CRUSHER IN EUROPE


In Europe,the greatest cost to mining crushers in real terms is not the purchase price of a mining machine, but its operating costs over time, reports crushing equipment supplier Liebherr in Europe mining crusher industry.

With the dollar:rand exchange rate and diesel being imported, fuel efficiency is a critical cost factor for Europe crusher. Another cost factor in crushing equipment is the comparative productivity of a crushing machine and its maintenance costs in Europe. Trans Hex group mining equipment engineer Keith McCulloch says that the company has found the crushing equipment supplier's to be cost-effective across a range of applications, and singles out the wheel-loaders as units which come in at substantially lower fuel costs, proved in field trials. He also praises the hydrostatic drive system as efficient and cost saving in Europe.

The diamond producer's fleet includes three of the crusher supplier's R 994 tracked hydraulic crushers ranging from one to four years old, used for overburden removal and prospecting; five R 984 hydraulic excavators and two R 974 excavators ranging from three to six years old, which are used for ore recovery and overburden removal compared with other crusher equipment in Europe. One of the crushers is working at Reuning Mine, another at Bloeddrif, with two more crushers, one fitted with a ripper at Saxendrift. A total of six crushers, including an older L 551 and five L 564s are used for loading run-of-mine ore into hoppers and as general plant tools at Saxendrift and Baken Mines. Among the company's branded cranes are a four-year-old LT 1025 mobile crusher and an LTM 1060 mobile crusher purchased last year, both of which were used to help erect the new dense-media separation plant, currently being commissioned at Baken, as well as for general mining crusher and equipment maintenance applications.
The diamond producer of Europe also led the industry move in the last few years in breaking with the long-standing tradition of using 65-ton crushers coupled with blasting, in favour of the the supplier's mining crusher. The diamond producer began using the crushers at Baken, as part of the group's expansion strategy to maximise productivity by matching the crusher and bucket capacities to the application and size of the loading trucks used. The larger mining crushers were extremely successful in improving productivity, and their breakout forces allowed the mine to break out up to 90% of the layered material characteristic of the Orange river area using the crushing machine exclusively, so also mining expensive blasting. Many other mines subsequently followed the diamond producer's lead, and even the smaller diamond digging operations started using 100 t class crushing machines.

According to the crushing equipment supplier in Europe, the demand for inceasingly larger crushing machines is an international trend in mining of Europe, as the industry chases production to keep financially viable in a highly competitive environment. While the move from 65 to 100 t crushing machines was relatively recent, the even more powerful crushers in the 300 t to 600 t category, are now proving popular with mining and contract mining clients of Europe, the firm claims.