833 RELIABILITY TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY AT VALE’S CLARABELLE MILL *N. Orcon1, S. Kivisto2, R. Multani3, C. Nicholson4 and A. Wadekar5 1Engineering Superintendent, Vale Base Metals-Canada (*Corresponding author: nestor.orcon@vale.com) 2Maintenance Superintendent, Vale Base Metals-Canada 3Process Technology Superintendent, Vale Base Metals-Canada 4Specialist Engineer, Vale Processing, Research and Innovation Group, Vale Base Metals-Canada 5Product Designer, Bradken-Canada ABSTRACT In March 2022, the SAG mill (32x13.5 ft) at Vale’s Clarabelle Mill experienced significant downtime due to shell liner failure. The failed design—a "Hi-Lo" lifter—had been installed in March 2021. A comprehensive root cause analysis revealed that the inadequate liner design led to fatigue fractures. The mill’s control philosophy was unable to mitigate liner impacts. Following the failure, the original liner, commissioned in 1990—"Hi-Hi" lifter with a 7° face angle—was reinstated. In 2023, Clarabelle Mill launched an in-house liner design optimization initiative, building a multidisciplinary team. Following design guidelines, a final concept design was selected and detailed through collaborative engineering with the chosen manufacturer. The design process, driven by the Mill SAG Reline Strategy, integrated failures modes, wear analysis, operational variables (supported by charge trajectory modeling), condition-based maintenance practices, and industry design standards. In May 2025, the optimized shell liner—"Hi-Hi" lifter with a 35° face angle—was installed, along with wireless “smart bolts” to monitor tension in real time. The new configuration successfully mitigated previous failure modes and improved grinding efficiency, SAG throughput (tons/hour) increased by 9% and specific energy consumption decreased by 7%. Other notable benefits were reduction in 25 hours the SAG reline time since the number of liner pieces were reduced and improved worker safety by eliminating high-pressure washing and scaling tasks prior to SAG entry (shell liner packing issue resolved). KEYWORDS SAG, liner, design, wear, availability, reliability, efficiency
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0Mzk2