Anglo sticks to 2020 output goals after Q2 slump

Global miner Anglo American is ramping up metals and diamond production to hit full-year targets it set in spring, it said on Thursday, as it reported a sharp slump in second quarter output caused by the coronavirus.

The firm said the targets were dependent on the course taken by the pandemic, which is spreading fast in South Africa where it make around half of its profits, while a drought in Chile affecting its largest copper mine shows little sign of ending.

In the three months to June, overall production fell 18%, with diamonds, platinum, palladium, iron ore, coal and manganese all falling, while copper and nickel rose.

Anglo said it was ramping up production and operating at about 90% total capacity by the end of June from around 60% in April, and maintained its 2020 outlook for all products apart from coal.

It had cut capital expenditure and trimmed many of its full year output targets in April.

Anglo said government lockdowns in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa hit second quarter output of diamonds, platinum group metals, iron ore and coal.

Activity has since picked up in South Africa, where the government exempted mines during the quarter from curbs implemented to contain an outbreak that crossed the threshold of 300,000 cases on Wednesday.

In addition to coronavirus-related shutdowns, Anglo American Platinum was hurt by repairs and ramp-up of a converter plant.

Second quarter copper output rose 5% to 167,000 tonnes year on year, driven by a 38% rise at the Collahuasi mine in Chile.

But output at Anglo’s largest mine in Chile, Los Bronces, fell 12% and continues to be impacted by severe drought.

A gas explosion at the Grosvenor metallurgical coal mine in Australia hit coal output, Anglo said. Australia launched an inquiry into the blast, which injured five workers.

“With expectations relatively low heading into the quarter, this result will likely be taken relatively positively,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Tyler Broda.

Application of H&G Machinery’s TIC insert wear liners in 54-74 gyratory crusher

We have an Australia customer who uses a 54-74 gyratory crusher to crush iron mine. However, a set of original wear liners just can crush 2 million tons of raw stone.

After communicating with our engineers, we give the following suggestions.

For gyratory crusher concave segments:

1. The concave segments are designed as three layers, each layer has 20 pieces, and the number of a complete set of concave segments is only 60 pieces. The workload of installation and disassembly is further reduced, and the replacement of wear liners are faster.
2. The cavity of the liner is optimized again, and the original liner is thickened at the place where the wear is fast, but the stress balance of the crusher is not damaged.
3. The first and second layers of crusher concave segments are made of WS7 alloy. Through more strict raw material selection, casting and heat treatment process, the initial hardness is further increased to about 700 HBN, which is higher than the original high chromium alloy.
4. The third layer of concave segments is made of ws5.5 alloy, which has better impact resistance and wear resistance than the original high manganese steel liner.
5. The crusher concave segments are designed with a tooth profile. The finer feed can be quickly discharged from the crushing chamber through the groove part of the liner plate, which can reduce the load level of the equipment and reduce the wear rate of the liner.

For gyratory crusher mantles:

1. The crusher mantles adopt a two-stage design, which makes it more convenient to install and remove the liner. There are standard and thickened liner plates designed. The upper liner is suitable for both standard and thickened liners. It can be reused when the wear is slow, thus reducing the production cost.
2. We use titanium carbide bars to insert the mantle crush area, which will hugely increase the wear capacity.

@Nick Sun       NICK@XZHUAGANG.COM