Drive systems to provide high productivity at copper mine

Louise Davis

ABB is providing variable-speed drive systems to Toquepala copper mine as part of Southern Peru Copper Corporation’s (SPCC) brownfield optimisation and expansion projects. The order was booked in Q4, 2015.

For the expansion project, which aims to double the mine’s concentrator milling capacity from 60,000 to 120,000 tons per day, ABB is supplying two 25-foot gearless mill drive systems (GMD) of 15MW and two complete high pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) drive systems of  2 x  2,650kW.

The GMD systems, by removing critical mechanical components like ring-gear, pinion and gearbox, are about 4 percent more energy efficient than traditional fixed-speed mill drives. Moreover, they provide unmatched high availability thanks to ABB’s application-specific design for reliable operations and faster maintenance.

The HPGR drive systems feature the RollXtend technology, aimed to extend the rollers’ overall life time and ease maintenance actions by application-specific control features.

For the optimisation project, ABB is supplying an additional complete HPGR drive system with the same ratings and characteristics as for the expansion.

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