Metso Loesche VRM at Jerritt Canyon: dry grinding design notes for plant engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Metso has secured an order to supply its Metso Loesche VRM dry grinding technology and auxiliary equipment to First Majestic Silver’s Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine restart project in Nevada, marking one of the first mining applications of this vertical roller mill system. The dry VRM setup is expected to replace or reduce conventional wet ball milling and associated dewatering, cutting water use and potentially lowering energy consumption per tonne. Process engineers and plant designers will be watching performance data closely as Jerritt Canyon ramps up under the new flowsheet.
Technical Brief
- Metso’s scope includes the Metso Loesche VRM plus “associated auxiliary equipment” for the grinding circuit.
Our Take
Metso’s VRM dry grinding sale into First Majestic’s Jerritt Canyon gold operation aligns with other recent coverage of Metso pushing energy‑efficient comminution, such as its HIGmill/SMD media pumping demos and Skouries filter press start‑up, signalling a coordinated play to lock in low‑water, low‑power process packages at gold assets.
Within our mining database, Nevada gold projects like Jerritt Canyon are among the North American assets most exposed to water‑use scrutiny, so a dry grinding route is likely to be as much about permitting and ESG optics as about operating cost for First Majestic Silver Corp.
Metso’s parallel move to secure in‑house bronze component supply via the Italbronze acquisition suggests it is positioning to support long‑life wear‑intensive equipment such as VRMs in remote US sites, reducing lead‑time and reliability risk for operators restarting complex gold mines.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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