Decision Workshops
Small sessions that surface the tradeoffs behind liner and media choices. These workshops help teams organize plant information, compare what matters, and move toward a decision everyone understands.
Our solutions page is built to help buyers and operators see which route fits their plant, rather than forcing one standard answer. Each path starts with a different practical need, but they all aim to make the final decision more usable across maintenance, process, and commercial teams.
Small sessions that surface the tradeoffs behind liner and media choices. These workshops help teams organize plant information, compare what matters, and move toward a decision everyone understands.
Plans that line up wear parts with realistic shutdown windows. We look at part life, changeout complexity, and the maintenance sequence needed to support a calmer operating rhythm.
Guidance that looks at the whole stage, not only the component itself. That helps sites compare whether a part change truly supports the next process step or only improves one isolated metric.
We begin with the operating condition that is causing the most friction, whether it is wear rate, unstable throughput, difficult changeouts, or a lack of confidence across teams.
Our role is to simplify the field to the few wear paths that genuinely fit the plant context, then explain the tradeoffs between them in plain industrial language.
The result should be a better next decision, not a bigger set of questions. That is what turns a solution path into operational progress.
Buying decisions become easier when teams can first choose the right path. A solution-led structure gives that path shape by linking product decisions to process reality, maintenance effort, and the business case each internal stakeholder needs to see.
Because specification choices rarely sit with a single owner, we document the selection envelope so procurement, operations, and reliability teams can align on duty classification, compliance route, and service strategy before any package is committed.
Electric drive removes underground diesel particulate exposure, reduces ventilation duty by roughly 30–50%, and aligns with 2030 decarbonisation targets adopted by most tier-one operators since 2021. Typical constraints: charging infrastructure capital (USD 2–5 million per shaft), cable-handling discipline, and limited availability at ambient temperatures above 45 °C.
Diesel power remains the proven choice where charging infrastructure is absent or where mine life is under seven years. Tier 4 Final engines in the 250–1,500 kW range keep availability above 90% on most fleets, at the cost of ventilation load, carbon reporting exposure, and a total cost of ownership penalty over a 10-year horizon.
Full autonomy delivers 24/7 duty cycles without fatigue-related derating and produces consistent production records — Rio Tinto's Pilbara iron ore network, commissioned in 2018, is the most frequently cited benchmark. Realistic preconditions: mine plan stability, high-quality survey data, and a 3G/LTE or private 5G coverage layer.
Operator-assisted fleets stay better suited to variable geology, mid-life mines, and jurisdictions where workforce retention is part of the social licence to operate. Teleoperation and assisted-drill retrofits can capture much of the safety uplift without the full autonomy capital profile.
OEM-only keeps warranty coverage and engineered tolerances intact, and is usually the right call for safety-critical interfaces (brake systems, pressure vessels certified to ASME VIII, IECEx-rated enclosures). Qualified aftermarket parts can reclaim 30–60% of spend on wear liners, grinding media, and screen mesh where the metallurgy is independently certified. Our selection rule: OEM for regulated interfaces, aftermarket for wear consumables with documented metallurgy and MSHA/CE acceptance.
Dry processing (HPGR plus air classification or dry magnetic separation) can cut water consumption by more than 90% and eliminate the tailings-dam liability that has driven regulatory tightening since the 2019 Brumadinho failure. Limitations: lower recovery for fine oxide ores (typically 3–8% below wet baseline) and higher dust-management capital. Wet processing remains the default where recovery dominates economics and where flotation chemistry is mature. Hybrid circuits — dry pre-concentration feeding a smaller wet flotation stage — are increasingly used to bridge the trade-off.
| Parameter | Typical operating range | Out-of-envelope condition |
|---|---|---|
| Throughput capacity | 500 – 2,000 t/h (crushing & screening circuits) | Above 2,500 t/h requires staged crushing; below 300 t/h favours modular skids |
| Flow rate (slurry pumps) | 50 – 5,000 m³/h | High-solids duties above 65% by weight require dedicated tailings-grade hydraulics |
| Head pressure | 20 – 200 m (single-stage centrifugal) | Multi-stage or booster train required above 200 m; NPSH-critical below 20 m |
| Engine / prime mover | 250 – 1,500 kW (Tier 4 Final, Stage V) | Not suitable for ambient > 50 °C without derate; electric drive not recommended on mines with fleet life < 5 years |
| Drilling depth | 30 – 500 m | Deep geothermal above 500 m requires high-temperature drill string and specialised mud program |
| Generator output | 500 – 5,000 kVA | Parallel sets above 5,000 kVA demand dedicated switchgear and protection coordination studies |
Values reflect typical mining and energy duty envelopes. Actual package sizing depends on classified-area rating (ATEX, IECEx, MSHA, API Spec Q1), altitude, ambient, and owner-specific compliance routes.