Fluor-owned materials handling technology and systems engineering specialist Virta Inc. has announced its acquisition of the RAHCO® Mobile Stacking Conveyor (MSC) brand from FLSmidth.

The MSC, also often referred to as a mobile stacking bridge, is a multi-crawler-mounted stacking machine used primarily in the mining industry for stacking high volumes of crushed ore (for leaching), spent (leached) ore, dry-stack filtered tailings, overburden, waste rock and other bulk materials.

Grant Graber, Virta President stated: “At Virta, we see a tremendous market opportunity for the increased application of the MSC technology. With the demand for copper expected to continue its surge to feed the world’s increasing electrification and power generation needs, the world’s copper mines – new and existing – will need to move higher volumes of low-grade ore for leaching. The larger the mining scale, the higher the volumes of waste rock and overburden that will need to be excavated, transported and stacked.”

He added: “The increasing use of dry-stack filtered tailings over conventional tailings ponds will necessitate high-volume, fast-advancing, proven stacking technology that minimises downtime and transfer points for sticky material and downtime.”

A total of 34 RAHCO MSC units have been delivered since 1976 to mining operations in eight countries, with capacities ranging from 500 to over 12,000 t/h.

With this acquisition, Virta now maintains the full ownership of the RAHCO brand, technology, all intellectual property and project customer references, including provision of spare parts and field services.

Virta is a global leader in the innovative design-supply execution of bulk material handling systems to the mining, mineral processing, ports and terminals, power generation, and petroleum refinery industries. The addition of the RAHCO brand to Virta’s portfolio significantly expands its systems offerings.

FFE Minerals, then the minerals processing arm of FLSmidth, acquired the materials handling business of US-based RAHCO International, Inc. back in 2007.