Office and Laboratory Renewal

Introduction

GTK Mintec’s laboratory and office facilities will be renewed in Outokumpu during 2022 and 2023. The building developer of the project is Senate Properties, a company responsible for premises owned by the state of Finland. In the office and laboratory renewal, Mintec’s laboratory equipment and research services will be renewed and developed to better suit future research needs and provide a more efficient and safe working environment.

As part of the project, a new laboratory crushing station will be implemented in the new laboratory facility to ensure more efficient, higher quality and especially safer and ergonomically better pre-processing of samples. A partly automated new crushing line is planned, acquired and built in the project. Where its key equipment is concerned, the line will be built using the existing crushers and the screening device. In addition to better occupational safety, the aim is to make the crushing process faster and more efficient with more varied crusher options and to minimise manual work phases.

To develop and improve the research of water management in mines, multi-phase water management systems are planned and will be installed in the new laboratory. These systems can be used to implement pilot-scale water management tests. This water management testing facility will also work as a showroom where various management methods developed by GTK or in cooperation with customers can be presented. In addition, the water pilot works as a cooperation platform for device and technology suppliers.

Process mineralogy equipment base is improved by acquiring a new scanning electron microscope (SEM) and related process mineralogical software. As part of the project, new small equipment for mineralogy and process laboratories will also be acquired to complement current research equipment and replace outdated equipment.

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