasted the sales at the various depots and scheduled production to provide the outlets with sufficient stock to service their clients.
Factory employed 700 people and had a R200 million / annum turnover. Labour relations with a very militant union were part of the duties.
Van Eck and Lurie: January 1982 to December 1983
Was responsible for managing the design and proposals for minerals processing plants as the Marketing Manager. All Process design engineers reported to the Marketing Manager, who also carried the process design responsibilities.
During this period various coal washing and diamond recovery plants were tendered for successfully. Of note is the following project:
Optimum Colliery.
A Project with General Mining for a Coal Washing Plant of 2000 tonne/hr was designed, constructed and commissioned in 21 months.
The project started with inpit crushing, overland conveyor with stackers and reclaimers feeding a coal washing facility with 3 parallel drum and cyclone washing modules. The fines were filtered with belt/drum filters. The high purity coal was exported through a rapid load-out facility. The middlings were used for power station feed in a 6x100MW power station and waste was discarded.
The plant was commissioned in 4 months from pre-commissioning to 100 % of design.
Union Carbide : September 1970 to December 1981
Production Superintendent – January 1971 to August 1972
. Converted an existing V2O5 facility from a 1.5 million lbs/yr to 3.5 million lbs/yr by debottle necking.
. Erected a forced circulation double effect evaporation plant to treat the effluent. The process developed recovered the sodium sulphate to recycle to the roast circuit and ammonium sulphate to recycle to the precipitation circuit. This turned the process into a zero discharge facility.
. Constructed and commissioned a Vanadium Carbide and Vanadium Nitride facility from research data developed by the Union Carbide Niagara Falls Research Facility.
Project Manager – September 1972 to December 1973
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Identified and developed process to upgrade ore from 0.7 to 2.1 % V2O5 with laboratory scale equipment..
Designed, built and commissioned a crushing and milling facility with van Eck and Lurie to provide the upgraded feed to the Pretoria facility.
Technical Manager - January1974 to April 1975.
Transferred to Hot Springs, Arkansas to resolve bottlenecks and mining related problems at the 12 million lbs / year Vanadium facility at Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Project Manager – April 1975 to February 1976
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Designed, built and commissioned new facility, to produce 12 million lbs. V2O5/annum at the Brits mines location, based on laboratory scale operation..
The process started with crushing, screening, milling and magnetic separation to provide clean titaniferous magnetite to the kiln. The 4mD x 80m long kiln are heated to 1250oC with sodium carbonate and sodium sulphate mixed into the magnetite.The solubilised vanadium is leached and washed in a counter current wash circuit. The vanadium rich solution is filtered; ammonium sulphate is added to precipitate the vanadium. The precipitant is filtered, calcined and fused to produce the final product.
The effluent is evaporated to recover the excess ammonium and sodium sulphate for re-use.
. Van Eck & Lurie was the main contractor. The plant was built and commissioned in 18 months. The facility covers 15 hectares and included mining, all infrastructure and reagent handling..
Commissioning to full-scale production took 6 months.
General Manager – February 1976 to December 1977
Managed the above facilities including the Pretoria works. Produced 17.5 million lbs./annum V2O5 as fused flake, carvan or nitrovan.
Managing Director – January 1977 to December 1981
Marketing and Finance was included in duties.
Independent Contractor : April 1968 to August 1970
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – July 1969 to July 1970
Designed, constructed and commissioned a sewage water to drink water facility developed from testwork and pilot plant data generated by the CSIR research officers.
Murray and Roberts - October 1968 to June 1969
Designed a solvent extraction circuit for copper at Nchanga, Zambia.
Dowson and Dobson – January 1968 to September 1968
A contract to produce extra high-purity grades silica for manufacture of fiber optics cable. Completed one-year contract in 9 months.
African Explosives and Chemical Industries : October1965 to December1967
Production Superintendent
Started training during University holidays at AE&CI during the previous 4years. Was appointed as superintendent 6 months after joining AE&CI. Responsible for the output of the Ammonium Nitrate, Nitric Acid and Sulphuric acid plants.
Commissioning Engineer
Appointed as commissioning engineer for the new 300 ton per day porous prilled ammonium nitrate for explosives (ANFEX) production. Also responsible for the commissioning of the new 700 tonne per day Nitric Acid plant.
