Weir Minerals has been selected to supply pumps and equipment for a new processing plant at Boliden’s Garpenberg operation in Sweden. The new plant is a replacement for an existing facility – an upgrade that will double capacity from 1.3 to 2.5 Mt of metal ores per year. Garpenberg is Sweden’s oldest mine and is still producing large quantities of zinc – along with smaller amounts of lead and silver. Weir Minerals will supply the majority of pumps for every application across the plant, requiring a wide range of types and sizes of units to handle the full spectrum of flow rates, pressure requirements and slurry consistencies.

Delivery of the units will begin immediately, but installation and commissioning work is scheduled to take place from Spring to Autumn 2013. The contract follows the launch of Weir’s first service centre in Scandinavia in March 2012, and its acquisition in 2012 of belt-tensioning system manufacturer GEMEX, both of which played a significant part in securing the order. Tony Locke, Managing Director of Weir Minerals Europe said: “We have a long-standing relationship with Boliden and over the years have supplied equipment to their Aitik and Tara sites as well as the company’s first location in Boliden itself. However, this is by far our biggest agreement to date and it is the result of the increase in the breadth of our offering and the depth of our customer service support in recent years.”