On March 2, Metso Company and Loesche GmbH introduced a landmark partnership settlement to introduce groundbreaking Metso Loesche vertical curler mill (VRM) dry grinding expertise for a variety of minerals processing purposes. Now a part of the Metso Plus providing, the Metso Loesche VRM can substitute high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) and horizontal mills in major and secondary purposes and tertiary stirred mill purposes, whereas on the similar time simplifying the method and bringing financial savings in vitality consumption and working prices.
Christoph Hoetzel, Senior Vice President Grinding Enterprise Line at Metso (left) with Managing Director of Loesche, Rüdiger Zerbe (proper)
Downstream processes profit from improved mineral liberation and steeper particle dimension distribution. Moreover, superior circulate sheets incorporating coarse particle flotation, magnetic separation or different coarse beneficiation applied sciences could be facilitated, additional lowering and even eliminating water consumption if totally dry processes are possible.
The Metso Loesche VRM expertise additionally options superior put on supplies to satisfy the calls for of mineral processing purposes and guarantee excessive working availability. Superior course of management is built-in to make sure optimum operation, simple stop-start, and speedy ramp up.
To get some extra perception into the background of the partnership, and its potential in future flowsheets in mining, IM Editorial Director Paul Moore spoke to Managing Director of Loesche, Rüdiger Zerbe; and Christoph Hoetzel, Senior Vice President Grinding Enterprise Line at Metso.
Q Loesche has a well-known heritage within the cement sector however has been lively in mining for some years – an excellent instance being the Loesche Ore Grinding Plant (OGPmobile) deployed with New Metal for iron ore processing in Brazil. However this partnership with a world mineral processing expertise firm like Metso has the potential to carry Loesche Vertical Curler Mill (VRM) expertise into mining at scale. Are you able to give some concept of the Loesche journey and point out how important a step is that this?
RZ You might be appropriate that now we have been lively in mining, and efficiently, however our main enterprise and what we’re primarily identified for, is using our VRM expertise in limestone grinding for cement. At present we proceed to supply I might argue probably the most superior and environment friendly VRM answer in that business. Our heritage goes again to 1906 with the very first Loesche mill patented in 1927. It featured a rotating grinding observe that used centrifugal pressure to push the grinding inventory outwards from the centre of the mill. The primary four-roller mill went into operation in a plant close to Naples in Italy in 1971 with a throughput of 214 t/h. With a rise within the dimension of the rollers and the grinding desk, throughput of 425 t/h was achieved when the following technology was launched in 1975. Within the Nineties, Loesche made one other world document supply with the sale of a 750 t/h uncooked materials mill to a buyer in Thailand. Shifting to the 2000s, the Loesche Mill sort LM 69.4 and LM 69.6 with product throughputs of as much as 1200 t/h have been offered to many purchasers. Gross sales of Loesche VRMs now exceed 2,400 models. However we additionally needed to attain the identical success in mining the place we consider the potential advantages are simply as nice – and Metso very a lot shared our imaginative and prescient on that, particularly referring to effectivity and sustainability. The advantages are important in mining – as much as 40% vitality financial savings, enabling totally dry and reduced-water processes and naturally eradicating the necessity for grinding media. Environment friendly compressive grinding stress and shear between the particles make sure that vitality goes immediately into breaking them aside, which reduces the quantity of vitality wanted for grinding. All the grinding system is below damaging stress, together with the constructed‑in classifier which instantly removes superb materials. This prevents overgrinding and avoids pointless inner recirculation. Collectively, these options permit for a really excessive discount ratio, making single‑stage grinding doable and eradicating the necessity for a number of grinding and classification steps.
