With changing market conditions and improvement expected over the next two years, Weir Minerals is positioning itself even closer to its customers. The company has announced its ambitious growth plans, building upon its leading 130 service centres strategically positioned across the globe.

“Strengthening our unrivalled global footprint in the mining industry will add capacity and proficiency to our service offering, ensuring our customers obtain cost effective and value adding service options, wherever and whenever required,” states Fred Bradner, Director of Strategy, Marketing and Sales for Weir Minerals. Plans are currently underway to open three more Weir Minerals service centres in Chile, Canada and Indonesia in 2017. 

Benefits to the customer
As more Weir Minerals equipment enters the market, it’s important the company is positioned to service the industry. From delivering a new project with installation and commissioning done by its global service network through to on-site maintenance, Weir Minerals’ expanded service network will ensure they are available throughout the process. 

“Delivering flexible and innovative service solutions across the globe is the key to optimal product performance, which ultimately makes our customers more successful,” states Kobus Fourie, Global Product Manager for Weir Minerals’ Service.

Recent openings
Weir Minerals has been expanding into new geographies in recent years, recognising that mine sites are situated in extremely remote locations and require a partner who is close to them and can be on call 24/7. Recently Weir Minerals opened a 6,000 square foot facility in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada boasting a service centre, warehouse capabilities, in-house engineering expertise and a fully equipped field service team available around the clock.
“Our Sudbury location provides closer proximity to a number of our key customers, which drastically improves our response time,” states Kobus Fourie.

Weir Minerals also opened a service centre in Cananea, positioned in a large mining hub in Mexico and recently invited key customers to the official opening. This service centre holds essential wear parts’ stock for maintenance and shut-downs, and the on-site team is available 24 hours a day to provide mine optimisation solutions for customers in the area.

“We are pleased to announce that in a few months’ time, we will open a state-of-the-art facility in Calama, Chile. Located in close proximity to a few of our key customers, this service centre will offer repairs of screens, pumps, and cyclones for operators in the region,” says Kobus Fourie.

Future growth plans
As the company continues to expand its positioning in East Asia, it plans to open two new service centres to be closer to its customers in the region. One service centre will be opening in Tibet to support customers in West China, and another in Haerbin for customers operating in East China.

In South East Asia, another service centre has been scheduled for opening in Jakarta, Indonesia. “The opening of our service centre in Jakarta will enhance our level of support to customers throughout Indonesia. From this facility we can help our customers with rebuilds and rubber lining of equipment as well as field service and service exchange,” states Kobus Fourie.

Long-term partnerships
In addition to service centres in prime locations and close customer proximity, they are also backed by Weir Minerals' worldwide network of service experts. “Our highly qualified and experienced process engineers and service technicians are dedicated to supporting our customers’ operations and offering solutions to their problems. Our teams located at these often remote locations are available seven days a week to help our customers.

It’s their job to understand the operator’s entire process, identify performance gaps and offer advice and support to help them achieve higher throughput with less downtime,” says Fred Bradner. This approach will turn performance insights into solutions for complex problems, where the customer will be positioned to take their plant to the next level of operational excellence.