New MintMech engineering centre to apply offshore engineering expertise to mining
To support the integrated delivery of complex mining systems for projects in the UK and Ireland, specialist engineering company MintMech has opened a new engineering and manufacturing facility near Falmouth, Cornwall, drawing on its off-shore engineering experience.
The 750 sq.m Automation Manufacturing and Engineering Centre (AMEC) combines a 30-seat engineering office with workshop and yard space, enabling complete systems to be designed and built before installation and commissioning, MintMech claims, supporting a growing number of mining and critical minerals projects currently being delivered across the UK and Ireland.
In mining projects, where engineering scopes are often delivered across multiple packages and phases, coordination and interface control are critical to maintaining reliable system performance across the life of the asset. AMEC has been set up to support this type of delivery, enabling complex, multi-disciplinary systems to be brought together through a phased build approach. This gives greater control over interfaces and integration, reducing the risk that typically arises across multi-supplier builds, MintMech says.
MintMech co-Founder, Laurie Thornton, said: “Having our engineering, manufacturing and commissioning capabilities in one place allows for closer collaboration and knowledge transfer. Our heritage is in delivering complex systems for offshore environments, and we use the same engineering approach to support mining projects where reliability and integration across multiple systems are just as critical.
“Many of the constraints we see in mining environments are familiar from offshore projects. Space is limited, access is restricted, power availability can be challenging and downtime carries a direct cost.
“In some cases, it’s possible to apply the same systems across both environments. For example, working in flooded shafts presents similar engineering conditions to sub-sea operations. Air lift pumping can be used to remove material from a flooded shaft in much the same way as it would be used to clear cuttings from a large-diameter borehole at sea.”
MintMech Director, Jack Berryman, added: “We often find that engineering solutions developed for marine environments can be adapted to solve challenges in mining. That crossover puts us in a strong position to support clients working across complex systems, and AMEC gives us the ability to bring those solutions together under one organisation.”
AMEC has received £250,000 ($331,072) from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. It has been developed to support the energy transition and bring specialist engineering capability closer to the projects that need it.
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