#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The Talnah enrichment plant (TEP) has three horizontal and five vertical mills, all manufactured by the Metso company. Besides the fact the semi-autogenous grinding mill (SAGM) is the largest of them, it’s also the second largest in Russia.
The dimensions of the Norilsk mill are 17x15x11 meters. It can grind over 1320 tons of ore per hour and up to 10.5 million tons per year.
Today, at the first stage of crushing, the SAGM copes well with all volumes supplied to the TEP alone, for having got a status of a “wet nurse”. The size of the ore that comes here after crushing ranges from 1 to 100 mm. Grinding is carried out using grinding bodies – steel balls with a diameter of 120 millimeters and weighing eight kilograms. The hard and robust ore of the Talnah mines over time reduces their diameter by half, and the lining of the inner surface of the mill becomes 25 centimeters thinner within six months.
Mills have their own “dentists” and “dental technicians”. The Sever Minerals company repairers are currently in the process of replacing the lining. They sheathe the inner surface of the mill with new rubber-metal plates. The size of each plate is 2.2×1.2 meters, the weight is 1820 kilograms! This lining was first used in Russia at the Talnah enrichment plant. The replacement process is mechanized. A radio-controlled manipulator helps people.
Stopping the SAGM stops the entire plant. Therefore, simultaneously with the repair of the SAGM, there are repairs and revisions of neighboring units – mills of the second and third stages of grinding, as well as flotation equipment, conveyor paths of the grinding and flotation shop.
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Text: Tatiana Rychkova, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko
