Spotlight Feature Articles HEAVY ENGINEERING | Page 7

HEAVY ENGINEERING production due to a preventable crusher obstruction could cost the mine $1.25 million in lost production,” the company said. Over the course of a year, the system detected 12 missing loader teeth and experienced zero crusher downtime – preventing the $1.25 million annual production loss the mine would have experienced prior to installing a missing tooth detection system, Motion Metrics explained. Spain-based MTG has also come up with protective systems for GET, with the latest being its new MTG SYSTEMS PROMET lip shroud designed for 90 mm loader blades. Coming in a series of 435 mm wide central and lateral elements with a delta angle of 15˚, it complements the existing PROMET loader lip shroud sizes of 70 mm, 75 mm and 100 mm, the company said. “This expands our lip shroud size versatility as well as loader blade configuration possibilities,” MTG added. The PROMET 90 is suitable for versatile loader applications in the construction and mining industry, in particular the Cat 933 or Komatsu WA 900 wheel loaders, the company said. “It is compatible with both PROMET II and III mechanical lip protectors and can be combined with the STARMET tooth system for a complete lip protection,” MTG said. “Additionally, the lifting rings have been reinforced for safe transport and handling, which underlines MTG’s commitment to operational safety.” The PROMET III range of lip protection for cast lips and rope shovels, which has an improved locking system formed by a weld-on base and a new locking assembly, was only launched at the end of 2019. Common to the entire range of lip protectors, which include plate lips, cast lips and rope shovels, PROMET III is composed of a block, a plate and a bolt. According to the company, the new locking assembly on the system provides greater reliability against loss or fall in the most demanding uses, thanks to the replacement of the pin and retainer with a bolt and a plate that offer better performance. It also helps reduce the required replacement time by minimising the effects caused by compaction to the bolt, which normally leads to cleaning and subsequent handling. Grinding media and mill linings It is an appreciation of how its products affect the entire mineral processing flowsheet that is enabling Magotteaux to differentiate itself from other comminution-focused companies on the market. Magotteaux has become renowned for supplying cast and forged, low and high chromium grinding media and tailored mill liners, but in recent years has adopted a much more holistic focus, according to Stephan Marin, the company’s Regional Sales Manager of Mining for North America. “If you go back, Magotteaux worked a lot focusing on the internal equipment in the mill – grinding media, mill liners, etc,” he told IM. “In the last few years, we have invested a lot of money into looking into the rest of the process plant.” This has seen the company come up with the ‘Magotteaux Mill’. This ‘milling laboratory’ enables the company to study the whole process flowsheet – from crushing and grinding to flotation – and see what impact a new mill liner or grinding media product, for instance, has on the whole process. “By taking this integrated approach, we can assess how an upstream product affects downstream processes, fixing potential issues that arise throughout the flowsheet,” he said. This ‘whole of process’ focus is opening several potential avenues for the company to sell its products, according to Marin. For example, a customer may have approached Magotteaux looking to reduce their SAG mill grinding media consumption without increasing the risk of breakage. A switch to the company’s low-chrome Ecomax ® Forged ball may provide the improvement the customer was after, but the combination of this media with a new mill liner from Magotteaux could improve results further. “The most important thing is to understand their process and, based on that, use everything we have in-house at Magotteaux to come up with solutions that provide the best result, whether that be reduced operating costs, improved recoveries, reduced cyanide consumption, etc,” Marin said. Finding solutions, as opposed to simply selling products, is becoming commonplace at Magotteaux as the company continues to collaborate with miners in ‘partnership’ agreements. “Increasingly big miners are asking for companies to be partners,” Marin said. “They want you to look at their whole operation and set up working groups and teams that work together to solve problems that arise.” After brainstorming with clients, Magotteaux representatives on these teams provide feedback to the company’s technical team to help bring a solution to the client. “A lot of the time, it may involve changing the way the customer works in order to get the most out of your products,” Marin explained. “It will end up opening some doors that were previously closed.” This type of risk-sharing arrangement provides benefits for both the miner and the manufacturer, in this case. The miner benefits from improved performance through tailored solutions that have been studied by dedicated team members, while the vendor reduces the risk associated with creating new products, knowing the investment is tied to existing customer demand. Magotteaux is making it much easier for mining companies to visualise process improvements using proprietary models and databases that model a customer’s flowsheet. By carrying out ore analysis and feeding certain data into these databases, the company can accurately predict grinding media wear, for example. “Even with projects that haven’t started operating, we can project what the wear life will be by using this data,” Marin said. JUNE 2020 | International Mining