CFlo in Australia and New Zealand
Modular wet processing plants for quarries, sand producers and mineral operators in Australia and New Zealand, supported through a Certified Partner.
CFlo builds modular wet processing plants for quarry, sand and mineral operators in Australia and New Zealand: frac and silica sand, manufactured sand from crusher dust, marine and dredged sand, heavy mineral concentrate and tailings recovery. Plants recycle up to 95% of their process water, are sold and supported through an Australian Certified Partner and are sized on a Sample Study of the operator's own material.
What CFlo builds
Each of the five platforms is a factory-assembled modular plant that ships in containers and is commissioned on a prepared pad.
- Combo: sand washing plant. Takes crusher dust, quarry scalpings or as-dug sand and gravel to washed concreting sand and graded aggregate at up to 350 tonnes per hour on one chassis, recycling up to 95% of process water.
- Micrograder: specification plant for silica, glass, foundry and frac sand, with attrition scrubbing, precision rinsing screens, spiral gravity concentrators and upward-flow classification.
- Oremax: ore washing and beneficiation plant, proven on iron ore, limestone, chromite, quartz, bauxite, phosphate, manganese and slimes from tailings.
- Reurban: mobile plant for construction and demolition waste, excavation waste, contaminated soil and clay-bound overburden.
- Aerograder: dry air classifier for feed below 5 mm, with no process water, cyclones or baghouse.
Every wet plant includes two process modules as standard: the Hydromax high-rate thickener for water recovery and the Easysettle sludge bay manager for tailings. Plants for Australia and New Zealand are built to AS/NZS requirements, including the PLC control panels that CFlo designs and builds. The manufactured sand page and the frac sand and silica sand page for Australia and New Zealand set out the two main duties in detail.
Sample Study and Pre-Engineering
Sample Study & Interpretation. Feed gradation, clay content, moisture and mineralogy decide the plant design, so every project starts with a Sample Study. Bench and pilot units at CFlo's own pilot plant and laboratory in Kolkata, a DSIR-recognised in-house R&D unit, run bulk samples configured as a circuit. Programmes take from 20 kg for a short bench programme to 2500 kg for a full pilot campaign. The report gives recovered products, grades and yields against your specification, with a mass balance, water and polymer consumption and a recommended flowsheet. Washed sand is also tested in concrete for workability, water demand and strength. Samples travel on a DDP basis with the paperwork agreed first, and the sampling method is agreed with the sales desk before shipping.
Pre-Engineering. If the results support the project, Pre-Engineering follows: a complete engineering package designed against your feed, over twelve weeks in four phases, in parallel with your financial clearance.
The first Australian frac sand plant
A Micrograder rated at 80 to 100 tonnes per hour is in manufacture for a frac sand site near Darwin in the Northern Territory. Commissioning is scheduled for early 2027. It will wash and classify local sand into proppant grades for a large oil and gas operator, delivered through a CFlo Certified Partner in Australia. The partner and the end user are not named, at their request.
Sand for the project is currently transported by road from more than 1,000 km away. The process is scalping and sizing, attrition scrubbing to remove grain coatings, then classification to set the cut points. Around 95% of process water is recycled and the plant runs with zero liquid discharge. It is built to Australian and New Zealand standards and ships as containerised modules, so site commissioning takes days rather than months. Ryan Barker, Regional Head of Operations and Delivery at CFlo Europe Limited, oversees delivery. Measured results will follow the project announcement once the plant is running.
Frac and silica sand
At least 90% of a proppant sample must fall between the designating sieves. No more than 0.1% may be coarser than the top sieve and no more than 1% finer than the bottom one. Sphericity, roundness, crush resistance, turbidity and acid solubility limits also apply. Sand carrying silt and surface coatings, as at Darwin, is a wet duty for the Micrograder. A dry, clean feed needing only a bottom-end cut suits the Aerograder.
In Abu Dhabi four Aerograder units with 280 tonnes per hour combined capacity grade local dune sand to frac specification for a major oil and gas services operator. In a July 2026 verification campaign at 70 tonnes per hour per unit, the product averaged 0.83% minus 200 mesh against a 1% ceiling. Mass yield was about 90% and recovery of the plus 140 mesh fraction about 94%, with no process water.
At Chu Lai in Vietnam two 100 tonnes per hour Micrograder F70D lines process a feed of about 98.5% silicon dioxide and about 0.5% iron oxide. The product is float glass sand above 99.3% silicon dioxide with iron oxide below 0.05%, a ten-fold reduction. Yield is about 71% and water recovery about 95%, on a gravity circuit with no chemical reagents. See silica and glass sand and frac sand and proppant.
