Weir Group has established an alliance with Swiss Tower Mills Minerals (STM), under which the latter’s vertical stirred grinding mills will be marketed for coarse grinding applications globally.
Weir said the partnership will integrate the vertical stirred grinding mills into Weir’s own minerals processing flow sheet, giving customers throughput improvements and energy efficiency, helping them to meet goals for productivity and sustainability.
STM’s technology has more than 80 units in use in hard rock mineral processing worldwide; it is used within the comminution segment of the minerals processing circuit as part of a series of crushing and grinding processes that create the fine particles from which minerals can be extracted through floatation.
“Comminution is one of the most energy intensive parts of the mine, accounting for 25% of the final energy consumption of an average mine site,” the company noted. “Weir is already a leader in comminution technologies, such as Enduron HPGRs, which are driving down energy consumption by around 40% for customers. This new alliance with STM takes things to the next level, offering the mining and minerals industry a proven low energy alternative to traditional high energy consuming tumbling mills.”
The combination and integration of those sides, officials added, to create a single, optimized flow sheet with significant reductions in energy use also drives down costs and carbon emissions.
Ricardo Garib, Weir Minerals Divisional president, said both companies have a shared mission to help customers produce in a sustainable manner: “This is a real win-win.”
Source: Weir