Metso and FQM Kevitsa mine expand service collaboration with a new contract in Finland

Kevitsa switches to Metso wear parts and maintenance for their primary gyratory crusher in order to extend service intervals.

Metso has won a service contract for the maintenance and wear parts supply of FQM Kevitsa mine's primary gyratory crusher. The Kevitsa copper-nickel mine is owned by the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FQM) and located in Sodankylä, Finland. The value of the contract will not be disclosed.

The contract for the primary gyratory crusher is yet another step in the successful service collaboration between the two companies. Earlier this year, Kevitsa entrusted the wear parts supply and installation as well as wear parts optimization of its grinding mills to Metso. So far, the results have been impressive and the duration of service shutdowns has decreased. Now the aim is to achieve similar improvements with the primary gyratory crusher, with longer lifetime of wear parts being the most important goal.

"When we made the decision to update our mill linings and switch from traditional liners to Metso's innovative Megaliner(TM), it became obvious that the primary gyratory crusher would be the next obstacle on our way to full capacity," says Timo Ikäheimonen, Maintenance Planning Manager at FQM Kevitsa.

"At Kevitsa, we find it important to improve the entire plant in a balanced way instead of just optimizing individual process parts. Therefore, we began negotiations with Metso well in advance to ensure that the lifetime and change-out of the primary gyratory crusher's wear parts would correspond to the higher availability requirements for the crusher as well as to the needs of the process. Metso's ability to simultaneously optimize the wear parts and their installation as an integrated process played a key role in our decision to collaborate with them on the non-Metso crusher," Ikäheimonen continues.

Metso's ability to offer a customized, long-term optimization plan played a key role in Kevitsa's decision.

"Metso was able to offer us the best total solution. They had convincing test results of our ore already in the proposal phase and a clear development plan for the particular needs of our process and installation," says Heikki Kamula, Maintenance Engineer, FQM Kevitsa.

"Metso has a clear, integrated view, and a well-defined path for the long run," he continues.

Wear parts optimization improves profitability

The primary gyratory crusher and the grinding mills are manufactured by other, non-Metso suppliers. However, careful selection and state-of-the-art design of the wear parts for these machines are crucial to the operation. Longer lifetime of wear parts translates to more production hours and better profitability.

"The fact that Kevitsa is entrusting new parts of their process, whether Metso equipment or not, to us is a clear demonstration of Metso's deep minerals processing knowledge and of the big difference our expert services can make in their business," says Jouko Tolonen, Regional Sales Manager, Metso.

In addition to crusher wear parts optimization, Metso will also apply its expertise to improving the safety of service actions by designing new accessories for the installation of the wear parts.

The first crusher wear parts will be supplied to the Finnish mine in Q4 2015, and Metso will effectively take over the maintenance from the beginning of 2016. The agreement will be booked in phases in Metso's orders received throughout the term of the agreement.

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. is an established and rapidly growing mining and metals company with seven mines and five development projects around the world. The company produces copper, nickel, gold, zinc and platinum-group elements. Upon completion, development projects in Zambia, Panama and Peru will increase FQM's annual copper production capacity to more than 1.3 million tons.

Metso is the world's leading industrial company in the mining and aggregates industries and in the flow control business. Our knowledge, people and solutions help drive sustainable improvements in performance and profitability in our customers' businesses.

Metso has an uncompromising attitude towards safety. Our products range from mining and construction equipment and systems to industrial valves and controls. Our solutions are delivered and supported by decades of process knowledge and a broad scope of services backed by a global footprint of over 90 service centers, thousands of service employees, and an extensive logistics network.

Metso is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki, Finland. In 2014, Metso's net sales totaled EUR 3.7 billion. Metso employs approximately 13,000 industry experts in more than 50 countries. Expect results.

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For further information, please contact:

Sami Takaluoma, Vice President, Sales, Nordics Market Area, Metso, tel. +46 73 148 9014, email: sami.takaluoma@metso.com

Anne Rantanen, Director, Global Communications, Metso Corporation, tel. +358 20 484 2253, email: anne.rantanen@metso.com