Public sector companies must open up and should give some preference to the technology over cost.
Subhajit Chaudhuri, VP – Sales and Projects, MMD India

“Our plan is to aggressively penetrate in both government and private sectors by explaining the proven technologies, the benefits and advantages and taking them to our existing installations worldwide for 80 different minerals,” said Subhajit Chaudhuri, Vice President – Sales and Projects, MMD India while interacting with B2B Purchase on the sidelines of IMME 2016. Excerpts:

How do you look at the changing scenario of mining industry?
Mining industry is in a right path. Coal block allocation is a good move from the coal ministry.  The government is continuously working on to bring in modern technologies for sustainable, systematic and better mining in India. MMD is keen to work with other companies and the government on these lines.  We want to contribute more into the green mining solutions. We have the products to support green mining and our new manufacturing facility in Sri City near Chennai is designed to provide these solutions ‘For India From India’. We intend to provide 24*7 after-sales support to miners in India.

Could you explain more on the green mining?
Global mining is changing rapidly: rising costs, environmental pressures and health and safety have called time on traditional truck and shovel methods. As the industry becomes increasingly aware of the need for “Sustainable Mining”, the ecological benefits derived from the elimination of dust and reduction of harmful greenhouse emissions caused by truck and shovel methods are self-evident. MMD’s innovative technology is at the forefront of this revolution.

IPSC systems are a cost-effective and safer alternative to discontinuous material haulage by dump trucks; reducing operating costs, improving safety, and reducing CO2 emissions, dust, and noise pollution. Employing either fully mobile, semi mobile or static sizer units in conjunction with conveyors, IPSC efficiently processes and transports material out of the mine.

For the ultimate in cost savings, environmental mining and portability, fully mobile sizer units (fully mobile IPSC) enable the use of efficient conveyor haulage directly from the mine face. They move frequently to work directly with the excavator, whilst sizing and delivering conveyable material onto the conveyor haulage system, eliminating trucks and their associated costs, safety risks and environmental impact. MMD has, throughout its existence, developed purpose designed mobile units to suit any mining method and material. The whole range of sizers can be incorporated into a wide range of transport options available to suit the duties and throughput required.

Can you quantify on the cost reduction?
If the conventional way of mining using drum trucks and shovels is replaced with MMD’s IPSC technology, the miner and the plant owner get the magnificent savings on total operational expenditure throughout the plant life, maintenance cost, installation cost as requirement of civil and support steel structures are very less.

How much have you invested in your Sri City facility?
We have already invested an amount of Rs  70 crore in order to make this facility. We understand that there is skilled labour in India. We can provide the same quality product like that of our parent company based in the UK. The cost comes down at a substantial rate as we are manufacturing in India. The delivery time also will come down. We have stock available for spare parts which helps us to provide after-sales support within 24 hours.

What is your business plan?
Our plan is to aggressively penetrate in both government and private sectors by explaining the proven technologies, the benefits and advantages and taking them to our existing installations worldwide for 80 different minerals. We faced the problem to be L1 (lowest bid price) in case of government projects. I strongly feel, the public sector companies must open up and should give some preference to the technology over cost. We are creating awareness within the PSUs by taking technical bodies to our installations and facilities.

In case of private jobs, we have very good presence in India for different minerals including coal, limestone, slag or gypsum, carbon anode, lignite and have 4,800 installations world-wide. Through our experience on over 80 different minerals and 350 customers, we are positioned to offer advanced technology at competitive rate within lesser lead time.

Are you exporting products from Sri City facility?
Built upon an area of 15 acres, our plant in Sri City becomes a hub for our Group. Our main focus is to manufacture spare components for our Group of Companies. Today we supply our spares and machine components to our Group of companies worldwide. The secondary MMD Twin Shaft Mineral Sizer having capacity of 1,500 tonnes per hour was displayed at the IMME 2016.