NLMK Group has embarked on the construction of an additional beneficiation section at Stoilensky. Three new grinding lines (vertical mills) will enable the company to have increased its concentrate output from 17.5 million tons per year 20 million tons and ore processing capacity from 37 million tons to 42 million tons by 2020, thus increasing the production of iron ore raw materials for NLMK by 14%.
Project investment, including the development of the mine and Stoilensky transport infrastructure upgrades, will exceed 15 billion rubles. The company plans to complete the construction in 2020.
Konstantin Lagutin, NLMK Group Vice President, Investment Projects, said: “Continuous improvement of production processes is among NLMK Group’s strategic priorities. Vertical mills are a breakthrough technology in raw material processing. They are known for low energy and grinding body consumption rates, high reliability, and a smaller scope of construction works as compared to traditional ball mills. The benefits of using such mills at Stoilensky will be two-fold: we will boost production volumes and cut costs. Moreover, Fe content in the ore will increase to 68%.”
The additional beneficiation section project involves the construction of a separate building equipped with three vertical mills. The new section will be integrated into a single process chain with the three sections of the Beneficiation Plant. Having passed the medium and fine crushing stages and the high-pressure grinding rolls, ore will be fed into the three vertical mills for further crushing and beneficiation, before being supplied to the Pelletizing Plant for the production of pellets or being shipped to NLMK Lipetsk. (NLMK/Ukrainian metal)