The development of a life-cycle approach by Metso with its equipment and services has resulted in greater efficiency and production for Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) at its gold operations in Kalgoorlie , Western Australia .

Metso has been involved with KCGM since 2001 as preferred contractor for servicing and maintenance of the Crushing and Materials Handling Facility at Fimiston Plant.

KCGM’s supply superintendent Liz Rodd says Metso has been awarded these long term contracts as a result of their technical expertise and experience with the Kalgoorlie site.

“Over time KCGM has seen the material produced from the Open Pit, which is the largest in Australia , vary in both hardness and abrasiveness but the technology available from Metso has been able to keep up with these challenges.”

A key achievement by Metso was to optimize the wear packages and profiles used in the primary crusher. This optimization has increased concave life by as much as 300%, between changes, with the useful life of mantles increasing in a similar range.

Liz Rodd says, “It is also important to KCGM to have the guaranteed availability of the primary crusher at high levels. Metso upgraded the primary crusher from a superior Mk1 to a Mk2 model.

“Following the upgrade KCGM has consistently seen a plus-95% availability on the crusher and conveyor system with very little unplanned maintenance.”

Metso has also demonstrated a commitment to KCGM’s core values culture through inclusion in the safety programs and continuous improvement initiatives on site.

“The excellent working relationship seen between the two companies can be put down to professional onsite management and external technical excellence that is provided to KCGM from Metso to maintain the high standards over a long period of time.”

In explaining the nature of the partnership, Metso’s on site project manager Andre Swart says the life-cycle approach works well.

“In short, it was concern about controlling costs and downtime which formed the impetus for this life-cycle solution. Now, 15 years into the arrangement, some key fundamentals allow it to continue to flourish.

Andre Swart says, “Communication is a big thing, the customer rarely needs to come to us to ask questions as we like to be proactive and solve any queries before they are asked.

“We should be reinforcing what we can offer the customer versus what the competitor can offer. We need to be looking into the future and saying ‘this is our latest innovation and these are the improvements we can make to your crushing circuit’.”

To ensure avenues of communication remain constant and efficient, KCGM and Metso attend weekly safety meetings and Friday mine to mill meetings. Andre Swart’s team also holds weekly internal ‘toolbox meetings’.

He says the life-cycle partnership arrangement has benefits for both parties.

“Apart from us being just sales focused, we can now stand up and say we actually run this machine day to day, these are the experiences that we’ve had and this is the knowledge that we’ve gained. This is priceless knowledge when you consider the potential to expand this service to other sites”

The life-cycle approach to Metso’s capital equipment also allows endless scope for trial of parts such as new generation mantles, etc. “Furthermore, a flagship account like this also gives us the ability to cite this example as a real-life success case.”

- For more information, please contact Nick Puca, service manager, Western Region Metso Australia - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it