Tag Archives: Skega Life

‘Circularity in action’: the Metso mill liner recycling offering

The idea of mill liner recycling is nothing new for Metso, with the first feasibility studies examining its potential conducted 15 years ago. Just ahead of MINExpo 2024, Metso announced that it is now expanding the offering to the North American market, with the company continuing to view the offering as a key contributor to making mining more sustainable, IM learned.

“The recycling program was initiated in 2015, achieving an important milestone of 1,000 recycled Megaliner™ liners in 2016,” Lars Furtenbach, Director, Research & Technology Development, Mill Lining, told IM last month in Las Vegas. “Back then, the machine we initially designed was not as flexible as the one we use now. This meant our global expansion had to be very deliberate to ensure we could offer the best services possible to as many customers as possible.”

Following studies and customer pilots, Metso launched a new liner separation unit in 2022 for its customers in Europe. In May 2024, the services were expanded to customers in South America – where the company now has two separation machines. Additionally, as mentioned, North America has just been added to this global roster.

The recycling service is facilitated by an innovative technology that enables safe and efficient separation of different rubber and metal liner components, like cast inserts, wear plates and backing plates. Composite liners, like Megaliner™ and Poly-Met™ liners, as well as rubber liners, can be processed using this solution. Metso also has an existing recycling process for metallic mill liners.

“One good example is the Megaliner where this service offering means that recovered backing plates, which are certified for reuse, can be returned to the same customer as part of new Megaliner liners,” he says.

“This is real circularity in action.”

Indeed, Metso says the recycling service is a concrete example of how it can drive the mining industry towards more sustainable practices and a circular economy. “With less unprocessed waste material sent to landfills, recycling helps to reduce CO2 emissions and improve environmental efficiency,” the company explains.

It is also “tightly linked” with ongoing product development, Furtenbach says, singling out Skega™ Life mill lining rubber as an example.

Introduced in November 2023, Skega Life offers up to 25% longer wear life compared with the predecessor premium rubber, Skega Classic. It was developed in Metso’s own laboratory and validated by field studies, also being part of Metso’s Planet Positive offering.

Furtenbach expects the mill lining recycling service to grow in terms of production and product offering, saying Metso’s existing capacity has significantly increased with the current expansion into three regions.

“This is all part of Metso’s plan to do what is needed to make the industry more sustainable,” he concluded.

Metso boosts wear life on premium rubber offering with Skega Life

Metso is introducing to its mill lining portfolio an innovative rubber, Skega™ Life, with, it claims, up to 25% longer wear life compared with the current premium rubber, Skega Classic.

The new rubber type is developed in Metso’s own laboratory and validated by field studies. Skega Life is a part of Metso’s Planet Positive offering, enabling increased sustainability and safety, optimised throughput, and increased uptime due to improved wear resistance and lower maintenance, the company says.

Fredrik Johansson, Global Product Manager, Rubber and Poly-Met mill linings, Metso, said: “We are excited to introduce Skega Life rubber to our mill liner portfolio. The new rubber is specially developed to have a very good wear resistance in grinding mills processing high abrasive ores. It can be used anywhere where a customer has a rubber application, but it is most beneficial in ball mills larger than 14 ft (4.3 m), AG, and SAG mills of 18 ft or smaller.”

Lars Furtenbach, Director, Research & Technology Development, Metso, added: “Mill liners play a crucial role in the mining process and Metso’s liners are always designed by our experts to meet the customers’ production targets and the mill conditions and enhancing overall process reliability. Field studies and tests have shown that our new rubber compound can have up to 25% longer wear life. The longer wear life reduces CO2 emissions and less liner material will end up in the tailings.”

Metso calls itself a world leader in developing and manufacturing high-performance mill liners. It pioneered the use of rubber linings and invented Poly-Met™, Megaliner™, and Orebed™ mill linings. New products are constantly being developed to enhance customers’ ever more advanced processes, it says, adding that the recent innovations include 3D wear scanning, a full Megaliner range, trommel deflector, Turbo Pulp Lifter, Liner Positioning System and a mill liner recycling service.