Tag Archives: mill lining

Metso Outotec and Boliden renew service contract for Aitik copper mine

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Metso Outotec and Boliden have signed an extension of their service contract for Boliden’s Aitik copper mine in Gällivare, northern Sweden.

The “3+2-year extension” of the Life-Cycle Services agreement covers the supply of mill lining, chute lining solutions, preventive maintenance of the grinding circuit and recycling of used wear parts, the mining OEM said. The first part of the contract has been booked in Metso Outotec’s orders received in the September quarter of 2020.

The contract is a performance-based cost-per-tonne agreement, in which Metso Outotec gets paid according to the output of the customer’s process. The goal is to ensure the availability of the grinding circuit and to maximise valuable production time, striving for a common goal that benefits both parties, the company said.

Metso Outotec and Boliden have cooperated since the 1960s. Throughout the decades, the collaboration has evolved to meet new emerging needs, while continuing to improve uptime and annual production, Metso Outotec said.

“Safety is Boliden’s top priority and enhancing it is also embedded in the scope of the new contract,” the OEM said. “Metso Outotec will provide solutions that simultaneously cut maintenance time and increase the wear life of parts even further.”

The new contract also focuses more on the management of worn wear parts, with Metso Outotec developing capabilities to recycle and dispose of them more sustainably. The AG mills in Aitik will continue to use Metso Outotec’s innovative Megaliner™ mill lining.

Megaliner helps to maximise the availability of large mills by using an innovative design that speeds up liner replacement. The larger-than-average liners mean fewer individual pieces are needed. Megaliner also has fewer attachment points compared with conventional liners, further improving installation and removal time, Metso Outotec says. It also improves worker safety during maintenance as the liners are bolted into position from outside the mill.

The pebble mills and two regrind mills at Aitik will be lined with rubber and Poly-Met mill linings, Metso Outotec said.

Aitik is one of the largest copper mines in Europe. In 2019, the mine produced close to 41,000 t of copper, employing nearly 800 people.

Metso completes mill lining hat-trick with Discharge End Megaliner

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Metso has once again flexed its R&D muscles, launching a new and innovative product that, it says, can speed up and improve the safety of one of the trickiest and riskiest processes mill personnel carry out.

The Discharge End Megaliner builds on the Metso Megaliner™ concept the company introduced in 2012. Designed to reduce downtime by minimising the number of parts and people inside the mill during a relining process, the Megaliner has so far been installed in over 30 mills around the world.

A Megaliner element integrates multiple lifter and plate rows and has a minimum number of attachment points. Covering an area several times larger than conventional liners, these liners are light weight in relation to their size and, with threaded bushings, enable safer and faster relining processes to be conducted.

The initial 2012 Megaliner launch saw these lightweight liner parts developed for the mill shell. In 2015, Metso expanded the lining concept to the feed end of grinding mills. The company is now ready to tackle the tricky mill discharge end to complete the hat-trick.

Anssi Poutanen, Vice President of Metso’s Mill Lining product line, said the mill shell was the obvious starting point in the Megaliner evolution.

“The shell represents the largest number of components to install so the potential for time savings for customers was large, hence why the Megaliner started there,” he told IM. “We have since extended to the feed end of the mill and now to the discharge end.”

The new product, which has been in the development pipeline for some time, according to Poutanen, is by no means just a bolt on to the existing Megaliner range.

“Even though the discharge section of the mill lining process is not as big from a volume perspective, the need for long bolts and a complex fixing arrangement in conventional installations makes it one of the most time-consuming and risky processes to carry out,” he said. “The Discharge End Megaliner is a highly valued addition to our Megaliner range as many of our customers struggle with the process.”

The conventional process Poutanen references here is worth spelling out.

With grate discharge mills – typically SAG, AG and ball mills – the conventional relining process at the discharge end usually involves removing the dischargers and grates, replacing with new lined versions and hammering in large, long bolts through the layers to secure the liner components.

“Even if modern recoilless hammers are used, it is still a challenge,” Poutanen said. “When the bolts become loose, they are hazardous and can potentially injure personnel.” In this process, personnel are also inside the mill – one of the most dangerous sections of the whole process plant.

On top of the large, long bolts, nuts are also required to fix the panels in place with conventional lining processes, adding up to multiple individual pieces and attachment points that must be fixed securely from inside the mill, Poutanen explained.

The Discharge End Megaliner, meanwhile, sees dischargers, grates and segments preassembled into one large unit. These are equipped with threaded bushings that are secured with “short bolts” from – very importantly – outside of the mill, he said.

This makes for an up to 50% faster lining installation using up to 70% fewer parts than the conventional process, according to Metso.

Poutanen says the new Discharge End Megaliner can be applied to any type of grate discharge mill – there is no prerequisite for Megaliner liners in the shell and feed end, for example – as long as there is a wide enough trunnion opening to remove and replace the liners, and a liner handler of sufficient capacity.

Metso is targeting the large end of the grinding mill market with this new development. The larger the mill, the greater the throughput, which has a direct impact on the costs associated with potential downtime caused by the relining process, Poutanen explained.

This has already been tested out at Boliden’s Aitik mine, in Gällivare, Sweden, which is currently undergoing an expansion to 45 Mt/y throughput.

The base metal mine already has Megaliner mill liners on the shell and feed end of both of its primary AG mills and has tested the new Discharge End Megaliner over nine months at one of these 38 ft (11.6 m) mills.

The Aitik trial has proven around 70% fewer parts are required compared with the conventional process. Relining has also been carried out much quicker and safer, according to Poutanen.

