stirred media detritor Archives - International Mining

Metso Outotec’s stirred milling innovations have been bolstered by the introduction of a “comprehensive” portfolio featuring three solutions – Vertimill®, Stirred Media Detritor (pictured) and HIGmill™.

Ideal for grinding finer products, stirred mills are known for their energy efficiency and compact design, reducing floor space requirements and installation complexity. These mills are based on gravity-induced and fluidised technologies, allowing for the optimum equipment solution for all comminution circuits covering secondary, tertiary, fine, ultrafine, regrind and lime slaking applications.

“Stirred milling is an important growth area and integral to our customer’s efforts for sustainable and cost-efficient comminution,” Christoph Hoetzel, Head of Grinding business line at Metso Outotec, said. “With our combined portfolio and our unrivalled experience in this field, Metso Outotec is in the unique position to offer the most suitable solution for any specific application. We are doing this with a holistic view towards efficiency, sustainability, availability and total cost of ownership.”

Metso Outotec stirred mills are suitable for a large range of product sizes. The standardised range includes chamber units of up to 50,000 litres and the world’s largest industry units with up to 6,500 kW of installed power.

All of the company’s stirred mills are part of Metso Outotec’s Planet Positive product portfolio, thanks to the sustainability benefits they deliver.

Vertimill is globally recognised as a market-leading energy-efficient grinding mill.

“Through a low total cost of ownership due to its simple and robust design, it brings substantial improvement to the profitability of concentrators,” the company says.

HIGmill is an advanced, energy-efficient fine and ultra-fine grinding solution that relies on proven technology. With the tall, narrow, vertical body arrangement, grinding media is evenly distributed and mineral particles remain in constant contact, significantly increasing grinding efficiency, the company says. It takes advantage of gravitational forces and GrindForce™ rotor technology to produce a finer grind for mineral liberation.

Stirred Media Detritor (SMD) is a fluidised, vertical stirred mill designed for optimum grinding efficiency for fine and ultrafine grinding products. SMDs have the capacity to operate continuously at full load power draw with no steel contamination of the product, according to the company. They are suitable for both open- and closed-circuit operation.

Boliden Harjavalta has chosen Metso Outotec’s SMD grinding mills to improve the capacity of its slag concentrator, in Finland, the mining OEM says.

Boliden Harjavalta produces high-quality metals for European industrial customers, churning out 120,000 t of copper and 26,000 t of nickel in 2019.

The purpose of the slag concentrator is to recover copper from the slag produced in the copper smelter and to return it to the copper production cycle as high-quality slag concentrate, Metso Outotec said, with grinding being an essential part of the slag concentration process.

The raw materials of the Boliden Harjavalta smelter consist of concentrates and recycled metals, according to Boliden, with the company’s two mines in Finland – Kylylahti and Kevitsa – providing the smelter with concentrates. Concentrates are also purchased from external mines, Boliden says.

The order has been booked in Metso Minerals’ June quarter 2020 orders received.

Based on tests, Metso SMD (stirred media detritor, specialised for fine grinding applications) was chosen as the grinding technology, Metso Outotec said.

“Maintenance for the SMD is safe and cost-effective thanks to the simple mechanical structure of the mill and the smaller number of moving parts compared to traditional grinding mills,” the company explained.

Timo Sarvijärvi, Metso Outotec’s Head of Mining in the Nordics market area, said the company, at testing stage, noticed slag could be processed very efficiently using SMD technology.

“Now the slag concentrator can process larger amounts of material, without compromising the targets set for copper recovery,” Sarvijärvi said.

Metso Outotec enhances fine grinding offering with stirred milling portfolio

Metso Outotec SMD mills to boost output at Boliden’s Harjavalta concentrator