ABB drive systems boost production at Canada’s Red Chris gold and copper mine

Copper concentrate throughput at Imperial Metal’s greenfield project exceeds projections after installation of ABB’s reliable low-speed dual pinion ring-geared mill drive solution

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Key facts

 Customer: 

Imperial Metal

 Country: 

Canada

Customer need: 

  • optimize project’s grinding process,
  • boost ore throughput
Application

Two ABB ring-geared mill drive systems for:

  • 34-foot 2 x 5.2 MW semiautogenous (SAG) mill
  • 24-foot 2 x 7 MW ball mill
Customer benefits:

Higher throughput rate than originally planned

 

Year2015

Enabling production of the first copper concentrate with a much higher throughput rate

The Red Chris is the new open-pit mine owned and operated by Vancouver, B.C.-based Imperial Metals. It is located 80 kilometers south of Dease Lake in northwest British Columbia, on territory traditionally occupied by the Tahltan First Nations people who make up a large portion of the workers at the mine.

Imperial wanted a solution to enable the production of the first copper concentrate at the Red Chris mine with a much higher throughput rate.

Imperial chose ABB to supply a reliable and robust drive solution for its Red Chris project, which demanded a system that could accommodate a planned milling rate of 30,000 metric tons per day over the mine’s expected lifetime of 28 years.



Red Chris mine demanded a system that could accommodate a planned milling rate of 30,000 metric tons per day over the mine’s expected lifetime of 28 years

Increasing availability and process reliability

ABB has successfully installed and commissioned two low-speed dual pinion ring-geared mill drive systems (RMDs) at the Red Chris gold and copper mine in northwestern Canada to optimize the project’s grinding process and boost ore throughput. Commissioning began in November 2014 and was successfully completed, with both RMD systems operating at 100% load, in February 2015.


ABB’s drive system is the most-mechanically friendly available and offers high availability as well as process reliability.


ABB solution chosen considering its reliability, robustness, high milling rate capacity, extraordinary lifespan and the fact that it can be implemented rapidly
Watch a 3 minute animation about the ABB ring-geared mill drive system

A range of contemporary features

ABB’s complete scope of supply included two dual pinion low-speed mill drive systems for a 34-foot 2 x 5.2 MW semiautogenous (SAG) mill and a 24-foot 2 x 7 MW ball mill, engineering and commissioning. The drive systems are comprised of transformers, ACS 6000 MV frequency converters, synchronous motors, advanced mill control, operations and maintenance features inherent to the ABB RMD solution.

Features include variable-speed operation, real time frozen charge protection, frozen charge remover function, controlled roll-back and positioning without a need for an additional inching drive. ABB also delivered the programmable logic controller (PLC) to control the mill auxiliaries.

ABB’s RMD solution is currently in operation with more than 55 mills worldwide, attesting to the reliability of this grinding technology.

Learn more

ABB ring-geared mill drive system
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