HIGH PROFILE
systems and its world leading
comminution database as well as its
worldwide project knowledge base in
comminution.
Elsewhere in the global market
Latin America is a real stronghold. More
than 35 major pieces of capital equipment
have been shipped to Vale in Brazil over
the years, and a spare parts centre serves
Vale specifically. The CITIC HIC presence in
Brazil includes a direct subsidiary, CITIC
HIC Brazil in Nova Lima near Belo
Horizonte. In Chile, Codelco is a major
customer, as is BHP (equipment bought
includes a 4.5 m by 8.4 m scrubber in 2008),
served by direct subsidiary CITIC HIC SpA in
Santiago. There is also a brand new service centre
under development in Chile. In Peru there is also a
direct subsidiary in Lima and spare parts centre
serving the CITIC equipment operating at
Shougang Hierro Peru’s iron ore operations. Most
recently in May 2019 a ball mill shell was shipped
from CITIC Censa to the Las Bambas copper mine
in Peru.
In South Africa, CITIC HIC has its office in
Johannesburg. In South Africa and in central and
southern Africa generally, China’s Belt and Road
initiative has seen a number of Chinese financial
institutions establish themselves in that part of
the world, which has helped CITIC HIC increase its
presence in Africa. In India, a direct subsidiary is
located in Mumbai. In the 2000s the company
supplied a 7 m x 4.1 m SAG mill and a 5.03 m x 8
m ball mill for Hindustan Zinc’s Rampura Agucha
project. Finally there are also subsidiary offices in
Silverwater (NSW) in Australia, Pointe Claire in
Quebec, Canada and a range of dealers and
representative offices in many other locations
such as V-Line in Saudi Arabia.
All of the big global miners have sent
delegations to Luoyang to CITIC HIC over the
years, which has been crucial in its success with
these customers. Jin Song says: “It has been very
important for us to show the real CITIC to
customers. We always invite major potential
customers to visit us – often they have had
misconceptions about us as a Chinese company
thinking we use old technology and an old
management style. But that soon changes when
they get to know us. Coming here they can see for
themselves the quality of our machining
equipment, our in-house R&D and unique
technologies and our list of mining references.
The world’s mining majors no longer think
Chinese products have a lower standard, and this
has been proven again and again. And we have
already been following the major international
standards for many years including ISO9001 and
ISO14001. We are a certified supplier to Rio Tinto,
BHP, Anglo American and others, not something
70 International Mining | MARCH 2020
IM Editorial Director with some installation
models at CITIC HIC in Luoyang, a huge site and
one which is uniquely vertically integrated
that is easy to achieve. We also provide the
service element of the business and our target is
to provide a complete lifecycle solution to clients
from the equipment order through to life of mine
operation of the equipment.”
Other major mill deliveries include to the
Erdenet copper mine in Mongolia; Western Areas
Cosmos Nickel Complex in Australia, to the
Chambishi and Konkola copper mines in Zambia,
ArcelorMittal iron ore mines in Liberia, Marampa
iron ore mine in Sierra Leone, Managem’s
goldmine in Sudan, cobalt mines in DRC, the KSO
gold mine in Laos, the Mirador copper project in
Ecuador, Ma-aden’s phosphate operations in
Saudi Arabia, Runruno Gold in the Philippines –
the list is extensive. On the crushing side it has
delivered the gyratory for a semi-mobile crushing
station at LKAB’s iron ore operations in Sweden.
For all these global projects it doesn’t end with
commissioning, CITIC HIC sends teams to stay
onsite to guarantee the stable operation of the
projects.
This is not even mentioning its dominant
market share in China itself where major mill
customers include all the largest mining
operations such as Zijin Mining, China National
Gold Group, Jiangxi Copper, Western Mining
Group, Hanking Group, Chinalco, Tongling Non
Ferrous, TISCO, Baosteel and many others.
Manufacturing
The site in Luoyang includes everything required
for large mineral process equipment manufacture
even to the point of having its own plant making
oxygen and other gases onsite. All castings are
done in-house. Casting equipment includes 80 t,
50 t & 30 t electric arc furnaces, two 150 t & 60 t
LF ladle refining furnaces plus 150 t & 60 t
VD/VOD refining furnaces for liquid steel. CITIC
HIC can pour 900 t of liquid steel at one time with
its largest casting to date being 600 t. It produces
around 70,000 t of high quality liquid steel per
annum. In forging, IM saw the jewel in
the crown on the tour, a hydraulic press
of 18,500 t, the world’s largest.
It has its own oil and water treatment
facilities for quenching, carburising and
nitriding. It can produce everything from
small forging rings up to the world’s
largest mill gears. The list of unique and
special machines for equipment
manufacture is extensive including a
special unit for hole drilling in trunnion
heads; three 10 m diameter DVT1000
CNC double column vertical lathes in
each of its three main factory buildings.
It also has four 16 m diameter DMVT1600
units. Then there are numerous vertical and
helical gear teeth machining units from Germany
& China. It has a MAAG 12 m diameter gear cutter
and Waldrich Coburg machining rig. All welding of
shells is done in house. In all CITIC HIC owns over
3,000 machines, including more than 70 CNC
machines, some of which are the largest and most
advanced in China and the world. There are
approximately 30 large CNC movable planner
boring & milling machines and floor-mounted
boring & milling machines.
The only major component supply exception is
that some motors and gearless drives are sourced
from ABB/Siemens though this is in common with
all the other players. Some large bearings are also
sourced from specialists like Schaeffler and SKF,
again common with the main competitors.
Where Western players get orders for projects
in China or use Chinese factories for assembly are
mainly buying castings from CITIC HIC. Metso,
FLSmidth and others used to buy a lot of mill
shells and other castings from CITIC HIC in China
but this is no longer the case.
Testing is extensive. Large mills are fully
assembled with gearbox, pinion and motors for
tests which make sure oil pressure, electrics,
rotation speed, vibration etc are all within set
parameters. Simulation is also carried out to see if
the PLC system is working well enabling the mill
to start and stop quickly if needed. The QA
department meets ASTM and Chinese and EN
standards, all met with its own equipment not
external labs. It uses sampling and calibration
technology such as NDT, ICP and XRF.
Mine winders are shipped in two halves. Large
SAG and AG mills see the head shipped
separately from trunnions but for ball mills they
are shipped combined. Similarly ball mill shell are
shipped bolted together but SAG/AG mills are
shipped as two halves with the main bearing
pedestals shipped on their own.
Stirred mills and HPGRs
For fine grinding, CITIC has had considerable
success with supplying stirred mills, including a
CSM-1200 Vertical Stirred Mill supplied to Codelco