8
• INSIDEOUT Placement—automated technology
improves safety by removing personnel from the mill
during liner placement
• INSIDEOUT Removal—automated technology
improves safety by removing personnel from the mill
during liner removal
• THUNDERBOLT SKYWAY—automated liner
bolt removal and placement technology
• RUSSELL 7 AutoMotion MRM—semi-automated
mill relining machine, allowing flexibility and adapt-
ability for a range of motion inside the mill
Enabled by automation, RME’s solution has decreased
relining times by approximately 20 per cent, significantly
improving the mill’s availability (Figure 9).
Figure 8. Russel Mineral Equipment’s semi-automated mill
relining system (Global Mining Review, 2023)
CONCLUSIONS
The availability of crushing and grinding equipment is a
critical design factor for equipment sizing and flowsheet
selection. Most primary crushing circuits use an availabil-
ity factor of 75 per cent, and grinding circuits use 92 per
cent, based on the processing of average ore types (circa,
Axb =50, BWI =15 kWh/t) and fixed relining schedules of
the wear components. The availability of the crushing and
grinding equipment is sensitive to the type of maintenance
strategy used by the site team. In well-operated and well-
maintained mine sites, higher availability can be achieved
through preventative and predictive maintenance strate-
gies. Reactive maintenance strategies significantly impact
the overall circuit availability, resulting in higher through-
put rates to maintain annual production targets.
Selecting low-available equipment in the flowsheet
incurs higher operating and capital costs in the project. The
low-available crushing circuits also incur higher haulage
costs and increase the size of the bulk handling equipment.
There are advantages and disadvantages to selecting
duty-only equipment over duty standby in the process
flowsheet. Duty-only equipment has a lower footprint,
requiring less steel and concrete used in the construction.
Ausenco’s asset optimisation team’s analysis on the main-
tenance downtime impact for a well-run maintenance
program for duty-only cyclone feed pumps shows only
marginal impact, incurring a 0.2% lower availability when
compared to similar duty standby equipment. For crush-
ing equipment and circuits, such as pebble recycle crushers
Figure 9. Performance benefit comparing traditional relining methods to automated and
automation enabling technology methods (Gwynn-Jones et al., 2024)
• INSIDEOUT Placement—automated technology
improves safety by removing personnel from the mill
during liner placement
• INSIDEOUT Removal—automated technology
improves safety by removing personnel from the mill
during liner removal
• THUNDERBOLT SKYWAY—automated liner
bolt removal and placement technology
• RUSSELL 7 AutoMotion MRM—semi-automated
mill relining machine, allowing flexibility and adapt-
ability for a range of motion inside the mill
Enabled by automation, RME’s solution has decreased
relining times by approximately 20 per cent, significantly
improving the mill’s availability (Figure 9).
Figure 8. Russel Mineral Equipment’s semi-automated mill
relining system (Global Mining Review, 2023)
CONCLUSIONS
The availability of crushing and grinding equipment is a
critical design factor for equipment sizing and flowsheet
selection. Most primary crushing circuits use an availabil-
ity factor of 75 per cent, and grinding circuits use 92 per
cent, based on the processing of average ore types (circa,
Axb =50, BWI =15 kWh/t) and fixed relining schedules of
the wear components. The availability of the crushing and
grinding equipment is sensitive to the type of maintenance
strategy used by the site team. In well-operated and well-
maintained mine sites, higher availability can be achieved
through preventative and predictive maintenance strate-
gies. Reactive maintenance strategies significantly impact
the overall circuit availability, resulting in higher through-
put rates to maintain annual production targets.
Selecting low-available equipment in the flowsheet
incurs higher operating and capital costs in the project. The
low-available crushing circuits also incur higher haulage
costs and increase the size of the bulk handling equipment.
There are advantages and disadvantages to selecting
duty-only equipment over duty standby in the process
flowsheet. Duty-only equipment has a lower footprint,
requiring less steel and concrete used in the construction.
Ausenco’s asset optimisation team’s analysis on the main-
tenance downtime impact for a well-run maintenance
program for duty-only cyclone feed pumps shows only
marginal impact, incurring a 0.2% lower availability when
compared to similar duty standby equipment. For crush-
ing equipment and circuits, such as pebble recycle crushers
Figure 9. Performance benefit comparing traditional relining methods to automated and
automation enabling technology methods (Gwynn-Jones et al., 2024)