China! The next generation is already coming from there. In gravity concentration equipment, especially (in my experience small to medium scale third world environments), hard to beat on robustness, simplicity and price. Quality not far off. Once the communication gap is covered, will the west and traditional companies be able to compete? I would never have imagined myself saying this 5 years ago but experience has now shown me different. Design ability is lacking, but if you know what is available and what it can do, and can design from that, why should you pay 3-4 times the price and wait 3-4 times the time for delivery?

I can't agree with China gear being up to the standards our top companies can produce, their gear looks good and is certainly in the right price range as for time delivery it depends on the location., I can't comment on earthmoving gear as it's not my area of expertise but on the process side, the Mills, pumps crushers etc. would be more suited to a company with a short mine life, they also don't do cyclones and insist on the horizontal spirals (high wear and power draw) Compared to our cyclones, concentrator set-ups.

I was there recently looking at gear and also inspected an Operational Chinese gold process plant. It was noted they had 3 times the equipment than we would to treat similar tons, a killer on spare parts and downtime.

The value of Chinese process plant output must be many times the rest of the worlds' now. This group is only talking about process, though earth moving is also getting attractive. Again something I would NEVER have thought a few years ago. Topic is also talking about the NEXT generation. You are far behind if you don't know the Chinese produce hydrocyclones! They certainly do - not Multotec, and its best you design/size yourself (or ask Multotec to do it for you!), but they produce and sell. What kind of gold process did you look at? Gravity processes (small to medium scale) are really unbeatable FOR THE COST. Chinese are not yet ready to take on first world large scale projects, but then again, they were not producing electronics 10 years ago, and our Universities are full of Chinese students now. Ignore this trend at your peril!

I guess it was 2012 when I was there, the plant was a gold C.I.L plant in Mongolia, Chinese owned and run. If my memory serves me correct it ran at 50 to 60 tph, for this they had 3 mills numerous conveyors and crushers I think that a lot of what they set up is more suitable to a developing country where you can put an extra 15 to 20 people on a shift at a low cost, when I went to the pump city, pumps looked like Warman’s but certainly not the quality, If I were to utilise Chinese gear let’s say in Africa, then would get the spares fabricated there (mill liners) similar to Chinese standards without the logistic headache.

I also found that it was difficult to get any type of operating/maintenance manuals for equipment.

There is no doubt that CHINA is pulling to the front in producing equipment based on price and delivery time. However, there lingers the question of quality. Will the Chinese be able to provide that? I always remember the discussion of how China bought one Euclid truck, took it apart in China and copied every part in detail and started producing replicas. We do know that they are good at replication, yet again, what is the quality? We must be careful about jumping on the "CHINA Bandwagon" for Mining & Mineral Processing equipment, because we may miss and fall flat on our faces in the near future.

I work with and assess suitability of equipment from several Chinese companies. I emphasise, I do not represent or take commission from any. I assure you that most Chinese companies ARE able to produce good quality equipment but they can't for several reasons, mostly because they are forced to cut production costs. Many producers work through Chinese sales agents who take a substantial fee (this is partly political). Worldwide they are always being driven for a lower price (especially India). To make (sometimes just a meagre) profit, so, quality suffers. It is not that they are UNABLE to produce standard quality.

But things are changing. One conveyor belt manufacturer I know for example is breaking the mould and starting to sell its own products to foreign retailers and end users, cutting out middle men. The price is still lower than local products, but quality the same. My feeling is that we have to wake up, work with and assist the Chinese, because sooner or later they WILL out price the market. Not 3 years, but 5 or 10? The Chinese will win! Walter is 100% right. For now, we will be mixing and matching Chinese and other nationality equipment, but in future? It's only a matter of time. If you want scrubbers, log washers, jigs, classifiers, basic flotation cells, etc - nobody outside China can compete. But certain modifications are advised to improve operational characteristics and wear. You will be aware for example, China PRODUCES more gold than any other country. Where do you think they buy the equipment?