Construction sand from crusher dust and crushed rock fines
In Australia the sub-5 mm crusher by-product is called crusher dust or stone dust. Washing removes the minus 63 micron fraction, typically 15–20% of the feed, at a cut point the operator sets. It scrubs out clay where present and retains the 63 to 600 micron fraction that crusher dust lacks. The product is a washed manufactured sand graded to a state road authority specification or a concrete producer's own envelope. The coarse fractions are sold as graded aggregate from the same plant.
GR Infraprojects, a listed Indian EPC company, operates 11 Combo plants across its highway projects. Each moves between sites in about ten days from shutdown to on-specification production, with more than 95% of process water recycled and zero liquid discharge. Its director reports a saving of 20–25 kg of cement in M45 concrete against natural sand. Washed sand costs about Rs 550 a tonne against about Rs 2,000 a tonne for natural sand in Maharashtra. Stevin Rock, the Ras Al Khaimah government-owned operator producing more than 80 million tonnes a year, has ordered a Combo Mega E5 to wash limestone scalpings and mine rejects. Power International already runs the same duty on the same machine at Fujairah.
Where the dust carries little clay and only the ultrafines need removing, for hotmix sand or dedusting, the Aerograder does this dry. Afcons Infrastructure produced dedusted manufactured sand at 60 to 70 tonnes per hour on 45 kW with no water on a water-scarce section of the Samruddhi Mahamarg Expressway. See manufactured sand and hotmix sand.
Sand from dredged and marine material
Marine sand is well graded, rounded and free of organic contaminants, but its shell and chloride content keep it out of concrete. CFlo plants apply wet sizing, attrition scrubbing, classification and washing to bring chloride down to the level the concrete standard allows, producing concrete and plaster sand. Screenmax precision fine screens hold the top of the gradation and dewater on the same deck. The Vertimax upward-flow classifier makes the mid-range cut and floats off shell fragments and organic matter. Both are built into the Micrograder and are also supplied separately. Water recovery is lower than on a freshwater circuit, because chloride builds up in the wash water and part of it must be rejected. Circuits can run on seawater where fresh water is scarce.
CFlo does not dredge. It processes the fine, wet material from maintenance dredging of ports and channels and from desilting dams and reservoirs. Plants are shore-based or barge-mounted and fed from dredge pumps, producing engineered sand for concrete, reclamation and fill, with the ultrafines dewatered for low-cost disposal. See marine sand, beach sand and desilting and dredged material.
Mineral sands and heavy minerals
A mineral sands operation has three stages. The wet concentration plant makes a heavy mineral concentrate. The dry mill separates it into ilmenite, rutile, zircon and monazite. Chemical processing beyond that recovers rare earths. CFlo builds the wet concentration plant as a single supplier with one point of responsibility. It does not supply dry mills, flotation or chemical separation.
A placer deposit arrives already liberated, so feed preparation is attrition scrubbing and desliming rather than comminution. Spiropure spiral gravity concentrators then separate on density without reagents, which is why attrition must first strip coatings from the grains. A heavy mineral fraction in a beach, dune or dredged deposit can be recovered before the sand is sold as aggregate. See heavy mineral sands.
Tailings and water recovery
CFlo builds circuits that recover the saleable mineral in slimes and tailings and dewater the remaining waste, under one contract. At SAIL's Kiriburu iron ore mine, slime discarded since the 1960s is lifted from 54–55% Fe to above 61% Fe by an Oremax slime beneficiation system. The reject goes to the mine's existing tailings thickener.
Hydromax high-rate thickeners return most of the process water to the plant. Easysettle rigidifies the reject at the point of disposal so it releases water immediately and dries to a trafficable cake without a pond. Filter presses are supplied where cake moisture must be low or the reject must be trucked. Both modules also retrofit to an existing open-loop wash plant. Easysettle is proven on iron ore, coal, alumina, mineral sands, gold, copper and manufactured sand. See tailings and slimes and water management.
New Zealand
The Australian Certified Partner and CFlo Europe Limited cover New Zealand as part of the same territory. New Zealand quarries present three feeds. River and alluvial gravel arrives as one mixed feed of sand, gravel, silt, clay and organic matter. The Combo splits the gravel into saleable sizes, brings the sand inside a grading envelope and removes silt and clay under control. Greywacke and other sandstone quarries produce crusher fines with an ultrafine fraction below 75 microns, which concrete aggregate standards limit to a few percent. Washed, they can be a concrete sand. Coastal and dune sand is fine and close to a single size. The Micrograder grades it for filtration media, sports turf and horticultural sand, glass sand and foundry sand, and the Sample Study establishes which specification the product can reach. Where plastic clay is bonded to the stone, a Scrubmax twin shaft logwasher is fitted ahead of the plant. Where a quarry removes dust from dry crusher fines for asphalt, the Aerograder does so with no process water.
