Weir HPGR Cuts Comminution Energy by Up to 40%, With 18–24 Month Payback

A Technology That Changes the Energy Equation in Comminution

Weir Group‘s ENDURON® high pressure grinding rolls have established a clear performance benchmark in mining comminution: up to 40% lower energy consumption compared with traditional tumbling mills. The technology operates on a laminated crushing principle — compressing material between two counter-rotating rolls under extreme pressure — rather than the impact and attrition mechanisms used by conventional mills. For an industry where comminution typically accounts for 30% to 50% of total plant electricity consumption, that figure is not an incremental improvement. It changes the operating economics of a concentrator.

The company has now extended the technology’s reach beyond hard rock mining. In 2026, Weir secured contracts to supply ENDURON® HPGR systems to Ivanhoe Mines‘ Platreef platinum group metals project in South Africa and to Zijin‘s Golden Ridge operation at the Akyem Mine in Ghana. At Platreef, the HPGR will form part of the Phase 2 concentrator‘s tertiary crushing circuit, supporting increased processing capacity at one of the world‘s largest precious metals deposits currently under development.

How Laminated Crushing Achieves the Saving

Conventional grinding mills consume energy by lifting steel media and dropping it onto ore. A substantial proportion of that energy is lost to heat, noise, and mechanical deformation of the mill itself. HPGR operates differently. It creates a compressed particle bed between the rolls, and the energy is transferred directly into the ore along grain boundaries. More than 90% of the energy imparted by an HPGR is stored as microcracks within the particles rather than being expressed as immediate size reduction. Those microcracks then make the downstream ball mill more efficient, because the ore fractures more readily.

The practical result is a reduction in Bond Work Index of 15% to 20% for downstream grinding, alongside a specific energy consumption of just 0.8 to 2.2 kWh per tonne at the HPGR stage itself. The machine also achieves availability above 95% , compared with approximately 80% for traditional crushers. For a concentrator running three shifts, that availability difference is worth thousands of tonnes of throughput per year.

Payback and Emissions: The Numbers Behind the Case

The capital cost of an HPGR installation is higher than a conventional crusher circuit. But the operating cost differential is large enough to compress the payback period to 18 to 24 months in most applications. A single ENDURON® HPGR unit can reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 200,000 tonnes per year when displacing a tumbling mill circuit. Those reductions come from two sources: the direct energy saving, and the reduced embodied energy from lower grinding media consumption.

Weir also offers an upgrade path for existing HPGR installations. The ENDURON Reframe solution replaces the roller assembly with longer rolls while retaining the existing bearings, hydraulics, and civil infrastructure. This avoids the capital cost and construction time of a full replacement, while delivering up to 25% more capacity.

What This Means for Operators Evaluating Their Circuit

The HPGR value proposition is strongest where three conditions apply: power costs are high, ore is competent enough to require grinding, and the flowsheet has room to absorb a change in feed characteristics. Weir‘s Kişladağ gold mine case in Türkiye illustrates the last point clearly. The operation replaced five tertiary crushers, six screens, and conveyor belts with a single ENDURON HPGR and was able to process 4,200 t/h while increasing gold recovery by 4% . The flowsheet simplified, the maintenance surface shrank, and the recovery improved.

Not every operation is ready for an HPGR, and Weir has been open about that. The technology suits high-tonnage, hard-rock circuits where the feed can be prepared consistently. It is less suited to small operations or ores that are already friable. The assessment requires test work — Weir runs HPGR trials at its technical centres to model how a specific ore will respond — because the efficiency gain depends on the ore‘s fracture characteristics, not on a generic performance curve.

Where the Wear Parts Economics Come In

An HPGR is not a fit-and-forget machine. The grinding rolls and their studded tyres are wear components, and they represent a substantial portion of the operating cost. The ENDURON® design uses a studded tyre that forms an autogenous wear layer during operation — the ore itself protects the roll surface — and the studs are installed at varying hardness across the full width of the tyre to mitigate uneven wear. Replacement rollers can be exchanged within a single 24-hour shutdown, which matters in a circuit where downtime is measured in lost tonnes.

For operations that are evaluating HPGR wear parts, the cost per tonne calculation is the same one that applies to cone crusher liners or jaw plates: the part price is only one input. The change-out time, the labour, and the production lost during the change all count. A tyre that costs more but runs longer and changes faster may still deliver a lower cost per tonne.

A Direct Alternative for Operations That Do Not Need the Full Platform

OCP Mechanical Company has manufactured mining equipment for over 40 years. We supply jaw crushers, cone crushers, impact crushers, VSI sand making machines, vibrating screens, feeders, and complete crushing and screening plants, along with wear parts in Mn18Cr2, Mn22Cr2, and high-chrome grades. We do not manufacture HPGRs. What we do is supply the crushing equipment that feeds the mill circuit — and the wear parts that keep it running — at factory-direct prices, without distributor margin.

For operations that have already committed to HPGR technology, that is a different conversation. For operations that are still evaluating their comminution circuit, the question is simpler: what does the feed preparation stage actually need, and what does it cost to keep it running? A jaw crusher that accepts the mine‘s run-of-mine size, a cone crusher that delivers consistent product to the next stage, and a screen that classifies without blinding — those are the components that decide whether the mill circuit operates at design capacity or below it.

Our online customer service team is available 24 hours a day to discuss equipment selection, provide updated pricing, and help you work out which configuration suits your ore and your site. If you are reviewing your crushing circuit and want a direct quote, click the chat button and start the conversation.

All price information provided is for reference only; final quotes depend on equipment configuration, shipping terms, optional features, and current exchange rates. Product specifications are continuously updated; please consult our online customer service for the latest parameters tailored to your application.