I has great experience with Chinese. They copy the equipment and also developed some technologies. I finished a dressing plant project with some specifications (grade, recovery) they got the contract and could not guaranty the results of the tender, however won the contact (they had this ability to get contract without guarantying the results on the third word). Regarding Jiggs; they do not have Gekko, which I recommended on the tender, neither not a process for recovering very fine minerals (10 microns) like the Kelsy Jigg. They are copying (badly) the Derrick screens, etc. They are good for ball mills, conveyors, classical equipment that is good to buy that has not an influence on the recovery and grade. Also not a good equipment on line assay like Thermofisher. The best experience was a specially equipment that I bought for refining tin, not available on the western countries. In fact I will buy no more than 60% of the equipment from China for a modern dressing plant. The combination is good for the price as some suggestions.

I have been involved in watching and working for Chinese interests for 20 years and all the above comments are correct when looking at the Chinese manufacturing abilities as a whole. I am convinced that buying from China MUST have firsthand inspection of the entire manufacturing process as not all of the Chinese products are "first class". There will be happy customers as well as, sad ones that do not do their homework. After dozens of trips to Chinese plants I have found both worlds best practices and on some occasions, less than average products. I have also found leading edge technologies developed 100% locally - no other country spends R&D money like China.

That time is now. (I have no direct interest in Chinese processing equipment).

Do the homework with focus on the detail, and get the rewards, is my solid opinion.

If we look at the humble light bulb, since the cheap Chinese light bulbs are the only available replacements here now, I find we change 20 to 30 a year in the average house which makes it a very expensive alternative to the previous quality bulbs that were available,

We can't keep going on sacrificing quality for quantity,

I'm all for import export and am a firm believer that good quality products will sell themselves, At the right price.

It would be a shame if in the future low quality products were all that was available at high prices when the competition has been eliminated.

You have my vote of agreement. China has a cultural error as they mistake price as the major reason for business. I have seen 70% discounts that are total overkill when 50% would do the job IF that remaining 20% goes into quality. Price as the main mechanism of product selection, in general, is a total fallacy. In many cases we need to advise these new makers how to do it better - to have more suppliers can only be to a buyer’s advantage.

You get what you pay for. Having also been exposed to Chinese made process equipment, I lament the bean counters who look at the cost only.

There is more to operating a process plant that fitting it out with cost price equipment. There is never a cost saving in the long run.

I have worked at too many places that have cut costs and gone for the "Cheap imitation" instead of higher quality product.

I am not ready yet to accept Chinese product as good or high quality- maybe one day. I am too sick and tired of trying to rectify a process issue because some piece of cheap plant has broken after a couple of weeks of run time.

I too would not accept any Chinese product without doing a firsthand inspection - that producer is going through an industrial renaissance and there are still a few "lumps in the gravy". I also do not like being the guinea pig for new technologies - however, there comes a time when the data is in. References to reconfirm the data is available.

The promises of bottom line gains are on the table - the gains must be worth the investigation.

Having done the investigation - decision time comes.

Do I throw out all my Chinese clothes, automotive parts, electric motors, stationary, toys, fishing rods, which I did NOT investigate before I bought them?

New project of next generation is very fine. Even better that this project made will be JKMRS and Metso Minerals. A place for the project is selected, too fine- Chile. A low bow to the authors of this project.

So I want to say a little, and if it will help for the authors I will be very happy.

My investigation time of blasting for ore crushing started in 1991.We reduced the net blasting from 6x6 to 5x5 and blaster consumption increased from 0.6kg to 1.0kg / t. As a result, pieces size decreased from 95mm to 70mm. We determined the energy equation for this process. We got the effect in mining (excavation and transportation of ore) over $6M. In grinding circuit effect we got up to $20M, but can be more if increase the classification capacity.

Ore sorting we investigated in 2000 ... 2005. We studied two sorting. Sort of small heaps and sorting pieces of ore. Results unfortunately ambiguous. Sort of heap is successful. Enough to scan the upper layer of the heap. Now there is a plant capacity of 12 million tons per year.

Sort by pieces of ore we have failed. The main reason is very low capacity of the separators. Need to develop dry screening without sieve.

According to the SAG and flotation I will not say anything.

The overall project is very beautiful.

I think it would be even better if we consider a small alternative or supplement to the project.

In Chile, as I know very well developed heap leaching of copper. This process now competes with flotation.

It is possible alternative flowsheet: conventional blasting and crushing to 50mm - microwave processing ore for liberation copper minerals - heap leaching of copper.

We were treated with microwaves ore of size 50 ... 100 mm. The results were good.

Here, we can obtain a reduction of water and energy consumption.