ABB ring-geared mill drives are to provide process and energy efficiency at Canadian gold mine. ABB has successfully commissioned four low-speed dual pinion drive systems at the Detour Lake gold mine in Ontario. These systems include the largest low-speed dual pinion mill drives in the world. The low-speed concept operates without a gearbox, with motors driving the pinions directly, thus increasing overall system efficiency. ABB says its “state-of-the-art dual pinion mill drive systems are the most operation and mechanically-friendly solutions available on the market today.
“Features include variable-speed operation, real time frozen charge protection, the frozen charge remover function, controlled roll-back, and positioning without additional drive. These features and drive characteristics enable smooth mill operation, reduce maintenance requirement, increase energy efficiency and availability of the complete production line.”
The pre-commissioning phase started in fall 2012 with consecutive commissioning of grinding line 1 and 2 completed in 2013. The first line has been in operation since January, the second since February 2013 and commercial production was reached by mid-August 2013.
ABB’s scope of supply included four dual pinion low-speed mill drive systems for two SAG and two ball mills, each consisting of two synchronous motors, converter transformers and ACS6000 frequency converters including active rectifier units that allow the mill drives to achieve a power factor of 0.90 leading. ABB also delivered the programmable logic controller (PLC) to control the drives and mill auxiliaries. Each mill drive has a rated power of 15 MW.
The drive systems order was awarded in May 2010 followed by first equipment deliveries in October 2011.
The Detour Lake mine, 100% owned by Detour Gold Corp lies some 8 km west of the Ontario-Quebec border and 180 km northeast of Cochrane. The Detour Lake open-pit mine has Proven and Probable reserves of 15.6 Moz and will be among the largest gold operations in North America.