A possible system structure incorporating the Metso Loesche VRM
CH The world wants extra assets, however the elevated provide of mined supplies have to be executed in a sustainable manner. At Metso, we at all times preserve an open thoughts on what’s new and what has potential. We’re already on the forefront of matching mineral processing expertise mixtures to get the bottom doable vitality consumption and the very best availability, corresponding to with our stirred milling vary. Know-how actually could make a distinction for our clients and the purchasers themselves are extra open to new considering for flowsheets. At present, the consideration of HPGRs – in our case the HRCe, is in many of the plant design conversations that now we have with engineering homes and mining teams – now we have offered plenty of them in recent times, and they’re the proper possibility in lots of circumstances. However there are at all times nuances – the HPGR is nice in relation to vitality effectivity, however they do make the plant extra advanced than a traditional SAG and ball mill circuit. Once we seemed into what different expertise might carry one other various to the HPGR for sure tasks, it was clear – vertical curler mills have been the proper choice to get rid of a few of the downsides of dry grinding programs. VRM crops carry many advantages corresponding to simplified area, with its very compact structure, mixed with vitality effectivity and lack of water requirement. Once we seemed on the proper VRM companion, Loesche was clearly the primary within the subject and the inventor of the expertise; so, for us this was a terrific match – and we’re excited to maneuver forward with them.
Q What’s the depth of the connection commercially – will any requirement for Loesche VRM expertise within the mining area now be dealt with collectively through this partnership and the Metso Loesche VRM? And are you defining mining as something not cement associated together with industrial minerals for instance? And can there be any design evolution of the Loesche VRM collectively between the 2 corporations for the mining market corresponding to to permit larger throughputs?
RZ Sure – the partnership could have exclusivity in relation to mining tasks which as you say encompasses the total suite of mining utility. When it comes to the design – we’re speaking about confirmed expertise. That stated, there might be step-by-step enchancment and customisation based mostly on the precise mining purposes that come up, and that is what we’re doing and can do collectively collectively.
CH Two different factors – there are greater than 2,400 Loesche VRMs working, and a few of them have already got very giant throughputs as they’re working at a few of the world’s main and largest cement operations. As well as, when it comes to our cooperation, this can embrace not solely the VRM based mostly grinding, but additionally holistically working collectively to verify the Metso Loesche VRM works as a part of the whole course of circulate from crushing to flotation to magnetic separation, as a result of it can have an enormous optimistic impression throughout the flowsheet. So, we are going to collectively superb tune the VRM grinding on a project-by-project foundation, as we’d do with all our 
mining tasks anyway – but additionally look to optimise the general VRM based mostly course of. At Metso we actually see plenty of synergies between Metso and Loesche – one other one may very well be taking a look at methods Loesche may benefit from our world manufacturing community to provide the VRM mill linings and elements for instance.
The Metso Loesche VRM classifier part
Q Are you able to go into the important thing advantages of the Metso Loesche VRM in mining in additional element?
RZ I believe OPEX is a crucial one as nicely – the already talked about financial savings of 40% in vitality is a big profit – but additionally the dearth of grinding media requirement is a serious OPEX saving; and is rather more sustainable as no metal balls should be solid. As a dry course of, or almost dry in some circumstances, it may well even have a serious price and sustainability in water scarce areas – the place many of the largest copper mines are situated, for instance. In CAPEX phrases, the VRM might be comparable if you’re taking simply the tools itself into consideration – however whenever you additionally take a look at its smaller footprint – this brings one other price benefit as nicely; and lots of mining tasks are area restricted, particularly if it’s a plant growth on a brownfield web site.
CH Due to its environment friendly grinding mechanism, the Metso Loesche VRM can ship considerably improved mineral liberation which produces a steeper particle dimension distribution with minimal fines, and it reduces sulphide oxidation in comparison with conventional milling applied sciences. This enhanced liberation immediately helps improved downstream restoration, enabling concentrators to extract extra worth from the identical ore. Consequently, VRM operations can obtain as much as 7% higher flotation efficiency and due to this fact higher recoveries, translating into larger general plant effectivity and elevated profitability. No grinding media additionally means no introduction of impurities from the media.
Q At Metso you’ve got an entire suite of grinding and milling applied sciences at your disposal – stirred mills, geared mills, gearless mills, HPGRs, Vertimills – the place is the VRM area of interest or candy spot and what would you say was a really perfect VRM based mostly challenge and whenever you would suggest its use to an enormous EPCM for instance?
