Metso Outotec signs recycling agreement with mining firm

Metso Outotec has signed a life cycle services (LCS) contract with Sweden-based Boliden covering processing mill liners at Boliden’s Kevitsa mine in the Sodankylä region of Finland.

Part of the agreement covers what the firms call a “novel Planet Positive” mill lining recycling service for used ore processing mill liners. The agreement also “covers the supply and optimization services of the Megaliner liners for four mills with advanced discharge systems, supported by shutdown planning and execution services of the mill linings,” Metso Outotec says.

The value of the order is about 35 million euros ($34.2 million), and the first part of the contract has been booked in Metso Outotec’s third quarter orders received.

“We are very excited to expand cooperation with Boliden in Finland,” says Anssi Poutanen, senior vice president with Metso Outotec. “Metso Outotec is committed to supporting Boliden’s operative and sustainability targets and further increasing their liner wear life. When it is time to replace the worn liners, our innovative mill lining recycling service will dispose of the worn liners in a sustainable way.”

The Finnish company says it has put more than a decade of development work into its worn mill liner recycling service. Part of that service involves what Metso Outotec calls “a unique separation line to process rubber, Poly-Met and Megaliner liners of all sizes.” Those liners can contain rubber, aluminum and steel.

Metso Outotec says the “modular and container-based separation line enables safe and efficient separation of different rubber and metal liner components” to prepare the secondary raw materials for recycling.

For its mining and minerals customers, the new mill liner recycling service “solves the problem of disposing of worn mill liners and offers a way to reduce CO₂ emissions and improve environmental efficiency, as less material is being sent to landfills unprocessed,” the company says.  

Introduced in Europe, Metso Outotec says the recycling service will be expanded to additional markets in 2023.

Boliden has operations in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Ireland. It describes its Kevitsa operation as a multimetal mine in northern Finland that produces nickel and copper concentrates.