Timelapse - The Art Of Reline

Often, the task of relining the mills was undertaken by the concentrator maintenance personnel. While these men were competent at the mill relining task, the large number of men often required for a mill reline usually meant that the other equally important maintenance tasks that also had to occur during the time of the mill shutdown, were not always satisfactorily completed. Outsourcing specialist reline crews was the solution to releasing large numbers of concentrator maintenance people to focus on other tasks. To fill this need Kaltech assembled a dozen men who had been relining mills for decades and from their combined and extensive mill reline knowledge, developed a very thorough Mill Reliner training program, and set about training dozens more. This is a very substantive and practical training program, consisting of both theory and practical, not unlike a regular apprenticeship. The result is a company of very well trained and skilled mill reliners, that can safely and efficiently complete any mill reline task.

While it is true that in theory the reline process is fairly simplistic, it would be a mistake to think that any competent person can safely and efficiently reline a mill. For an analogy, it would be a bit like saying that anyone can change a wheel on a car. If a person was somewhat experienced and had the right tools, this may take five minutes. Others with less experience could take 15 minutes or longer. A NASCAR pit crew can change a wheel in something like 7 seconds. Lining professionals are the NASCAR pit crews of mill relining.

The relining of mills is a must-be-done process and is usually the ‘driving force’ or ‘critical path’ of a shut down. Generally speaking, grinding mill profitability is somewhere between $50 K and $250 K per hour, the high wear components of a large SAG mill can take anywhere from 40 – 150+ hrs to replace depending on liner conditions and reline crew experience.

Kaltech is able to provide safe efficient relines through the application of well proven reline methodologies. These methodologies are continually evolving in the direction of achieving better practices. The depth of Kaltech’s reline experience is drawn from nearly two decades of relining 100's of different mills many times, culminating in 1000's of relines, and is documented in our meticulous reporting of the events and issues of every reline.

Kaltech’s approach to relining is very much a ‘get the job done approach’ but with the refinement of a safety first viewpoint. We have proven time and again that the easier one makes the relines, the safer they will be.

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