During a long, well-planned process, Anshan's iron ore mine in Qidashan, China, has built and completely restructured its mining process. After two remodeling phases, completed together with Metso, the mine today produces over 10 million tonnes of iron ore per year.
The main element of the restructuring was a new iron ore concentrator with heavy machinery for crushing ore. The set-up included two heavy-duty and semi-portable crushing stations, providing a combined capacity of more than 10,600 tph.
Finest ball grinder feed achieved
Both crushing stations were installed with coarse gyratory crushers, six multi-bowl hydraulic cone crushers, three double-layer vibrating sieves and six heavy-duty ball mills.
With Metso's equipment, the Qidashan mine reached the finest ball grinder feed, with 90–95% of sorted particles remaining between 0 and 10 mm and 60% under 6 mm.
Later, HP series secondary crushers were put to work at the company's Dagushan, Hujiamiao and East Anshan sites. The collective output of the Qidashan and Diaoyuntai crushers reaches 25 million tons per year.
Thanks to the automated control system, the HP cone crushers work stably and efficiently, increasing the amount of particles qualifying for the 0–10mm bracket by 15–20%, and lowering the circulating load approximately by half.