Metso introduces the world's largest cone crusher, MP2500, to respond to the mining industry's efficiency challenge

Metso introduces the world's largest cone crusher, MP2500, to respond to the mining industry's efficiency challenge

Metso Corporation's press release on November 5, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. EET

The first MP2500 cone crusher will be operational at First Quantum Minerals Ltd Sentinel mine in Zambia early 2015

The global mining industry is striving to develop more energy and cost efficient technologies for minerals processing. As ore grades decline, more and more ore needs to be processed to obtain the same amount of the valuable mineral and to meet production targets. This equation often results in increased processing costs and can prove problematic for miners.

Metso is responding to the customer challenge by developing larger and more energy efficient equipment for minerals processing. One result of this work, the world's largest cone crushers, the MP2500, will be shipped to First Quantum Minerals Ltd (FQML) Sentinel Mine in Zambia.  The crushers will be fully operational in early 2015. The crusher order, worth more than EUR 10 million, was booked in Metso's orders received in Q1 2013.

Efficient crushing saves energy

The MP2500 was selected for Sentinel because it can process large volumes of rock as single machine. It saves costs as fewer crushers, related infrastructure and maintenance are needed for achieving the same or increased amount of production.

Because the MP2500 crusher has the largest feed opening ever made, it can crush bigger chunks of rock. Its ability to crush rock further than the traditional crushers decreases energy consumption in the later parts of the process.

The MP2500 cone crusher is designed for use in secondary and tertiary crushing. It   links easily with other Metso products to create a simplified, cost effective process flow for high production sites. Larger equipment reduces the number of crushers to install since there is more throughput from each crusher.  To duplicate the performance of two (2) MP2500's would require four (4) smaller MP1250's and all associated infrastructure.


Less equipment leads to improved safety

The development of the MP2500 cone crusher resulted in innovations in the area of health and safety, many based on discussions with FQML. The most important result is based on the fact that there is less equipment installed at the mine site thus generating less need for maintenance and limiting the number of times personnel has to conduct work at any single equipment.