OEM RUSSELL MINERAL EQUIPMENT (RME) is celebrating its 20th anniversary in South America, highlighting its ongoing deep connection and commitment to the region.
RME says it is seizing the milestone to express its gratitude to the team members, customers and suppliers who made RME the region’s most trusted OEM of mill relining technologies.
RME’s history in South America dates to 1996 with the export of the first RUSSELL Mill Relining Machine (MRM) to the region. With a steady stream of technology installations in the years that followed, RME established a direct presence in the region in 2004 to better serve its growing customer base.
Today, RME has five dedicated RME Regional Service Centres in Latin America and its equipment operates on 77 Latin American mine sites across Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama and Peru.
RME Founder, Executive Chairman and Chief Engineer, Dr John Russell, described South America as a cornerstone of RME’s operations.
Dr Russell said: “From the arrival of the first RUSSELL MRM on the continent in 1996, the opening of our regional service centre in Chile in 2004, and the opening of offices in Peru and Brazil in 2021 and 2022, respectively, RME has invested, and continues to invest in building our capacity and customer delivery capabilities in the region.
“Latin America is home to some of RME’s oldest and most loyal customers, with well-maintained RUSSELL MRMs routinely exceeding 20 years of field operation. An unwavering dedication to precision engineering and quality manufacturing ensures our mill relining systems perform optimally, translating to a lower total cost of ownership and higher return on investment for our customers across Latin America and beyond.
“With more than 100 RME employees in Latin America, the region is also home to RME’s largest cohort of specialised local technical staff, outside Australia. We are committed to transferring our knowledge and skills to benefit career development of local employees, as well as their families and communities, while ultimately improving the safety of our customers’ reline crews and mill relining productivity. As we celebrate 20 years in South America, and also approach 40 years since RME was founded, we look to the future and remain deeply committed to expanding our business in Latin America.”
Securing this initial site in 2019 was an important step in commercialising RME’s advanced relining methods and technologies. Not only did the company gain valuable insights for its innovation program, but this installation demonstrated to industry that it’s possible to eliminate fatal risk and move workers out of the line of fire during mill relining operations, RME says.
Dr Russell said: “RME’s Latin American customers have been early adopters of products from our world-first, award-winning RME Advanced Technology Mill Relining System that ultimately allows mill operators to relocate crews to work outside the mill during liner exchange and achieve step-change improvements in safety and relining speed.
“Thanks to their safety leadership, over 30 relines globally, utilising various products from the RME Advanced Technology Mill Relining System, have demonstrated the system’s broad applicability to diverse mine sites, especially in Latin America which operates some of the world’s largest mills, long-life mines and high-altitude sites.
“The region continues to work at the forefront of advanced safety and automation technology adoption with growing interest and investment in the world’s best safety technologies.”
