Massive motors installed by M&C

1st Quarter 2018 News & events

Marthinusen & Coutts recently executed the sub-assembly of six gearless mill drives for Minera Panamá’s remotely situated Cobre Panamá project in record time. Minera Panamá, the Panamanian subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals, is currently developing the Cobre Panamá project, located in Colón province.

The mine life has been estimated at more than 30 years and will produce around 300 000 tpa copper, 3,1 tpa gold and 2500 tpa molybdenum.

Of the six ABB gearless mill drives being installed at Cobre Panamá, four will power ball mills and the other two will drive SAG mills. These massive machines are among the largest ever installed in the world and were transported in quartered sections to site for assembly in situ. With an inside diameter of 14 metres, the sheer size of the machines presented challenges of its own, with each segment weighing approximately 80 tons. Work was done on four different positions on the machines simultaneously: 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 9 o’clock and 12 o’clock.

Divisional CEO, Richard Botton says that a team of six highly competent and skilled technicians was responsible for the completion of the project within extremely tight time schedules. Work on the machines was performed back-to-back and this was accomplished using induction brazing equipment and a bar wound winding with separate upper and lower stator bars, as opposed to set diamond lap-wound, formed type coils.

For more information contact Richard Botton, Marthinusen & Coutts, +27 (0)11 607 1700, [email protected], www.mandc.co.za

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