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A modular processing system for the Husab uranium mine in Namibia, Southwest Africa, has been designed and developed by Adelaide Control Engineering (ACE; Australia; www.adlcontrol.com.au). The company’s managing director, Glenn Jobling, says innovative technology and advanced modular design have enabled the company to reduce the build time and requirement for skilled labor at remote sites by almost 50%. The modular system is based on standard shipping containers and is built, assembled and tested in the company’s Australian manufacturing facility before transport to the site. The $11-million contract includes a plant for dewatering, calcining and packing of yellowcake, complete with a waste-gas scrubbing system. The processing system is fed with yellowcake slurry from the mine’s primary processing plant. Slurry is dewatered in a centrifuge and then fed to a rotary kiln for drying. From the kiln, the dried yellowcake powder is transferred to the packing module where it is packed into drums. A key design criterion for the fully automatic drum-filling plant was that the risk of operator exposure had to be minimized. To achieve this, the drum filling and sampling system is contained within a sealed module, which has integral dust…