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I N N O V A T I O N

How partnering in innovation benefits everyone

Sibelco AustraliaMMG

Alcoa of AustraliaBarrick Gold

... their stories

WARMAN®

Centrifugal Slurry Pumps

GEHO®

PD Slurry Pumps

LINATEX®

Rubber Products

VULCO®

Wear Resistant Linings

CAVEX®

Hydrocyclones

FLOWAY® PUMPSVertical Turbine Pumps

ISOGATE®

Slurry Valves

MULTIFLO®

Mine Dewatering Pumps

HAZLETON®

Specialty Slurry Pumps

LEWIS PUMPS™

Vertical Chemical Pumps

WEIR MINERALS SERVICES™

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Craig Walker, Managing DirectorWeir Minerals Australia

CAVEX, WARMAN, HAZLETON and MULTIFLO are registered trademarks of Weir Minerals Australia Ltd; LEWIS PUMPS is a registered trademark of Envirotech Pumpsystems Inc; GEHO PUMPS are registered trademarks of Weir Minerals Netherlands bv; FLOWAY is a registered trademark of Weir Floway Inc.; VULCO is a registered trademark of Vulco S.A.; ISOGATE is a registered trademark of Weir do Brasil Ltda. LINATEX is a registered trademark of Linatex Limited (UK); the Warman® WBH® slurry pump and Warman® WBV® sump pump are protected by pending patent applications worldwide.

The word ‘innovation’ has a tendency to associate itself with

‘new’, but new for the sake of new doesn’t necessarily mean

better. At Weir Minerals we embrace innovation with a purpose

- and that purpose is to to deliver better value to customers via

increased productivity or reduced ownership cost. Nothing less

than that.

The process of innovation however, is not possible without the

partnership of customers who are innovators in their own right.

Here are some of the stories of how customers have helped Weir

Minerals’ innovation move forward for the benefit of all.

How enthusiasm for innovation has helped to improve efficiency at Sibelco Australia’s Tallawang site

Sibelco Australia takes pride in using innovative methods and sophisticated equipment in its work of processing and supplying raw materials for the Australian, New Zealand and Asian manufacturing and primary industries. Its Tallawang mine in central western NSW was therefore a natural choice for the world-first trial of Weir Minerals’ new Warman WBH® centrifugal slurry pump.

The trial began in December 2009, with Weir staff helping with the installation. It was a trouble-free process, even with the need to make up a base plate for the WBH® to bring it to the same height as its predecessor, a Warman® 8/6 AH. “We’d allowed two days for the changeover but it was done in one day,” said maintenance supervisor, Matt Cosgrove. “And the pump ran beautifully from Day One with no dramas whatsoever.”

Since then, hopes for the performance of the WBH® pump have been realised.

“It runs cooler and uses less power, and we can adjust it on the run, which couldn’t be done with the previous pumps,” said Matt. “To adjust them we would have had to shut the plant down for several hours.”

With the pump wearing out in the expected time, Weir staff then performed a complete rebuild onsite in one day, serving the additional purpose of training mine staff to perform the task in the future.

“We had no hesitation in purchasing the pump at the end of the trial in December,” said Matt. “And while we’re very happy with it, we’re all still learning about it, so it’s good to know ongoing support and service is available from Weir whenever we need it.”

(Right) Paul Sharp from Sibelco Australia’s Tallawang

site in NSW, Australia, adjusts the revolutionary new

Warman WBH® pump without stopping production.

(Far right L-R) Paul Sharp and Matt Cosgrove from

Sibelco Australia enjoy the many benefits of the WBH®

slurry pump at the Tallawang mine site. Productivity Focus

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When MMG Century agreed to try something new,there were positive benefits for productivity

With annual zinc production of around 500,000 tonnes, Queensland’s Century mine is the largest open pit zinc mine in Australia. Operated by MMG, the mine is located at Lawn Hill in the remote lower Gulf region, with associated concentrate dewatering and ship-loading facilities 300 kilometres away at Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria. From there the zinc concentrate is shipped to smelters throughout Australia, Asia, Europe and North America.

Considerable wear on pumps is inevitable, so maintenance personnel are always on the look-out for innovative products that will increase the life of components. Most milling set-ups have rubber-lined pumps, but when Weir Minerals tried rubber liners in Century’s Warman® mill pumps several years ago they were cut to pieces in about three weeks. After onsite discussions it was agreed that metal lining was the way to go.

When the liner material was upgraded to A05 Ultrachrome®, a hard material developed by Weir Minerals, the life of the Century pump liners increased to 13 weeks. There was no hesitation, therefore, when Weir Minerals invited Century to trial the A61 Hyperchrome® volute liners, made from the latest improved wear resistant alloys.

