Another milestone! MMT's "semi-autogenous grinding" equipment was successfully put into trial production

No matter how faint the light is, it can illuminate the darkness, and no matter how thin the stream is, it can gather into a vast ocean, and everyone can condense into a majestic force that shakes the mountains and rivers as long as they contribute their meager strength. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), there is such a team, with a small force like a spark and a trickle, to create a legend and cast a steel sky.

▲ MMT pre-infrastructure construction

Set sail

September 2021-The project officially broke ground and entered the construction stage in an all-round way；

October 2022-The production line was put into operation and tested, sounding the prelude to formal production；

November 2022-The first copper plate of MMT in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was produced.

In the amazement of all the Congo DRC metallurgical colleagues, MMT achieved its first miracle: the Dowstone Congo DRC strategic resources team set sail on this steel giant ship carrying countless expectations in just one year.

Plough the waves

The voyage of the giant ship was not all smooth sailing, but under the helm of the factory office, all members of the Dowstone Congo (DRC) team united as one, fearless of hardships and dangers, and jointly drove the "MMT" to ride the wind and waves. April in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is accompanied by a long dry season when the river falls and the sea dry. Although the cobalt product workshop has officially started production, the grade test results of cobalt hydroxide are unsatisfactory, and how to achieve the goal of 30% grade pass rate has become a sword of Damocles hanging over the cobalt workshop. At this urgent moment, Zhong Hui, executive deputy director of MMT, set up a special working group to sort out the cobalt workshop process in an all-round way. Under the leadership of Mr. Zhong, the workshop members quickly found the problem: there was an abnormality in a batch of seconded accessories.

▲ The first batch of crude cobalt hydroxide with qualified grades

With the emergency use of new excipients, the problem was immediately solved, and the first batch of qualified cobalt products were successfully produced, and the grade rate of cobalt hydroxide produced in the cobalt product workshop exceeded 35% for 21 consecutive days, marking the opening of MMT's product production line. Without a bone-chilling experience, where is the plum blossom fragrant, looking back at this moment, everything that has been paid all night before has become worthwhile.

Heading mileage

It is true that the production line of the factory has been fully opened, but this is only the beginning of the development of efficient large-scale production, and it is still far from the real goal, and a difficulty that must be crossed to reach the goal is the use of "semi-autogenous grinding" equipment - after half a year of trial production, despite the blessing of large-scale ball mills, the production capacity increase soon reached a bottleneck that is difficult to break through, so the "semi-autogenous" equipment is imminent. The four jumbo containers loaded with equipment components all landed in South Africa in February and will arrive in March, indicating that the assembly of the "SAG mill" equipment can finally be put on the agenda.

▲ In order to ensure the safety of the equipment and the installation progress, the property management department cooperated with the overnight unloading

◇The rainy season has not yet ended in late March, and the construction is progressing slowly；

◇At the beginning of April, the foundation steel frame structure was officially completed；

◇On April 10, the installation of bearing scraping was completed；

◇On April 28, the installation of the liner was completed；

◇On May 1, the feeding system and circuit commissioning were completed.

With the visit and guidance of experts such as Liu Xinlu, general manager of the Strategic Resources Division, and the person in charge of the equipment, the latest key equipment introduced by MMT, the large-scale "semi-autogenous mill", was successfully put into trial production on May 3, 2023, Congo (DRC) time, which is a major milestone in MMT's production capacity improvement!

▲ The large-scale "semi-autogenous grinding" equipment has been assembled

We don't need loud cheers, we don't need to celebrate too much, we don't need too many praises, we just achieved one small goal after another on the Dowstone strategic blueprint, and we are moving towards a more ambitious goal, that's all.

▲ The warrior style of the Congo (DRC)

Every day in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), I am constantly touched, the tide of emotions is flowing indulgingly, and I want to tell everything I see and think to my colleagues and friends in my motherland. But what I want to tell you most is that I am getting more and more deeply impressed: the whole staff of MMT is the loveliest person around me.

We used to have tears in our eyes, watched by family and friends, but we were never alone. We have flown over lakes and mountains, we have experienced disappointment and suffering, torrential rains, sickness... However, the flowers that bloom in the mud grow clumsily and tenaciously, there will always be a clear sky after the wind and rain, and the sun behind the stars and moon has begun to shine, thank you for being with me.