The bearing failure on May 15 put a temporary stop to production, but Hillgrove Resources used the lay time to replace the failed bearing and do other repairs and refurbishment work, including a semi-autogenous grinding mill girth gear rotation.
Doing this planned preventative maintenance now means Hillgrove can reduce the quarterly scheduled shut down in July by three days.
The primary crusher has been used continuously since 2013 without any major maintenance issues, and according to Hillgrove replacing the bearing will return the crusher to full working order.
The processing facility is the old Pillara mine plant that was used by the Lennard Shelf joint venture for its lead-zinc mine in Western Australia's far-north from 2006 to 2008.
The proc...
