Salomeh Tafazoli brings a banking background and years of experience in heavy industry to her role as Metso's SVP for Professional Services. She sat down with Mining Magazine to provide her insights into sustainability trends, challenges and opportunities, as well as helping miners improve operational efficiency as they strive to go beyond their sustainability goals.

What trends are you seeing in the mining industry when it comes to sustainability?

The biggest trend I'm seeing is saving water. Minerals processing plants are heavy consumers of water, with crushing, grinding, screening and hydrocyclone operations traditionally requiring a steady flow to operate efficiently. So, many sites are looking at their options to optimize usage. This can mean taking a closer look at water recycling programs, advanced monitoring options or even exploring dry mining techniques and technologies.  

Another important trend is the explosion of smart technology, like sensors and related data-driven information, both in terms of raising efficiency but also improving safety in the mining environment. And I don't want to forget about reducing waste – this is an area of growing importance. Minerals processing plants involve a lot of wear and tear on both equipment and components, which generates a tremendous amount of worn wear parts, spare parts and machines sent to landfill. So, the question that mines are asking is how can we make our assets last longer, while increasing throughput to meet growing production demand? Finding that balance is not easy!

What are the challenges and opportunities in promoting the concept of circularity within mining maintenance?

One of the challenges is that our products almost last too long. In some cases, they could be installed and running for up to 50 years or even longer, when environmental requirements were quite different. The equipment though still needs to comply with today's modern regulations. Replacing older machines with the latest equipment is one obvious solution, but if we take circularity into context, this is an opportunity, as many machines can be modernized or upgraded. By upgrading, customers can reduce worn assets sent to landfill and save on the embedded carbon required to make a new crusher or mill. Another challenge for us is to be fast and on top of issues, to make sure we have the right mix of parts in place for our customers so that repairs are always a viable option. Being so geographically present means we know our customers, and we can tailor-make a solution they might not have considered, so that is an opportunity. 

How does Professional Services (repair centers, field services, expert services) help customers with sustainability challenges?

Repairs and service expertise can make a difference by allowing customers to prolong the useful life of both their producing assets as well as major components. All of this contributes to reducing waste. Coupled with preventive maintenance programs that catch issues before they become serious, these services can also save customers from buying new equipment or parts and even help optimise their assets to make better use of water and energy resources.

As more and more machines are connected via remote monitoring, we have better data on how our equipment is performing. In many cases, we can see when assets need to be serviced and can also help customers optimize their production process. So, I would say we're very much on top of issues when it comes to trends in sustainability and digitalization, which allows us to better support our customers and help them to get the most out of their assets.

Today, many industries are experiencing heavy pressure to lower inventories and in some cases, reduce the number of service facilities in an effort to save on costs.  However, we have made a strategic decision to invest in our repair centres, so that we have the equipment, parts and expert technicians close to our customers around the world. We are also opening new facilities or expanding existing ones. For example, we recently opened our largest repair center globally, in Karratha, Western Australia. We are also expanding our facilities in Mesa, Arizona and adding a Metso Academy training center there as well. These investments mean we can fix equipment fast; our field technicians can be proactive in terms of predictive maintenance. We're also reducing the carbon footprint, as customers who need to send equipment or parts for repair at a Metso facility are able to reduce their emissions related to transport. 

We are getting better at offering the total solution - what is best for you as a customer. In addition to repairs and field services offerings such as commissioning, installations, inspections, upgrades and optimization work, we also strive to support our customers with training.  Leveraging the Metso Academy, our global, internal training academy, customized training programs can be developed for customers to elevate their site teams operational and maintenance knowledge.  This can help them reduce the need for unplanned repairs and downtime. 

Are there other service offerings that can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of mining operations?

First and foremost, fixing instead of buying a new machine or part is not only good for sustainability but also the bottom line. Programs such as Service exchange is something we're working with right now, where we refurbish parts such as filter plates, or even equipment such as pumps, and then make them available again to our customers. This is an effective way to ensure the customer has a replacement unit if equipment is experiencing issues. And we're investing in on-site repairs, so customers don't even need to send their equipment off-site when it needs servicing with Metso. One of our customers in India, for example, had more than 400 Metso pumps as well as hundreds of 3rd party pumps so we set up a 30-person repair shop on site as part of a service agreement and would even repair competitors' equipment. It demonstrates how we aim to meet our customers' expectations. 

Thinking beyond repairs, what are the environmental benefits of upgrading or /refurbishing versus replacing machinery?

It's often lower in terms of cost and there is also less waste, so there are lots of environmental benefits. For example, at the Julong copper mine in China, we addressed a bottleneck in their dewatering system by upgrading its ageing VPA1040 filter press system. The filter plate pack expansion meant that the mine achieved a 65% increase in filtration capacity, higher throughput and improved operational efficiency, so it was using less energy and less water. The upgrade allowed the site to meet its production goals while reducing the amount of CAPEX required if it had needed to purchase new equipment.

Are there emerging technologies in field services that support more sustainable operations?

There are always new ways to use technology. For instance, leveraging our Metso Performance Centers, such as in Santiago Chile or Espoo Finland, we can collect data from our machines, so we know how to better optimize the process at our customer's site. We can also focus more on predictive maintenance as we identify trends in equipment performance and identify issues or service requirements earlier. In these cases, you need to have the right field service level and coverage but also the trust of the customer. And as our equipment gets more and more advanced, it is extremely important for our field technicians to get the right support from our experts at the Performance Centers. That is an area we are investing in as the benefits of combining the knowledge of local service teams with remote expertise really makes a difference in resolving issues efficiently. 

What does it take for an OEM like Metso to succeed in a world where sustainability becomes increasingly important? What is Metso's ambition?

Firstly, we must take care of our own house as they say! Metso is striving to become carbon neutral by 2030.  The company has made significant investments in implementing sustainable practices and optimizing processes at our manufacturing facilities while also looking at the electrification of equipment and choosing cleaner energy alternatives. We have also done a lot of work with our own supply chain, to improve its overall sustainability. But we need to continue to also help our customers meet their sustainability goals. We can succeed in this by using smart technology, being close to our customers, understanding their needs, tapping into our global network and working on initiatives to expand our Metso Plus portfolio for both new equipment, parts and services. Metso Plus offerings are designated products and services that meet defined criteria to help customers reduce emissions, increase the efficiency of water and energy use, as well as improving parts sustainability. It is about always moving forward with innovative solutions for our customers. 

What else do you see happening in terms of sustainability, digitalization and innovations 3-5 years from now and what gets you the most excited?

I am passionate about how sustainability and digitalization can come together and bring benefits. Our equipment is becoming like a patient, it can tell us how it feels, and we can take care of it. But it is not just about having the data; it's being able to analyze it and make sure people can actually understand how to use it and work with it. I think that journey is extremely exciting.

How does Metso go beyond?

We are doing not just what is expected of us, but always a little bit more. An area that's growing very fast is our long-term Life Cycle Services (LCS) agreements, we now have more than 500 globally and they can include a full range of Metso offers such as basic parts supply and inventory management, inspection and maintenance activities, shutdown support, training programs, data driven performance services to parts and process optimization. We refer to them as contracts, but it goes beyond that; we talk more about partnerships. A long-term partnership can help us monitor how a plant is performing and take actions to improve site sustainability by optimizing their parts and processes and helping to get the most life from their assets.

New technology also helps us be much more proactive. We can be bolder and more fearless when it comes to the solutions we explore for our customers. These are exciting times! 

For more ideas and inspiration, explore Metso's full aftermarket offering here: Your #1 service partner from pit to port