Electrification and eco-efficiency at the forefront
Richard Harris is President of Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions, a business area focused on the crushing and screening of rocks. Eco-efficient rock processing contributes to the electrification of society and it can significantly reduce the mining industry’s carbon footprint.
In this episode, Richard Harris shares insights into the company’s strategic direction and the evolving landscape of rock processing. Harris, a veteran in the engineering field, discusses the business’s focus on efficiency and sustainability.
“Our job is really efficiency, and the more efficient we can be in extracting or crushing rock for our customers, we're using less energy per unit volume produced. That's where we really come in as a premium player and that's what we call eco efficient rock processing.
He sees a significant growth potential, particularly in mineral extraction for electrification and in the demolition and recycling markets.
“We see strong growth in minerals for electrification and that is a trend that is expected to continue,” Harris says.
In the company’s own offer, all stationary crushers and screens are already electrified, and Harris and his team is working hard on electrifying also the mobile units, where it’s possible.
In the mining value chain, the grinding phase is very energy consuming. If you could replace parts of the grinding process by crushing rock to a smaller size, significant amounts of energy could be saved.
“The smaller we can crush and move that material into the next stage of processing, the less milling is needed. The most energy used in the mining industry is in the milling process so that's why we like to crush more and grind less. Today we can crush about six millimeter and, in some cases, quite a lot lower than that,” Harris says.
Meet Sandvik Podcast
In each episode of the podcast Meet Sandvik you will meet different persons that give their perspective on Sandvik. Sometimes it´s an employee telling his or her story. Sometimes you will meet experts discussing how a hot topic can affect Sandvik.