COPPER: ABB, Zijin join forces in Serbia

SERBIA - Multinational ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB) and Zijin Mining, China’s top gold producer, entered into an agreement to install state-of-the-art, ring-geared mill drives and control systems at the Veliki Krivelj copper mine in Serbia. Located in the southern Bor District, Veliki Krivelj is a surface mining operation with an annual ore processing capacity of 10 million tonnes. It is part of the Bor Copper project, which includes three open-pit mines, an underground mine and a smelter, in which Zijin has a majority stake. The deal with ABB, which is part of a €200-million modernization strategy for the Bor Copper project, is for ring-geared mill drives and intelligent control systems for one SAG mill and one ball mill, which includes electric control systems, drives, motors, transformers and end-to-end services. According to Stephen Zhu, who leads ABB Mining, Aluminum and Cement in North Asia and China, the firm’s mill solutions will “reduce energy consumption, reduce mechanical stress, improve the service life of equipment, and boost operational performance.”