Press Release, Date of Announcement: April 4th, 2001
The scope of the order, valued at $37 millionUSD, includes gearless mill drives for semiautogenous mill (SAG) of 19,400 kW, 38 ft. diameter; three ball mills of 13,430 kW each, 24 ft. diameter; the entire set of medium- and low-voltage drives; ABB Distributed Control; and medium-voltage Motor Control Center.
ABB will design, engineer and supply all gearless mill drives, including erection supervision, installation and start-up. These contracts place ABB as the leading supplier of gearless mill drives in the Chilean Market, having a 100% market share for the year 2000 and 32% installed base for the entire market. The medium-voltage Motor Control Center will also be supplied by ABB.
ABB will provide the tie-in engineering between itself and Bechtel Chile Limitada, the consultant engineering & construction company in charge of the expansion. ABB will also support the installation, commissioning and start up, as well as provide a year of on-site supervision for operation and maintenance.
ABB will supply medium- and low-voltage drives for the project and be involved in the open control configuration and staging, which will take place at Chile facilities, as well. The mechanical supplier for SAG and Ball Mills will be FFE Minerals (Fuller). Escondida ownership is comprised as follows: BHP (Australia) 57.5%, Rio Tinto 30%, JECO (Japan) 10% and the IFC 2.5%. For furhter information please contact: Max Berner (Marketing-Communication) ABB Industrie AG Industrial Plants & Systems Segelhof 5405 Baden-Dättwil, Switzerland Phone: +41 56 486 71 33 Fax: +41 56 486 73 22 E-mail: max.berner@ch.abb.com