Russell Mineral Equipment (RME) is a specialist mining equipment designer with its manufacturing plant based in Toowoomba, Queensland. Since our inception in 1987, we have combined the skills and ethics of high powered mechanical engineering design consultancy with the additional step of manufacturing those designs. Support of our product is unequalled, the ‘support engineer’ being the equipment ‘design engineer’.

The company has successfully grown a strong reputation around the world as a designer of equipment which delivers effective solutions to everyday processing problems. The primary focus of the engineering team is to develop equipment used by mine operators to reduce mill downtime in the process of replacing wear parts within the grinding mill areas of the concentrator. With these advances in the mechanisation of the mill relining process, significant improvements are now possible in mill availability. The considerations required to maximise these improvements are discussed in this paper New Developments and Practices in Lifters and Liners, first delivered at the Crushing and Grinding 2002 conference.

The Australian mining market quickly adopted the solutions developed during the growth of the mining industry in the early 1990’s and consumed 70% of RME’s production, however since 1996, the company has effectively developed the export market to a point where almost 90% of current production is heading offshore. Our equipment is now in most world mining markets including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Ghana, Canada, USA, Chile, Argentina, and Tanzania.

RME passions are innovation and quality, recognized by winning two consecutive Institution of Engineers Australia (QLD division) Engineering Excellence Awards for our liner placement Mill Relining Machines (1994) now being used worldwide and the E.V.W. Settling Tank Descaler (1995) designed and built for a major Alumina Refinery. In 1997, RME won the prestigious BHP Steel Award for the amazing Linerbolt Removing Tool, a powerful yet recoilless hydraulic hammer.