When a new plant is being planned, considerable care needs to be taken in the design and placement of the transfer chutes, argues Weba Chute Systems MD Mark Baller, adding that transfer chutes are key linkage points which keep plants running smoothly.

“In our experience, there has been considerable disruption caused to plant operations by transfer chutes which are not optimally designed or properly located in the flowsheet,” says Baller. “This is a concern, as this disruption can cause financial loss that is not commensurate with the value of the equipment.”

He says the relatively low cost of a chute compared to the high value items such as crushers and screens may be one reason why they are not taken into consideration timeously, often only considered late in the plant design process.

“The plant layout has then already been decided, and the chutes are just expected to be slotted in as and where the space is available,” he says. “It is costly and time consuming to try and adjust plant designs further down the line.”

Baller adds that it is even more costly to make changes after the plant is built and is then found to experience challenges at the transfer points. This may require complex modifications such as moving the head pulley or changing structures and flows to allow for a different flow path.

Weba Chute Systems highlights the success of a recently completed project on an Australian iron-ore mine which had to shut down its plant every six weeks as a result of problems with its transfer chutes. The company extended the mine’s chute maintenance window from six weeks to 12 weeks by engineering a solution for the mine’s challenging ore, which was sticky when wet.

“Our improvements meant that the transfer chutes were lasting longer than the other equipment, and were no longer an obstacle in the mine’s strategy to reduce the number of shutdowns each year,” says Baller.