Russian mining and steel producing company Evraz Group has announced that it has started its ball mill construction project at Evraz NTMK in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. Production launch is scheduled for 2017, while total investment is expected to be RUB 1 billion ($23.86 million).
The annual production capacity of the new mill will be 135,000 mt. The product offering will feature steel grinding balls with diameters ranging from 80 mm to 130 mm. They will be hot rolled from continuously cast vacuum-treated ingots. The project envisages production of larger balls of superior hardness with wear resistance and surface hardness in line with the best imported comparables.
Evraz is the biggest player in the steel grinding balls market in Russia and the CIS. In 2013, it controlled 55 percent and 17 percent shares in those markets, respectively. In the given year, Evraz NTMK and Evraz ZSMK produced more than 230,000 mt of balls.