Dr Andrew Bamber
Managing Director
Bara Consulting
Andrew is a qualified Professional Engineer with over 25 years of experience in mining and minerals processing in Southern Africa, the Americas, Australia and Asia. His involvement has ranged from being an engineer at operations to the development and detailed design of process solutions in a range of commodities including nickel, copper, chrome, gold, and platinum.
He has extensive experience in process and process equipment design, plant design, cost estimation and project economics as well as project, construction, and operations management. Andrew has had extensive involvement in mining both at the consulting and R&D level, with specializations in the development and commercialization of innovative mining and process technologies.
He has worked as a Consulting Engineer on pre-feasibility and feasibility studies across several commodities and has contributed as a lead engineer or project manager in the completion of major capital projects in chrome, nickel, lead-zinc, and platinum on time and under budget.
In 2009 he founded MineSense Technologies, a Vancouver-based mining technology company focused on the delivery of sensor-based grade control and bulk sorting solutions to the industry. Andrew joined join Bara Consulting as Principal, in Americas in 2017, and the UK office as MD in 2018.
Improving Environmental and Economic aspects through Process Innovation.
Innovations such as advanced DC furnace technology and upstream sorting technologies can combine to produce substantial efficiencies and improved environmental aspects in the processing of ferrous metals such as Chromium and Nickel that are mostly used as alloys in Stainless Steel. Mintek in South Africa has worked on several related projects including some in Brazil, Guatemala, Kazakhstan and elsewhere with the project developers. Several including Oriel Resources have evaluated the DC furnace technology Mintek developed and that has been applied to Ferrochrome and Ferronickel production in different locations by major companies. Bara Consulting has worked on several projects where the application of bulk sensing and sorting have been applied to reduce waste dilution as well as improve ore chemistry delivered to downstream processes. The DC process flow sheet technology is based in some applications on the use of upgraded ore fines concentrate and thermal pre-treatment as the preferred approach to manage the feed sources. The advanced process technology offers the potential to carry out pre-heating and partial pre-reduction of the reducible metallic oxides in the ores prior to the electric furnace smelting stage to produce the ferroalloys and that can significantly decrease the electrical MW power consumption. The combination of leaching of some laterite ore types to produce nickel and cobalt intermediates that can be used as feed sources for the flexible options of high-grade chemical purification to use as battery materials in addition to producing high-grade ferroalloys is a positive option to decrease the power consumption requirements and lower the carbon footprint. Upstream sensing and sorting can be used in some deposits to substantially improve the feed grade of the primary metal, as well as improve the management of elements such as Fe, Mg and Si content and their ratios in the context of pyrometallurgical treatment or separate out material preferred for leaching from material destined for the furnace smelting stage. Combined with advanced DC furnace technology this brings substantial potential savings in process cost as well as improved recovery of metal for overall improved process economics. Both Mintek and Bara are well placed to assist potential clients who plan to progress with these positive approaches in suitable regions such as Africa, Asia and Eurasia, and South America that want to use technology to reduce overall power consumption and carbon footprints.