ABB confirmed it has signed a long-term service agreement (LTSA) with Atalaya Mining’s SAG mill availability and performance optimization project at Project Riotinto in Andalucia, southwest Spain.
The company has combined its gearless mill drive (GMD) with ongoing lifecycle management support and a digital condition monitoring solution under the newly inked deal.
Project Riotinto, which produces copper concentrates and silver by-product, uses an ABB GMD to provide reliability and availability at Riotinto, which has a processing capacity of about 15 million tonnes per year.
After its recent expansion, Riotinto has upped its annual copper production target to approximately 55,000 tonnes per year.
“Through the service program, Atalaya Mining benefits from lifecycle management to plan, coordinate and execute services, including corrective, preventive and predictive system maintenance with rapid response to emergency calls and an adaptive approach to meet modifications in production, maintenance or shutdown schedules,” ABB officials said. “This means minimizing the risk of costly unscheduled downtime, extending the life of installed systems and optimizing process performance.”
Additionally, ABB’s Ability Predictive Maintenance for grinding has been deployed, and considers past and real-time data to anticipate maintenance requirements and negate unplanned production downtime.
Overall, ABB said, the agreement is in place to maximize the mine’s availability, optimize its asset performance and facilitate safe equipment operation via a single-point-of-contact, ABB’s Remote Diagnostic Services, routine maintenance and upgrades.
“The combination of ABB GMD design, the continuous monitoring and the use of ABB Ability Predictive Maintenance for grinding means that the system is working at its highest efficiency,” added Dimitris Fotiadis, head of Lifecycle Care.
Source: ABB