CH At Metso we need to give the client one of the best answer not simply from a pure mineral processing viewpoint but additionally based mostly on a holistic view of vitality effectivity, put on half consumption, tools availability and complete put in price– that’s essential for the TCO. So, taking all this under consideration we glance to search out the proper mixture of apparatus for the challenge. And sure, that may very well be a Vertimill or an HPGR which now we have included in some massive contract wins in recent times. We need to overcome a bias that claims that probably the most vitality environment friendly plant can also be a dearer and extra difficult plant to construct. We at all times try to make issues extra easy and less difficult, so for instance, whereas we provide major, secondary and in some circumstances tertiary HPGRs – we don’t have to advocate difficult multi-stage HPGR processes, which in our view lead to excessive price and footprint in addition to operational complexity. The less complicated the method the simpler it’s to take care of most often – and the simpler it’s to attain most availability. Now we have many current circumstances the place now we have been profitable with expertise mixtures attaining precisely this. And when a mining shopper is planning on a dry course of, it’s a no brainer to make use of this Metso Loesche VRM expertise – for all the explanations now we have given. Then there are the talked about advantages within the downstream processes, so that could be a full recreation changer as nicely. So, we’re excited to get this revolutionary expertise into mining flowsheets because it matches our Metso philosophy completely.
The whole Metso Loesche VRM design
Q Mining teams and to some extent EPCMs are identified for being conservative and opting to usually follow tried and examined standard approaches. How will they be satisfied?
RZ Mining must do issues higher than it has executed prior to now. And finance is a part of that. A significant problem for mining clients at the moment is first they should get the challenge off the bottom financially. So, they should think about not simply the method however the capital that’s concerned in all this. The Metso Loesche VRM provides plenty of benefits at much less or comparable CAPEX in comparison with standard comminution circuits. One other side is that it’s tougher to search out expert individuals for roles in mineral processing operations – and that isn’t going to get any simpler. The Metso Loesche VRM could be run autonomously or with a excessive diploma of automation. The Metso Loesche VRM provides a compact footprint and ease within the flowsheet mixed with the dearth of grinding media, decreased vitality prices, discount or elimination of water and higher efficiency of downstream steps.
CH Maintainability is one other level I need to make – after we seemed for a VRM companion, one thing that struck us was how a lot emphasis has been put onto the maintainability of this tools by Loesche and the lengthy historical past they’ve of working usually very giant VRMs within the cement sector with minimal unscheduled downtime. From smaller as much as giant VRMs, Loesche is constantly delivering 50 to 60 mills yearly. Plus, after we seemed into a few of the supplies their VRMs have been already dealing with – corresponding to blast furnace slag, the abrasiveness of the fabric just isn’t a lot completely different to a few of the tougher mining purposes that we might encounter – magnetite ores for instance.
Q What satisfied Loesche this was the proper transfer into mining with Metso because the companion? And the way will entrance going through gross sales work with mining clients?
RZ We talked with Metso for over a 12 months fairly intensively on this settlement and their dedication like us to sustainability actually stood out. Not solely that however it’s clear out there they’re a pacesetter not solely in market share in lots of key areas but additionally in technological innovation and improvement – flotation being a terrific instance in each superb and coarse particle flotation improvements they’ve developed. Moreover, as a part of the negotiations we actually skilled the groups on either side working nicely collectively – they perceive one another and we’re already working like one organisation on this challenge. And at last, we’re a household firm and so now we have a long-term imaginative and prescient – we’re on this for the lengthy haul, so we needed a long run and dedicated companion – it was clear to us that Metso was providing us that.
CH As to the query on gross sales, Metso will take the lead with gross sales and contracts in addition to the advertising and marketing – clients will nonetheless see us as their contact level simply as they’d with our different product strains. This additionally is smart given our present put in base in mining and our world community in mining hubs – together with associated to service and aftermarket. However when it comes to the challenge based mostly technical work and the broader flowsheet, Loesche might be an in depth companion and in that manner, we are going to work as one staff. Loesche retains the VRM IP and the tools may even proceed to be manufactured by Loesche – although there could also be alternatives to hold out meeting and different works at world Metso centres, and to utilise Metso services for liner and element manufacturing as already acknowledged. We’re simply beginning on this journey so to some extent we are going to study as we go, however that is the start line.
