Russia-based leading global iron ore and hot briquetted iron producer Metalloinvest has announced that it has started the construction of a ball rolling facility at Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant (OEMK).
According to the company statement, the ball rolling mill will be able to produce about 43,000 mt of grinding balls with a diameter of 100-120 mm annually. The company plans to invest RUB 1 billion ($14.98 million) in this project. With this new facility, 85 additional jobs will be created for grinding ball production.
The new ball rolling facility is planned to start production in the fourth quarter of 2020. To supply equipment for steel grinding ball production, the company has signed a contract with Chinese engineering company WISDRI Engineering & Research Incorporation Ltd, which is a part of Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd.
Andrey Varichev, CEO of Metalloinvest, stated, “The construction of our own ball rolling facility will allow us to reduce dependency on key producers and suppliers of grinding balls, which will increase the efficiency of the company’s activities.”