The Tara mine in Ireland is Europe’s largest zinc mine. The mine supplies part of its zinc concentrates to the smelters in Kokkola, Finland and Odda, Norway through the marketing organisation Boliden Commercial.
New AG Mill:
The new Autogenous Grinding Mill, the largest single investment at the zinc mine Tara since the operations commenced over 35 years ago, was officially inaugurated on December 7th 2009.
The AG Mill was an important part of Boliden’s strategy of investment in internal growth projects and will cut Tara’s costs for grinding considerably, mainly by reducing the amount of equipment items and consumables used. It will also improve the work environment by reducing dust, noise and vibration levels.
Together with previous investments in new dewatering technology, the AG Mill will help to reduce the whole mill’s overall operating costs. Since 2006, these investments have also reduced emissions to air by over 90 per cent and have reduced unit energy consumption in the mill by 6.5 per cent.
