:: World Leading Gold Producer Chooses Outokumpu to Advance Grinding Mill Maintenance

A mine owned by the world's largest gold producer, Newmont, has become the first user of new grinding mill service agreements developed by Outokumpu. This joint agreement will ensure maximum reliability and uptime of the mine's vital mineral processing unit.

Newmont Tanami Pty Ltd has introduced the preventative maintenance agreement at The Granites Gold Mine, in the extremely remote Tanami area of the Northern Territory, about 600 km north north-west of Alice Springs.

Outokumpu's Customer Support Manager, Jason King, says the agreement covers a new Outokumpu ball mill that replaced three other mills previously operating on the site.

These agreements will become much more prevalent as more mine operators come to appreciate the value of maintaining their equipment in peak operating condition, thus maximising lifespan and minimising downtime. Operating in extremely remote circumstances, as Newmont's Granites mine does, it becomes even more logical to have skilled maintenance staff on call who are very familiar with the equipment involved.

Newmont Granites' Senior Maintenance Supervisor, Stephen Steddy, says the sophisticated design of new mills makes it even more important to have proper maintenance schedules in place, with full backup for staff tradesmen. "This is an excellent design, but a new generation mill that is very different from the older style mills it replaced. The new mill is flat-ended, with shell bearings instead of trunnions, and a self aligning twin pinion gearbox attached directly to the mill girth gear. It has a sophisticated computerized monitoring and oil bath lubrication system, so we like to deal with the company that provided all this technology in the first place".