Results have been dramatic, with the A61® liners lasting up to 41 weeks.

“The reliability and extra pump life allows us to run on predictive maintenance instead of in the reactive mode,” said mechanical supervisor Noel Irwin. “Previously we had to plan for quarterly shutdowns, but we’ve now configured that to three shutdowns per year. Changing the composition of the wear material has made the A61 a superior product and tripled the life we can expect from the lining. It’s definitely a life saver.”

Noel Irwin, Mechanical Supervisor at MMG’s

Century zinc mine in Queensland finds the

Weir Minerals A61 Hyperchrome® a “life saver”,

enabling predictive maintenance and three

instead of four shutdowns a year.

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By introducing Linatex® Hoses at its Lawlers site, Barrick Gold has saved $700,000 a year

Located almost 700 kilometres northeast of Perth, Lawlers underground mine is part of the multinational Barrick Gold’s Yilgarn South operation which also includes the Darlot and Granny Smith mines. In 2009, Yilgarn South collectively produced 352,000 ounces of gold.

An ongoing concern at Lawlers, where sulphide and oxide ores are treated at the onsite mill, was the continual failure of mining hoses. At worst, the life span of these standard hoses was as short as 10 days and at best it was unpredictable, resulting in the need for a reactive rather than predictive approach to maintenance.

When Lawlers maintenance planner Dave Long decided the hoses should be replaced with Linatex® Hoses with Wear Indicator Technology, the results were remarkable. The life span of the hoses, which went into service in November 2009 with the hope they would last a year, has exceeded expectations, with no failure almost 18 months down the track.

As well as their long life, the Linatex Hoses can be monitored to indicate when they will need changing. This has resulted in such improvements as planned maintenance, fewer shutdowns, increased safety with no need to bandage failed hoses and less production loss. Overall, the estimated annual minimum cost saving is $700,000. Impressed by the outcome, Barrick Australia has presented Dave Long with its annual award for Continuous Improvement and is looking to install the Linatex® Hoses with Wear Indicator Technology at other sites.

“The long life, the monitoring capability and the quality of the hoses set them apart from the rest,” said Dave. “And while the initial cost is higher than the hoses we were using, that’s totally insignificant because of the cost savings over the long term.”

Far right: Dave Long, Maintenance Planner

at Barrick Gold’s Lawlers Mine next to the

Linatex® Hoses with Wear Indicator Technology

that have resulted in cost savings of at least

$700,000 per year.

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How a new sump pump has solved a problem and reduced costs at Alcoa’s Pinjarra refinery

Pinjarra Alumina Refinery is one of the largest of its type in the world. Located 30 minutes from the city of Mandurah, it is part of Alcoa of Australia’s three-refinery system in Western Australia and has an annual capacity of 4.2 million tonnes.

When a problem arose in the refinery’s clarification area, a solution was required. The problem involved continuous flooding of the area due to sumps becoming bogged. This necessitated fortnightly removal of sump pumps for de-bogging. In turn this resulted in ongoing costs for equipment hire and regular disruption to production.

The solution was the Weir Minerals Warman® 65 QV-WBV®, a revolutionary new sump pump with built-in agitator. Installed on trial in July 2009, it ran for more than 15 months without needing de-bogging. Cost savings are estimated at $72,000 per year. Added to this is the huge benefit of not having to cope with unplanned maintenance and production interruptions.

Senior Reliability Engineer at the refinery, Anthony Powe, worked in the clarification area when the trial was implemented. “The main challenge was to convince the stakeholders that the new pump would not introduce any new breakdown or maintenance risks,” he said. “We also needed to ensure that the existing infrastructure would support the pump.

“Service and support by Weir staff was great. They fully backed their trial pump and gave us confidence that if the trial did not work out we would not have to pay for a pump we could not use.”

Anthony believes the 65 QV-WBV’s ability to reduce operating costs will have a major positive impact on future operations. “The pump is a great innovation, following in the tradition of the existing Warman pumps,” he said.

Far right: Anthony Powe, Senior Reliability

Engineer at Pinjarra Alumina Refinery alongside

the new Warman® WBV® sump pump installation.

Right: Computational Fluid Dynamics played a

pivotal role in the development of the WBV®.

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Weir Minerals Australia Ltd

Tel: +61 2 9934 5100Fax: +61 2 9934 5201www.weirminerals.com

1 Marden StreetArtarmon NSW 2064Australia

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AU0323_03.03.11Copyright © 2011, Weir Minerals Australia Ltd. All rights reserved.