Global technology company ABB has helped the Atalaya Mining in Spain optimize mill availability and performance by combining its gearless mill drive (GMD) with ongoing lifecycle management support and a digital condition monitoring solution through a long-term service agreement (LTSA). The mining company, which produces copper concentrates and silver byproduct at its Proyeto Riotinto site in the Andalucía region of southwest Spain, uses an ABB GMD, a mill drive system. It provides reliability and availability for processing plants such as Riotinto, which has a processing capacity of up to 15 million metric tons per year (mt/y), according to ABB.
After its recent expansion, Riotinto mine increased its annual copper production target to approximately 55,000 mt/y. The ABB long-term service agreement (LTSA) with an ABB Lifecycle Manager has supported a production record at the mine in 2020 and production was approximately the same in 2021.
Through the service program, Atalaya Mining benefits from lifecycle management to plan, coordinate and execute services, including corrective, preventive and predictive system maintenance with rapid response to emergency calls and an adaptive approach to meet modifications in production, maintenance or shutdown schedules.
At the same time, ABB Ability Predictive Maintenance for grinding, a digital condition monitoring solution to maintain, assess and analyze GMD systems and increase safety through continuous checks, has been deployed. It considers past and real-time data to anticipate maintenance requirements and to avoid unplanned production downtime.
“The combination of ABB GMD design, the continuous monitoring and the use of ABB Ability Predictive Maintenance for grinding means that the system is working at its highest efficiency,” said Dimitris Fotiadis, head of Lifecycle Care, ABB. “ABB will continue to support Atalaya Mining through machine operation and routine maintenance over the long term.”
