While the future looks to be heading towards greater automation, machines are not about to replace man.
According to Mel King of West Australian-based mining equipment and supply business Minspec, many minesites are not comfortable moving into a future of automation, preferring to stick to old-fashioned reliability.
'Minesites don't necessarily want and need the latest gadgets, rather, they want a reliable, hardworking machine whose life cycle will outsee the mine,' King told Australian Mining.
'First and foremost mine operators want competitively priced parts, they don't want to be held to ransom.
'They want the right machine for the job and they want good product support.
'The industry continues to go through this phase whereby they believe clients want high performance, lightweight machines. Often, however, clients are after reliable, heavy duty machines that can operate under pressure, handle the work load and outlive the mine,' he said.
Hongxing Minerals will launch a new high performance tone crusher in November.
With a combination of optimized speed and large throw, the crusher is said to provide the highest reduction ratios of any current cone crusher.
All the improvements, however, have been made without increasing the size or bulk of the machine.
'It doesn't challenge what people already know and are accustomed,' O'Reilly said.
'The crusher is delivered in the same envelope, but it produces greater yield and a greater performance.'
Back to the future
Jonathan Campbell of the CSIRO Minerals said regardless of what the latest technological advancements have been in quarrying, crushing and screening, the most important thing is for operators to be confident in their equipment.
'Mine operators need to know their equipment will meet the necessary availabilities and maintenance targets that their operation demands, but also that the process performance is sufficiently robust to handle the usual process variations that occur on plant,' Campbell said.
The CSIRO Minerals Processing and Agglomeration program is currently undertaking research in a wide range of areas including ore characterisation, crushing, AG/SAG mill optimisation, applications of high pressure grinding rolls and fine grinding technologies.
All of the research programs are underscored by the same theme – to make crushing and grinding technologies more efficient.
'With more energy efficient crushing and grinding technologies being adopted, the competitiveness of operations will be enhanced. There will be an increasing need to better understand the ore being processed so that the correct choice is made on the process flowsheet and the unit operations therein. This means that better on-line information about the process state particularly in high areas such as grinding will be critical in improving performance,' Campbell said.
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