As the dry, wind-driven weeks before South Africa’s summer rains drag on across much of the interior, Dust-A-Side is using October to look closely at the points in an operation where material on the move throws dust into the air: conveyors, transfer points, crushers, tip areas and stockpiles. For mines, quarries, process plants and bulk terminals, that airborne dust stays a daily problem affecting visibility, worker health and the communities next door, and the local dust control specialist wants those sites thinking about it now.
Haul roads tend to dominate conversations about dust, but Dust-A-Side’s reach stretches from pit to port. Its offering spans binders and non-binders for roads as well as mist systems, fog cannons and wetting agents built for the plant, processing and materials handling parts of a site.
Why material handling points need their own approach
Dust at a conveyor or crusher does not behave the way it does on a road. Here it comes in concentrated bursts as ore and other materials drop, tip or get crushed, and the wind sweeps it away fast. Good dust control at these locations has to grab the fine particles while they are still in the air and keep them from spreading, all without saturating either the material or the machinery.
For this, Dust-A-Side supplies two kinds of system, and plenty of operations run both.
High pressure mist systems
A high pressure dust suppression system breaks small volumes of water into a fine mist at pressures over 40 bar. That mist grabs airborne dust by agglomeration and wraps the material handling point in a curtain that stops the dust from spreading any further.
According to Dust-A-Side, suppression is the go-to choice at material handling points precisely because it draws so little water, which counts for a lot where supply is tight. It also leaves the material dry, so conveyors stay clear and chutes do not block. The company points out that a suppression setup costs less to install and run than dust extraction, adapts more readily than rival methods, and can even cool furnace discharge material as it rides the conveyors.
Where it fits includes stockpiles, conveyors, rail wagons, transfer points, tipping areas, loading terminals, storage facilities, demolition sites, drilling and blasting sites, excavations, quarries and rock crushing plants. Among the benefits named are lower respirable and visible dust, minimal water use, reduced conveyor slippage, fewer chute and screen blockages, no surplus moisture in the ore, tidier housekeeping and safer working areas while operations continue.
Low pressure mist systems
Low pressure systems go the other way. They apply larger volumes of water under 10 bar to pre-wet material up close, typically on conveyors or at the head of a transfer point. The bigger droplets are why they are frequently called wetting systems. Wind and temperature do less to undermine them, and they cost marginally less to maintain than other options, which suits them to stockpile discharge conveyors and comparable points.
Fog cannons for large open areas
For dust spread over a broad expanse, Dust-A-Side provides fog cannons, sometimes called mist cannons. The unit forces highly pressurised water through jet nozzles, breaking it into a fine mist that a strong fan hurls across a distance. With the droplets sized to match visible and respirable dust particles, large-scale dust suppression across open ground becomes possible.
These cannons are portable and can sit on a trailer or skid. They oscillate and have adjustable throw angles, letting them track shifting wind or move alongside whatever is generating the dust. One frequent role is forming a mist blanket or curtain between operations and the communities nearby. Typical uses run to plant tip areas, opencast blasting areas, stockpiles and stockyards, mine dumps, industrial plants and tailings or waste dams. Dust-A-Side points out that fog cannons draw far less water than low pressure watering and put no harsh chemicals into the surroundings.
Surfactants that make each litre of water work harder
On its own, water is not always good at wetting fine or hydrophobic dust. Dust-A-Side’s HydroPlus is a surface-active agent that lowers water’s surface tension, so it wets hydrophobic and respirable dust particles under 10 micron far better. It is ratio-fed into the feed water of high pressure mist systems or fog cannons. A companion additive, HydroWet, performs much the same task on non-permanent road surfaces carrying high fines and compounds its effect the more it is used. Neither contains salts or organic chlorides, both are biodegradable and both are safe around vegetation.
When stockpiles and hard park areas need protecting for longer, the company’s AquaTarp synthetic polymer binder sets into a waterproof layer that will not leach once cured, holding dust in check right through the dry season and cutting the material lost to wind erosion.
Designed around the site, then measured
A needs analysis opens every Dust-A-Side project. The company runs a thorough site assessment supported by testing in a SANAS-accredited laboratory, complimentary soil and water analysis included, so the solution is built for that specific operation rather than pulled off a shelf. With in-house manufacturing and bulk transport behind it, delivery reaches even remote sites, and clients can opt for a full turnkey service or pick individual components, with plant, equipment, skilled personnel, Safety Management Plans and training all on offer.
Once a system is in, its performance is monitored through tools like DASMetrics and mobile dust monitoring, producing real-time data that keeps a dust management plan ticking over efficiently. Dust-A-Side carries ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications and puts health, safety, environment and quality at the heart of what it does, something that matters for operations racing to satisfy environmental regulations and steer clear of fines or stoppages.
Any operation wanting to take stock of dust at its plant, conveyors or stockpiles ahead of the hot months can find product information and a contact form at https://dustaside.com/.
About Dust-A-Side
Dust-A-Side is a South African born dust control company that now operates internationally. It delivers dust management, road management and erosion control to opencast and underground mines, quarries, process plants, construction sites, railways, agriculture, municipal and rural roads, transport yards, dry bulk terminals and tailings facilities. The range takes in bitumen emulsion, lignosulphonate and polymer binders, HydroWet and HydroPlus surfactants, high and low pressure mist systems, fog cannons, DAS monitoring and DASMetrics road performance evaluation tools. The company is certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 and relies on a SANAS-accredited laboratory for its site testing.
Media Contact
Dust-A-Side
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +27 12 648 8900
Website: https://dustaside.com/
