University of Queensland

After successful completion of two industrial research projects, Molycop is now funding two comprehensive research projects at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, to further advance the company’s new product development (NPD) capabilities.

Cutting-edge R&D

Molycop has invested in two projects at The University of Queensland (UQ). One aims to design a new testing methodology to evaluate the performance of grinding balls under fracture-related service scenarios. The second project is designed to optimise the heat treatment regimes for three main high chromium (HiCr) grades supplied by Molycop.

Molycop's partnership with UQ is evidence of its collaboration with major universities at the forefront of mining-related research fields. Direct support of research funding, such as for these two UQ projects, reveals Molycop's commitment to advanced research across all facets of the mining industry.

Why has Molycop invested in these projects?

The hard rock mining industry is facing complex social and economic challenges. This results in pressure on cost, capacity and the need for innovation in the grinding media portfolio.
The new product development (NPD) process, including the Stage-Gate system, is industry best practice for innovation and product development. It is widely used in physical product development and results in fast product development timeframes.
Molycop has responded to industry challenges by developing the cast chrome business portfolio. This includes investment in a foundry as well as in R&D.
Molycop has responded by investing in wear laboratory equipment that accelerates NPD timeframes. The edge chipping and fatigue testing are new industry testing regimes and constitute world’s best practice.

Ball mill edge chipping and ball mill impact fatigue

Grinding balls are consumed by several damage mechanisms under their service conditions. Most of the research works focused on the abrasive wear (or abrasion) as the main and/or only consumption mechanism.

This innovative exploratory PhD research project focuses on meso- and macro-scale fracture damages in grinding balls. These testing methodologies will be developed for Molycop’s BMAT machine and will be correlated with industrially accepted grinding media test such as DBT (drop ball tower).

The project is due to complete in December 2027.

What problems are being solved?

Enhances performance testing capabilities
Reduces product development cycle time
Increases certainty of product quality
Facilitates supplier benchmarking.

Our other research partnerships

Coalition for Energy Efficient Comminution

University of NSW: Metallurgy and materials recycling

Australian Research Council: Resource Recovery

Queen Mary University of London

University of Queensland: Better ball wear testing with BMAT

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