Yerakini Mines & Works

This is where it all started more than a century ago. In the magnesite-rich region of Yerakini, northern Greece, the ore is extracted by open pit methods. After blasting, the RoM material is transported by own trucks (dumpers) to the beneficiation departments. In parallel, pre-concentrated magnesite is produced from the RoM old stockpiles via mobile processing units (screening & magnetic separation).

The RoM material is crushed, screened at various size fractions and washed, whereupon it passes through different beneficiation processes (X-ray/camera/laser sorting, magnetic separation, dense media) depending on the desired chemistry of the kiln-feed magnesite. Overall, at Yerakini, there are 13 optical/X-ray sorters (7 camera, 5 laser and 1 X-ray), two classifying units, four magnetic separation lines and one dense media cyclone installation.

Calcination on site comes next: 3 rotary kilns and 1 shaft kiln, with a combined calcination capacity of 520 tpd, are fed with magnesite to produce caustic calcined magnesia and deadburned magnesia at ~900°C and ~1.800°C respectively. The caustic calcined magnesia RoK (run of kiln) is then conveyed to the CCM final processing plant for final milling and classification, whereas the deadburned magnesia RoK goes to the DBM final processing plant to produce basic monolithic refractories or specialty DBM powders for high-end applications.