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THE LEADER VOLUME 18 • NUMBER 4
Weir ’ s forward momentum
In its 2022 Annual Report , released in March , Weir Group reviewed its performance from several angles – financially , strategically and of course from a sustainability standpoint .
The opening of Weir ’ s new 3,300 m 2 supercentre in Almaty , Kazakhstan was a strategically important milestone , providing engineering and service expertise to enhance Weir customer support in the region . The £ 1 million investment is core to its localisation strategy and supports its growth plans in Central Asia .
In 2021 , Weir announced plans to expand its foundry capacity in China to support demand for ESCO ground engaging tools . The ground-breaking ceremony in Xuzhou ’ s industrial zone in July 2022 signified an important milestone . This multi-year , US $ 60 million + investment increases Weir ’ s foundry capacity in China by a third , providing a strong platform for growth . Production is scheduled to start late 2024 , ramping up to full production in 2025 .
A major part of Weir ’ s offering is bringing its own solutions together with those its strategic alliance partners to enhance its customer value proposition . New partnerships with Eriez and Swiss Tower Mills ( STM ) Minerals it says are enabling it to redefine the mining mill circuit so customers can use less energy , use water wisely and create less waste . Weir has just announced the completion of the STM Minerals AG vertical stirred mill commissioning at the Weir Technology Hub in the Netherlands .
Regarding Eriez , the combination of pumps , cyclones , classification equipment , and other mill circuit products supplied by Weir Minerals , along with Eriez ’ game-changing HydroFloat , StackCell ® , columns , and sparging systems , allows owners to take advantage of well-matched equipment designed and tested as a system . This makes Weir a natural fit for contributing to Coarse Particle Flotation flowsheets .
These partnerships build on its long term collaboration with ANDRITZ , which supplies proven separation and dewatering technologies including thickeners , filter presses , centrifuges , and vacuum belt filters under the IsoDry brand , thus enabling Weir Minerals to offer complete tailings solutions to its customers along with its own Warman ® and GEHO ® pumps , coupled with its Cavex ® hydrocyclones . Weir Minerals ’ Integrated Solution for thickened tailings management and transportation – where the waste stream is dewatered to remove up to around 85 % of the water , which is then recycled back to the process – can create a stable tailings stream that can be moved with GEHO positive displacement pumps .
Then there is Weir Minerals ’ proprietary TerraFlowing™ technology , which refers to a dewatering process that transforms tailings into a resource . This process has been developed to address both the value proposition of tailings inherent in the tailings , and tailings storage . It incorporates a twostage cyclone dewatering process followed by centrifugation of the final stage of cycloning overflow . Three dewatered tailings streams are produced : a primary cyclone underflow , a secondary cyclone underflow and a centrifuge pulp . These three streams can be combined or used in different configurations .
Weir has also successfully integrated Motion Metrics , acquired at the end of 2021 , developing the combined ESCO / Motion Metrics offer to deliver significant safety and efficiency benefits for customers . “ We also made excellent progress in expanding the technology to other applications in the mine , such as ore sorting and characterisation , that have the potential to radically improve the sustainability footprint of mining .” Weir has outlined a £ 500 million-plus emerging digital market opportunity for Motion Metrics , hinged on rugged machine vision technology , its sophisticated digital platform and the ability to add ore sensing to its offering .
Motion Metrics has chosen to incorporate hyperspectral imaging into its PSD mix . Chris Carpenter , VP of Technology for Weir ESCO recently explained to IM : “ When you think about ore characterisation , we are just moving from a visual spectrum base with Motion Metrics vision-based systems to the expanded light spectrum for gathering data and making decisions . This is all being built on the established digital platform .” The company has settled on a BeltMetrics installation for its first trial , with the sensing solution positioned above a conveyor directly after the crusher .
Weir ESCO truck bodies provide faster cycle times , improved material capture , greater playload retention , reduced carryback and can be custom configured . Weir ESCO GET for large mining machines sees highly engineered technology improve productivity through extended wear life , increased safety and reduced energy consumption . Weir ESCO has introduced a new digital supply chain tool , and developed a digital configurator , which customers will use when ordering mining attachments .
On the digital side , Weir Minerals last year announced a new partnership with XMPro , a digital twin platform , and now a part of Weir ’ s Synertrex ® digital ecosystem – which is facilitating the delivery of event intelligence , predictive analytics and real-time insight .
Weir ’ s ongoing progress with HPGR is relevant to sustainability . “ We are analysing our product footprint to help quantify the difference in emissions between our most efficient technologies and their business-asusual alternatives using a comparative sustainability impact measure known as Scope 4 – avoided emissions . Our Enduron ® HPGR is the first technology in which we have done this . We previously identified energy savings up to 40 %, relative to tumbling mills – a Scope 4 avoided emissions benefit . HPGR also doesn ’ t use grinding media , which have significant embodied emissions , leading to a further CO 2e saving . Taken together , a single HPGR can save up to 16,000 t of CO 2e per year . Our next step is to confirm our Scope 4 reporting framework and seek independent verification .”
Of some 350 HPGR units installed globally , 92 were from Weir , and its influence is growing . A good example of one of its HPGR customer partners is IAMGOLD at the new Côté Gold project in Ontario . The Côté team has visited other Weir HPGR sites to leverage learnings for the new processing operation which will include a 37,200 t / d crush / HPGR / grind / leach / CIP processing plant . HPGR maintenance and roll resurfacing will be supported by the Weir facility in Sudbury and Weir engineers are already at site for installation , commissioning and training .
Paul Moore Editorial Director paul @ im-mining . com
APRIL 2023 | International Mining 3