HEAVY ENGINEERING AND WEAR PARTS communities and strengthening Peru’ s mining ecosystem.
More broadly, the Chilca foundry reflects the evolution of Bradken as a global provider of mining solutions with more than a century of experience in engineering, manufacturing and innovation, it says. The company combines advanced materials science, engineering expertise, process optimisation and digital solutions to deliver integrated performance improvements for mining customers.
Bradken concluded:“ The development of the Chilca foundry represents more than an expansion in capacity, it signals a transformation in how wear solutions are delivered to the mining sector. By bringing together advanced technology, local manufacturing and sustainable practices, the facility sets a new benchmark for foundry operations in the region.”
Runs on the board for ROXDUR
Transfer points, crusher discharge zones and chute linings face continuous abrasive sliding combined with repeated heavy impacts. If a conveyor fails due to wear, the consequences are immediate and severe: unplanned downtime, significant safety risks and lost revenue that can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour, ROXON says.
Traditional hardened steel solutions have long been the industry standard for wear plates. However, in the most demanding applications, steel alone reaches its performance limits. As the risk of such wear plates failing is significant, many operations are forced to change plates frequently leading to production downtime and safety risks associated with maintenance.
“ To understand durability, we must look beyond surface-level hardness and examine the engineering of wear resistance and impact resistance,” the company says.
In bulk material handling, wear plates must survive two wear mechanisms simultaneously:
• Abrasive wear: This occurs when material slides across the surface. To combat this, a material needs extreme hardness; and
• Impact damage: This occurs when large rocks or heavy materials are dropped from height, such as in a primary crusher or a high-velocity transfer chute. If a material is too hard without being‘ tough’, it becomes brittle and cracks upon impact.
Achieving both extreme hardness and high impact resistance in a single, homogenous material is metallurgically difficult – if you increase hardness, you typically decrease toughness. This is why ROXON is advocating for the use of a composite structure.
Composite materials free operations from the wear resistance versus impact resistance conundrum, with ROXON’ s ROXDUR wear plates including cemented carbide for extreme hardness and abrasion resistance, as well as an iron matrix for toughness and impact resistance.
“ Cemented carbide( typically tungsten carbide with a cobalt binder) is widely used in cutting tools as well as in automotive and aerospace industries where abrasion resistance is required,” the company explains.“ The material is so hard that the Brinell scale cannot measure its hardness.”
However, solid carbide alone would be too brittle for heavy impact environments, hence why ROXDUR combines cemented carbide with an iron matrix in a single cast component.
Hardened steel remains popular in wear plates despite its brittle nature due in part to its affordability. High-performance alternatives have expensive upfront costs, with a ROXDUR wear plate potentially costing up to five times more than a standard steel plate.
“ However, focusing solely on the purchase price is a common pitfall that overlooks the firefighting costs of frequent maintenance,” the company says.“ In large mines, eliminating just one shutdown can offset the investment multiple times over.”
Because ROXDUR can achieve an up to 15 times longer life, a chute that previously required quarterly maintenance can often
Because ROXDUR can achieve an up to 15 times longer life, a chute that previously required quarterly maintenance can often run for a year or more without being touched, ROXON says
run for a year or more without being touched.
The company has an example from southern Peru to showcase this.
At this operation, in the Apurimac Region at high altitude ranging between 3,800 and 4,000 m above sea level, the company installed 50-mm thick ROXDUR wear plates at a transfer tower.
The company in question was looking to extend the machinery’ s maintenance interval from 2-3 weeks to three months.
Jean Carlo Freundt, General Manager of Spin Peru, a local partner of ROXON, explained:“ With the previous product, approximately 9.6 Mt of material was processed. The average lifespan of the liner before using ROXDUR wear plates was 60 days.”
The ROXDUR liners were installed on February 22, 2025, and were finally removed on June 16, after running continuously for 115 days and handling over
International Mining | JUNE 2026