Over the last couple of years, the business world made some big steps in the sustainable direction. Still, the general impression was that not all industries are developing at the same pace and that sectors like for instance mining are inherently too incompatible with these ideas to ever make a fortunate marriage. However, we only need to take a closer look to see that the mining industry is changing even though these changes sometimes may escape the eye of the public. The wider implementation of sustainable trommel screens is one of the best examples of these small incremental improvements that, nevertheless, produce excellent cumulative results. Let us take a look at some of the most noteworthy mentions.
Higher operational efficiency
Let us start this short breakdown by quickly explaining the mining and screening process. When miners extract large quantities of soil, they need some sort of screening tool to separate materials like gold-bearing gravel. These rotating drums leave only the materials smaller than the screen holes to fall through which effectively makes this process possible in the industrial framework. The latest generations of these screens are capable of performing the separation process with much higher operational efficiency all that while tackling increased volumes of soil. That gives companies more ore for less invested energy.
Increased processing capacity
Looking at a trommel as a tool, we will see this asset has one huge advantage over similar screening alternatives. Essentially, the circular shape allows trommel to tackle incredibly spacious screening areas, the other tools are not. This simple fact doesn’t affect only the trommels’ convenience – it ramps up its efficiency and sustainability potential as well. Since mining operations are capable of handling larger quantities of soil in one run, they don’t need to waste time and energy on redeployment, repeated runs, and idling. All these things can have a great long-term effect on mining efficiency and consumption.
Compact size and agility
The trommels are, by no means, small machines. But, mining operations usually entail the use of heavy industrial equipment that often can be successfully deployed outside full-scale industrial facilities. Transporting tons of materials from mining sites to screening and processing facilities can produce a very heavy environmental impact. The use of the latest-gen trommel screens can go a long way in making this problem negligible. Since these units are reasonably compact and mobile, they can be easily moved right to the mining site and deployed there without producing extensive waste in material transport.
Low energy consumption
That’s right, even if we put aside the fact trommels don’t make any energy waste on transportation and deportation, we are still left with the fact that the screen mechanism consumes only one-half or even one-third of the energy you would need to spend with other sieve types. Keeping in mind the vast levels of soil the mining companies need to process to screen the ore they are looking for, these energy savings produced by trommels’ simple structure, effective mechanism, and mature technology shouldn’t be overlooked. On the contrary, a wider implementation of sustainable tech should make it a standard.
Service life and maintenance
Last but not least, we would like to remind you that industrial equipment that is poorly maintained gradually loses efficiency and at some point becomes waste itself. The contemporary trommels address this burning issue in two intuitive ways. First, the simple and effective construction makes maintenance a breeze which allows mining companies to keep their equipment highly efficient for extended periods of time. Second, due to these very same reasons, these heavy industrial tools have a very long service life, to begin with. All these things make trommels very sustainable and welcome additions to any mining toolset.
We hope these few examples give you a general idea about all the interesting and intuitive ways the mining industry can raise its sustainability game and join the global trend of moving the business world in the green direction. In this case, we have covered only one tool used in the screening process. Imagine the possibilities of refining all other levels of mining workflow and bringing them to the same level of efficiency. Granted, the mining sector is not the most inherently sustainable industry in existence but with enough effort and creativity wonders are possible.
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