Regional councils set consent conditions on water take and discharge. Every CFlo wet plant recycles up to 95% of its process water and needs fresh water only to replace what leaves in the product and the sludge cake. Easysettle rigidifies the tailings in the bay so they dry to a cake of 20–30% moisture in about 48 hours, firm enough to carry an excavator, and no liquid effluent leaves the site. Where a consent rules out tailings bays, mechanical dewatering is specified. The water and tailings circuit is documented for engineers preparing a consent application. See water management, sand and gravel washing and hotmix sand.
Plants for New Zealand are built to AS/NZS requirements. Cloudlink remote support lets CFlo engineers check trends and resolve many issues without a site visit. The Customer Care Desk on +91 93300 80000 covers troubleshooting, genuine spare parts and service visits Monday to Friday. Regional sales and support for New Zealand is on +61 870 925 996 and [email protected].
Sample enquiry
Plant sizing starts with a Sample Study of your own material. Send the feed description, tonnes per hour and product specification, and the sales desk will agree sampling and shipping for a Sample Study.
Send us a sample
Tell us about the material and an engineer will come back with how much to send, how to sample it, and what the programme would cover.
Sales and support in Australia and New Zealand
In both countries the plant is sold and supported by an Australian Certified Partner, with CFlo's engineering behind it. The Customer Care Desk provides troubleshooting, genuine spare parts and service visits. The CFlo Europe Limited team in Belfast, which covers Oceania with the UK and Europe, delivers all Australian projects. Enquiries go to CFlo Oceania on +61 870 925 996 or [email protected], or through the contact page. A regional specialist replies, usually within one business day.
Co-founder of CFlo Europe Limited and its Regional CEO, responsible for the UK, Ireland and Europe, North America and Oceania. Has spent his working life building wet processing plant for quarries in Britain and Ireland, having previously helped build a global wet processing brand.
Information required
A representative sample or a recent gradation of the feed, its clay and silt content, and the moisture as received. The tonnes per hour required, the product specification, and what you currently do with the fines. If you already sell the by-product, its selling price is also useful, because the washed product has to beat it.
Frequently asked questions
How does CFlo sell and support plants in Australia and New Zealand?
Through an Australian Certified Partner, with CFlo's engineering behind it and the Customer Care Desk for troubleshooting, genuine spare parts and service visits. Enquiries reach the sales desk on +61 870 925 996 or [email protected], and a regional specialist replies, usually within one business day.
Is CFlo's intellectual property registered in Australia?
Yes. CFlo is a registered trade mark in Australia (No. 2443583, registered to CFlo World Limited). The Combo is protected by Australian patent AU 2017374901 B2.
Does CFlo have a plant running in New Zealand?
The reference plants on this page are in India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Gulf. The nearest project is the Micrograder in manufacture for a frac sand site near Darwin, with commissioning scheduled for early 2027. CFlo has over 500 installations across 20 countries.
Can I see results before committing to a plant?
Yes. A Sample Study at CFlo's own pilot plant and laboratory in Kolkata, a DSIR-recognised in-house R&D unit, runs your bulk sample through pilot units, from 20 kg to 2500 kg. Reports take one to two weeks for a short programme and up to twenty to twenty-four weeks for an extensive one, from receipt of the sample.
What is Pre-Engineering and when does it run?
Pre-Engineering is the complete engineering package designed against your feed: process flow, mass and water balance, sized equipment list, general arrangement, civil and structural drawings and utility schedules. It takes twelve weeks in four phases and runs in parallel with your financial clearance, against an invoiced fee, so manufacture starts when the supply contract is placed.
Will the Aerograder handle damp or dirty feed?
No. Air classification suits a dry, clean feed below 5 mm at below 2% surface moisture, where the duty is a fines cut rather than a wash. An enclosed crusher-to-classifier circuit or an arid site gives year-round dry feed. Feed carrying clay, silt or surface coatings is a wet duty, which is why the Darwin plant is a Micrograder.
Can crusher dust be washed into sand that meets a state road authority specification?
Washing removes the minus 63 micron fraction under control and grades the remainder to a concrete sand envelope. GR Infraprojects produces IS 383 manufactured sand from crusher dust on 11 Combo plants. Whether a given crusher dust meets a state road authority or concrete producer specification depends on the rock and the crusher setting, which the Sample Study establishes.
What happens to the water and the fines?
Up to 95% of the process water is recycled, and the wet frac sand and manufactured sand plants described here run with zero liquid discharge. Easysettle rigidifies tailings so they dry to a trafficable cake. Where a site cannot accommodate a settling bay, mechanical dewatering is specified. On marine sand, part of the wash water is rejected because chloride builds up in it.