The dust management company sets out where molasses holds up on mine haul roads, where it does not, and why it is backing its own treatments
Dust-A-Side, a South African dust management company, has released a comparison of its haul road treatments against molasses, the low cost sugar industry by-product used as a dust palliative on mines and quarries across the country. The company is putting the comparison to operators now, as the dry season ends and the summer rainfall months begin, because that seasonal turn is where the two approaches to dust control separate most sharply.
Molasses performs through a dry winter. It binds fines, improves the cohesion of road materials, cuts watering frequency, and costs less to buy, particularly near sugar producing areas. What it does not do is survive rain. Heavy rainfall dissolves the treatment and washes it off, forcing reapplication at the point in the year when equipment and labour are needed elsewhere.
The Case Dust-A-Side Is Making
The company builds its road treatment programmes around bitumen emulsion, supported by lignosulphonate, polymer, and surfactant based products matched to each surface. Once applied and cured, bitumen emulsion leaves a thin layer that binds road particles into a semi-permanent seal, delivering dust suppression that resists wash-off rather than dissolving with it.
On heavily trafficked haul roads that seal reduces ravelling, corrugations, and potholes, holds bearing capacity through wet periods, and lowers PM10 and total suspended dust through the dry ones. Operators typically record fewer grader hours, less water cart running, and longer intervals between applications. Dust-A-Side reports that its road treatment methods can achieve water savings of up to 90 percent compared with conventional watering.
The company is open about the trade-offs. Its products cost more upfront than molasses. Application rates have to be matched to the road to avoid slipperiness during curing or in high braking zones. As petroleum based products they require controls to prevent hydrocarbon contamination and manage runoff. Its argument is that these are managed engineering considerations, while wash-off is a seasonal certainty.
Judged Across the Year, Not the Invoice
On purchase price, molasses wins in most parts of South Africa. Across the life of the road, Dust-A-Side’s position is that its treatments deliver the lower total cost for any operation exposed to both heavy rainfall and extended dry seasons, once grading, watering, reapplication cycles, tyre and engine wear, and hauling cycle times are counted.
That case rests on evidence rather than assertion. The company’s DASMetrics road performance evaluation service gives operators hard data on the state of their road network, and its dust monitoring services track airborne particle levels over time. Both sit inside a complete dust suppression system that combines the right product for each surface, the correct application method, equipment such as fog cannons for busy work zones, and continuous monitoring to prove the result.
Dust-A-Side is encouraging site operators to assess how their current palliative performed through winter and what it is likely to do under sustained rainfall, before the first storms answer the question for them.
More information on Dust-A-Side’s products and services is available on the Dust-A-Side website at https://dustaside.com/. The team works with each operation to assess its roads, surfaces, and dust challenges and to put together an approach suited to the site and the season.
Media Contact
Dust-A-Side
Email: info@dustaside.com
Phone: +27 12 648 8900
Website: https://dustaside.com/
