What is the relevance of the Canadian mining sector for Metso Outotec and what is the company’s vision for the Americas?

We have been operating in Canada for over 100 years and are greatly committed to supporting this market because of its global reach and the many operating mines and customer sites across the country. We pride ourselves in having strong relationships with our customers, offering a wide variety of services, and helping them optimize their sites. We have a large presence in Eastern and Central Canada and are hoping to expand our presence more to the Western part of the country as well. Metso Outotec has divided the globe into eight different market areas, North and Central America being one of them spanning from Canada through to Panama. We support our entire install base with our local footprint of service centers, repair facilities, warehouses and factories.

Which of Metso Outotec’s services are the key drivers for growth and most in demand in the Canadian mining sector, specifically Ontario?

With labor shortages and difficulty to get skilled people to remote sites, Metso Outotec is able to support customer demand with remote type services such as monitoring or digitization. We continuously assist our customers in identifying bottlenecks and offer them solutions to help them get the most out of their equipment to maximize production. The globe is currently experiencing great supply chain issues and securing a good supply chain is extremely important today. Metso Outotec develops partnerships with our customers and assists them with their planning and preparation to ensure that they are not falling short. We support them with Life Cycle Services contracts, supply and consignment agreements, and work with them in understanding their short and long term needs to ensure their pipeline is full and they are not risking their operations. We have taken action to improve our own logistics and supply chain. Our recently inaugurated state-of-the-art warehousing facility was one of our efforts to help our logistics supply chain to ensure that our warehousing is more reliable. We have also put more focus on planning and trying to understand lead times globally.  

Can you elaborate on Metso Outotec’s eScrap solutions and how this technology is contributing to the green revolution we are entering?

eScrap is one of the fastest growing waste streams worldwide and it is becoming increasingly complex how we manage this waste. There is a great need for safe and environmentally friendly recycling. Metso Outotec’s eScrap solutions unlock the value of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) using our proven smelting, refining, hydrometallurgy, and gas-cleaning technologies. By turning waste into valuable metals, our solutions help to take advantage of the exciting new opportunities being created now for the circular economy of the future. Emission reduction, decreased water consumption, and recycling form a big part of the company’s agenda in all our R&D activities and moving forward.

Metso Outotec itself has the target of reducing our carbon emissions by 50% by 2024, and to reach net zero by 2030. In terms of our logistics and supply chain, our objective is to reduce emissions by 20% by 2025. We aim to help our customers achieve zero emissions through the optimization solutions we offer them.   

What are some of the main challenges mining companies face today?

Water conservation is a big challenge to the mining industry because they are often lacking the resource. Mines need to make sure that there is enough water for the local communities whilst keeping their operations running. Metso Outotec plays a key role in helping mining companies develop solutions where they can recuperate water and reduce their consumption. Overall, mining companies are looking to have a lesser impact on the environment, driving the demand for solutions to help improve sustainability and efficiency.

Can you highlight a success story where Metso Outotec helped a customer optimize their operations?

One successful project to highlight is Metso Outotec’s recent collaboration with the New Afton gold-copper mine in British Columbia. The customer has a flotation frother circuit which includes six Metso Outotec tank cells. In 2019, we did a flotation performance study which concluded that there was a need for higher froth recoveries. Two of the tank cells were thus modernized with center launders which substantially improved the froth zone characteristics and led to a significant improvement in operations.  Metso Outotec is also excited to be working on the Nouveau Monde graphite project in Quebec as well as the First Cobalt refinery project in Ontario.