Mining equipment manufacturer McLanahan has been meeting the industry’s mineral processing needs for over a century.
McLanahan specialises in rotary equipment for a variety of washing, screening and crushing duties. These machines have a reputation for being tough – able to handle large feed sizes and process high capacities.
McLanahan rotary scrubbers and screens are used in washing and classifying applications to remove excess clay and slime material from ore. Water is mixed with the material feed and fed into a drum, which contains internal lifters that continuously lift and roll the material to detach the clay particles.
“The rotary scrubbers are used extensively in iron ore operations in Western Australia, and we have a number of large operations there,” McLanahan director of global business development – mineral systems Richard Williams told Australian Mining.
McLanahan offers washing equipment with capacities from 20–8000 tonnes per hour, with customisable solutions for any washing application boasting less maintenance and lower operating costs. The use of steel trunnion rollers to support equipment provides high durability and easy operation.
Image: McLanahan
In another critical element of the mineral processing chain, rotary breakers are used in coal operations for crushing material and removing undesirable excess.
Like scrubbers, the breakers comprise a huge metal drum containing internal bars that continually lift and drop the material onto internal breaker plates as the drum rotates.
“Rotary breakers are a very useful technology to upgrade a deposit,” Williams said. “The softer rock, such as coal, is broken when tumbled through the breaker and passed through the screens to be collected, while harder (gangue) rock is discharged from the end of the machine.
“Rotary breakers therefore provide both size reduction and grade improvement.”
A variation of the rotary breaker is used in similar applications in nickel laterite operations, while McLanahan’s gravity discharge autogenous mill (GDAM) is used in the aluminium industry.
“GDAMs are preferred in aluminium applications, as they generate the least fines and dust from crushed material when compared to high-speed hammermills or air-swept mills,” Williams said.
“Clay-rich, difficult-to-process ores in the battery minerals space like lithium, vanadium, rare earths, nickel laterites and copper are all developing industries that have a need for rotary equipment,” he said.
“As an example, we work with a lithium-processing operation that is reprocessing old tailings to extract more spodumene concentrate from waste.
“Our team was able to customise equipment by combining features of a scrubber and an autogenous mill to break down the consolidated tailings agglomerates and separate undesirable waste, such as gangue rocks or vegetation that is introduced by the mining process.”
According to Williams, flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to major mining operations with their own unique needs.
“We have our standard range of equipment that we can tailor to any application,” he said.
“Our team of technicians and engineers are well equipped to work in consultation with an operation to get the best outcome possible.”
This is all part of McLanahan’s ongoing commitment to delivering quality personalised service to all of its customers.
“We have people in the field continually ensuring the equipment is the most up-to-date available,” Williams said. “We want to ensure our equipment stays on the cutting edge of the latest features and best operational performance we can provide.”
Williams emphasised McLanahan’s knowledge base and commitment to customers as key pillars in the company’s success.
“With most of our design work for mining and minerals processing done in Australia, our team are experts in Australian conditions with local knowledge and local design experience,” he said.
“We’re focused on providing a high level of customer experience and working with the customer throughout the design phase, the implementation phase, and especially the operational phase.
“What really defines value for us and our customers is the long life and efficient use you get out of our products.”
This feature appeared in the April 2024 issue of Australian Mining.
