The Weir Group has won a £100 million ($179.4 million) order to provide a range of crushing and pump equipment to Fortescue Metals Group’s Iron Bridge iron ore project in the Pilbara, Western Australia.
Weir will supply its Enduron High Pressure Grinding Rolls and GEHO pumps to the magnetite project, 145 kilometres south of Port Hedland.
The equipment is designed to reduce energy consumption and wet tailings waste by more than 30 per cent compared with traditional mining technologies, according to Weir.
Fortescue approved the $US2.6 billion ($3.7 billion) Iron Bridge project in April. The project is being developed to produce 22 million wet metric tonnes a year when fully operational, with first ore expected in 2022.
The agreement is Weir’s largest-ever individual mining order, according to group chief executive officer Jon Stanton.
“Fortescue challenged us to help create one of the most energy and cost-efficient magnetite ore processing facilities in the world,” Stanton said.
“Our engineers have worked relentlessly to design a solution that is truly innovative – delivering significant energy, water and cost savings.
“This is a great example of working in close partnership with an ambitious customer who shares our passion for using innovative engineering to make mining more productive and sustainable.”
Weir’s Enduron HPGRs have been developed to replace conventional mills in comminution (crushing, screening and grinding) circuits.
They offer lower energy consumption and the potential to significantly reduce total cost of ownership.
Weir claims that their wearable components also last much longer and the maintenance time required to replace worn out parts is significantly lower.
Ricardo Garib, Weir minerals division president, said the group’s engineers have relished the challenge to work on a project that demonstrated the substantial cost and environmental saving that the range of solutions could offer.
“As more mines look to increase productivity, we look forward to even more opportunities to leverage our combination of passionate people, innovative solutions and comprehensive global service capability,” Garib said.