thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG (Essen, Germany; www.thyssenkrupp-industrial-solutions.com) and Maschinenfabrik Gustav Eirich GmbH & Co. KG (Hardheim, Germany; www.eirich.de) have agreed to cooperate on the further development of the Eirich TowerMill, a highly energy-efficient agitated media mill for the wet grinding of ores and minerals. The aim of the partnership is to build high-capacity, powerful TowerMills capable of delivering high throughputs even for fine and superfine grinding.
Uwe Schuh, head of Grinding Technology at Industrial Solutions says, “We need to keep pace with the complex requirements of our mining industry customers so that we can continue to offer them high-efficiency ore processing solutions in the future. That’s why we are combining the expertise of Maschinenfabrik Gustav Eirich as the patent holder with our long-standing experience in the development, construction, logistics, installation and service of such large-scale machines.”
Technological requirements in mines are growing ever more complex. Mineral deposits around the world contain ever-decreasing ore grades combined with increasingly fine-grained ore bodies. The partnership is thyssenkrupp and Eirich’s response to the rising demand for grinding equipment capable of achieving a high degree of mineral liberation at ever higher throughput rates.
Stephan Eirich, managing director of Maschinenfabrik Gustav Eirich: “We have always developed and improved our mills. Utilizing the significant plant engineering experience of thyssenkrupp will now enable us to expand our portfolio to include large machines with significantly higher throughputs to meet changing market demands.”
Eirich acquired the license to market TowerMills from the Japanese Kubota Corp. in 1999. Today the company supplies TowerMills of various sizes up to a power rating of 1,500 hp. Worldwide over 40 mills with a combined power rating of 26 MW have been installed. Together with thyssenkrupp, the expanded product line will include units of up to 6,000 hp to guarantee the processing of fine and ultrafine grained minerals of < 20 µm at high throughput rates.