The successful installation was carried out without incidents and the reline time was cut by 12 hours. Metso and Newmont are now planning for further improvements.

Newmont obtained the mining lease for its Akyem operation in 2010 and began commercial production in 2013. At the same time, the gold price declined and, in a bid to optimise production and minimise downtime, the company contacted Metso to discuss different lining solutions for its SAG mill. Metso saw potential to make improvements by using Megaliner and the safety element together with shorter reline times became key factors in Newmont's decision.

The removal of the old steel lining and the installation of Megaliner was performed by Metso's service team.

Chris Brits, process manager at Akyem, Newmont Ghana, commented: "We are very pleased with the installation as it saved us more than 12 hours and no incidents occurred. Using Megaliner we had 50% less parts to install and the reline was completed in 24 hours compared to 36 hours that our steel lining installations used to take."

Newmont plans to expand the use of Megaliner to the ball mill at Akyem and to other Newmont operations.