Russell Mineral Equipment confirmed it has completed design, manufacturing and production of its 500th Mill Relining Machine (MRM), which is headed for Australian gold producer Northern Star Resources.

The custom unit, a Russell 7 seven-axis, 6000-kg capacity machine, will be accepted by the miner at a ceremony this month at the RME global headquarters in Toowoomba, Queensland. It will service Northern Star’s new SAG mill at the Thunderbox project in the North Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. 

Northern Star is also the proud owner of six other Russell MRMs, including the 400th, commissioned in 2018 at the Kanowna Belle project. That machine replaced a Russell MRM that had been in operation at Kanowna Belle for 25 years. 

The miner purchased its first MRM, the fifth ever (MRM005), about three decades ago for the Kanowna Belle operations.

The Russell 7 is RME’s signature model; sold worldwide, it features RME’s Insideout technologies to enable placement and removal of grinding mill liners without any crew working on the charge inside the mill, which can greatly reduce hazard exposure for personnel.

“Since the introduction of the very first Russell 7-axis MRM in 1992, traditional mill relining times have been quartered and many health and safety hazards have been eliminated,” said chief customer officer Cherylyn Russell. 

“Mill relining is the most specialised maintenance task in the mineral concentrator process and often dictates the length of shutdowns. RME’s innovative, customised, robust equipment helps increase mine site profitability, all while improving the safety of the working environment.”

RME operates in 64 countries and has 12 international sales and service centres.

Source: Russell Mineral Equipment