Extractive Industries

Tungsten West progresses with revamp of MPF

Tungsten West Ltd continues to make progress with refurbishing the mineral processing facility (MPF) at its Hemerdon tin-tungsten mine near the village of Plympton in Devon.

Workshop: Tungsten West is fabricating its own pipelines, wear plates and cradles for equipment (Tungsten West)

Much of the work is preventative maintenance to decrease the amount of future downtime and loss of revenue for the company’s planned restart of Hemerdon Mine during 2022.

Tungsten West is also using various types of technology, including X-ray transmission ore sorting (XRT), to improve the efficiency of the mine.

The company has met some opposition from local residents concerned about low frequency noise, vibrations and sleep loss which occurred when Wolf Minerals owned the site.

CAPABILITIES

In a corporate video, maintenance foreman Andy Frettsome described the refurbishment programme of the MPF as massive, with more than 100 different assets within the plant such as screens, pumps and motors which need to be repaired.

The work is being completed by a 12-man crew, mainly made up of electrical and mechanical fitters working with operational staff.

“We’re looking at stripping, inspecting and then rebuilding, refurbishing and the installation of all the equipment.

“We’ve got a substantial workshop. We have the capabilities of cutting our own various pipes and metals, and we have a fabricator/welder [who] has just started with us now.

“So we’re fabricating our own pipelines and wear plates and cradles and things like that for equipment.

“We have various pumps here, 50 or 60 of various different types and sizes, so each of the pumps has to be removed, stripped, inspected, reassembled and then reinstalled into the plant.”

Tungsten West is still recruiting for a number of roles including mining engineers, fitters and fabricators/welders.

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