Weir said it signed an exclusive license with KHD, giving direct control over the design, manufacture and dis-tribution of High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) in minerals processing applications using KHD technology. KHD will receive royalty payments on equipment sales.

Over the past three years Weir has acted as KHD’s agent for the marketing of HPGRs in the minerals sector, operat-ing on a commission-only basis. During 2011–2012, KHD’s annual order intake from this agreement averaged €25 mil-lion ($32 million).

In another venture, Weir said its entry into the crusher market has been secured through a partnership with Minyu Machinery Corp., a Taiwanese designer and manufacturer of crushing equipment. Weir now has an agreement to sell Minyu’s existing range of cone crushers to Weir Minerals’ customers. The two parties have also formed a joint venture, majority owned and operated by Weir, to develop higher-capacity machines suitable for use in larger mine applications. It is expected that the line of new, larger cone crushers will be launched within three years.

Weir also completed the acquisition of Aspir, an Australia-based centrifuge pro-ducer whose technology, said Weir, will enable Weir to provide packaged miner-als classification solutions when com-bined with its existing screens and hydro-cyclones portfolio.

The combined upfront cost of these agreements, according to Weir, is £7 mil-lion ($10.7 million) with a similar amount expected to be invested over the next three years.

Weir Chief Executive Keith Cochrane said, “These agreements will extend our addressable market by around £750 mil-lion and represent the logical next steps in our growth strategy in minerals pro-cessing, providing access to attractive markets that we know well and can bene-fit from our capabilities and technology.”