Similar to LHD operators being removed from the cab in order to remotely operate loaders in potentially unstable areas of underground mines, the ability to carry out the relining process from outside of the mill ‘danger zone’ could be considered an initial stage towards a fully automated relining process.

Poutanen agreed: “I think at some point, we will see a higher degree of automation. It is unlikely to be binary; it will be a gradual process.”

He said the combination of the Megaliner and Metso’s camera-based liner positioning system – which is offered to all Megaliner customers as an “add on” to the liner handling equipment – could help make the process more autonomous.

In order to be able to develop this kind of fully autonomous package, a close collaboration with customers and liner handler suppliers is required, he said. “I think we are still a few years away from having the process move to fully autonomous mode.”

Metso places rubber, poly-met wear parts facilities under review

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Metso, as part of its Minerals Consumables business area review of manufacturing capabilities in the EMEA region, says it is starting “personnel negotiations” to review the implications at rubber and poly-met wear part production units in Ersmark and Trelleborg, Sweden.

The negotiations concern the potential closure of the factory in Ersmark and the restructuring of the manufacturing operation in Trelleborg, according to the company, and could affect manufacturing related functions and some 150 positions.

Metso confirmed other operations in Sweden are not in the scope of these negotiations.

The Ersmark and Trelleborg units produce rubber and poly-met wear parts used in the mining industry. Today, Metso is a leading player in the rubber and poly-met mill lining business, with a strong service network in all the main mining markets, it said. In addition to Ersmark and Trelleborg, Metso operates nine factories manufacturing synthetic solutions globally.

Sami Takaluoma, President, Minerals Consumables business area, said: “Our target is to utilise the full potential of the most efficient manufacturing methods and optimise sourcing opportunities and logistics. By developing our supply capabilities at the regional and global levels, we are actively responding to changes in the competitive environment, as well as improving our flexibility in fulfilling customers’ needs.”

IOM3 recognises Multotec Rubber MD Spike Taylor

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The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Southern Africa (IOM3) has acknowledged Spike Taylor, Managing Director of Multotec Rubber, for the significant role he has played in the industrial rubber industry since 2002, Multotec says.

At the 24th IOM3 National Rubber conference, held in Cape St Francis, in April, Taylor was awarded the John Tallant Medal for Outstanding Merit for this contribution.

The local arm of the international IOM3, established more than 60 years ago, is made up of representatives of the South Africa industrial rubber sector.

Taylor, who has a BSc in Engineering Metallurgy, began his career at De Beers and, in 1985, joined Multotec as a Sales Engineer. He progressed through the organisation and, in 2009, was appointed as the MD of Multotec Rubber.

Multotec Rubber is primarily focused on the local manufacture of rubber and rubber composite grinding mill liners. It established its local manufacturing plant in Spartan, in 2000. The company can point to more than 400 successful mill and scrubber liner installations across Africa, it said.

This, Taylor says, does not include those installations in countries outside of Africa.

Referencing recent installations, Taylor said these include an AG mill lining on a diamond mine in East Africa, a lining in a secondary ball mill on a platinum mine on the South Africa western Limb, two scrubber linings on a phosphate mine in North Africa and a SAG mill lining for a Zambia copper mine.

“In addition to these, Multotec Rubber has significantly increased its footprint in West Africa with the installation of three ball mill linings and a SAG mill lining at gold plants in this region,” he said.

In all instances, the Multotec product replaced competitor lining, according to the company. Taylor attributes this to the focused approach of the Multotec Rubber team to leverage mill liner technology to ensure customers receive the benefit of the company’s extensive knowledge, facilitating optimum recoveries.

“By maintaining the high road when it comes to product quality and product consistency, we have been able to prove to customers that those who accept inferior product because of lower pricing do inevitably pay for this over the long run with production issues,” Taylor concluded.

Norilsk Nickel chooses Metso Megaliner for Talnakh concentrator

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Norilsk Nickel has recently switched out the chrome and molybdenum alloy lining of a SAG mill at its Talnakh concentrator in Russia as the company looked to increase the life of these all-important wear parts.

Sever Minerals and Norilsknikelremont (a subsidiary of Norilsk) were contracted to complete the mill relining project, using liners supplied by Metso’s global team, which also used the OEM’s Megaliner™ concept.

The new lining is more durable, weighs less and ended up being safer to install than previous the previous lining, according to Norilsk.

A Norilsk spokesperson told IM that the mill lining was replaced with two elements, the Metso Poly-Met; a rubber-steel combination installed on the front-facing part of the mill; and the Metso Megaliner, which has large shell or head liners used to protect the drum.

The spokesperson added: “The cladding manufacturers guarantee that the mill can work for 5,600 hours uninterrupted (that is about eight months non-stop). The previous version required the SAG mill to be stopped for replacement every six months.”

By developing the technology, adopting better project management and using the specialised equipment, Norilsk said it was able to reduce the time taken to replace the mill lining by three days.

The Megaliner is, according to Metso, a new, innovative mill liner concept, dramatically improving worker safety and maximising mill availability. Each shell or head liner covers a large area, has few attachment components and an attachment system which gives a safer working environment for the installation crew, it said.

The weight of the mill lining also came down with the switch from pure metal to a metal-rubber compound, Norilsk said.

“The new mill liner weighs close to 130 t, which is 120 t less than the old mill liner. The average weight of one mill liner element is 1.8 t (elements have different configurations and respective mass),” the spokesperson said.

This reduced weight came with other benefits.

“Due to the lower weight of the capstan, the new mill liner is more wear resistant and better technologically-equipped to cope with an increased number of planned tasks,” the spokesperson explained.