NHI Headlines

Fangda Group Northern Heavy Industries: 20 "Extreme Customization" Feeders Assist in the commissioning of Africa's largest mine

Published:2025-11-18

On November 11th, the reporter learned from Fangda Group North Heavy Industries that the commissioning ceremony of the Simandou iron mine project in Guinea was held recently. As the largest mine in Africa, the Simandou iron ore project is a super project that drives the nerves of the global steel industry, with 20 heavy-duty plate feeders designed and manufactured by Fangda Group's Northern Heavy Industries.

The Simandou iron mine project located in the Republic of Guinea in West Africa is one of the world's best quality and largest mining projects, covering mining, railway, port and other systems, with a total investment of over 20 billion US dollars. The project adopts "Chinese standards," "Chinese design," "Chinese construction," and "Chinese equipment." The successful production of the project is an important milestone in the history of global mining.

In 2024, Northern Heavy Industries successfully won the bid for 20 heavy-duty plate feeders for the Simandou project. The good news has also brought tremendous pressure, as the project team has almost reached a strict level regarding the technology of the plate feeder: the width of the equipment chain plate is limited to within 2200 millimeters, but the transportation capacity must reach an astonishing 2500 tons per hour. Under normal circumstances, the capacity of a feeder of the same width is about 1500 tons per hour. In the eyes of international peers, this is almost an 'impossible task'.

Embracing challenges and overcoming difficulties, a technological battle centered around "ultimate carrying capacity" quickly began at Northern Heavy Industries. After countless rounds of argumentation and optimization, innovative solutions have emerged: the team has repeatedly strengthened and optimized the structure of core components such as the spindle, sprocket, tugboat, and chain plate, and the unique double arc chain plate structure effectively improves the force distribution. More importantly, the team boldly used new high-performance alloy materials on vulnerable key components such as supporting wheels and chain wheels, and significantly deepened the quenching layer depth of the rollers through special heat treatment processes, achieving a qualitative leap in wear resistance and load-bearing capacity.

In the end, these 20 devices not only met all technical parameter requirements, but also won high praise from the project team.