Are SAG Mills Losing Market Confidence?

P STAPLES, G LANE, R BRAUN, B FOGGIATTO AND M P BUENO

PRESENTED AT SAG CONFERENCE, SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SEMIAUTOGENOUS AND HIGH PRESSURE GRINDING TECHNOLOGY, VANCOUVER, 20-24 SEPTEMBER 2015.

ABSTRACT

Autogenous (AG) and semi-autogenous (SAG) grinding mills are considered a mature technology, so why are we seeing a number of recent projects not achieving nameplate capacity and is SAG technology losing market confidence, particularly in financial circles? This paper presents a critical review of underperforming AG/SAG mills based on public domain information comparing design expectations with actual operational performance. Actions taken in operations to mitigate the issues and optimise mill performance are listed, including a high level discussion on capital and operating costs.

CITATION

Staples P, Lane G, Braun R, Foggiatto B and Bueno M P. Are SAG Mills Losing Market Confidence? In Proceedings SAG 2015 Conference, SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SEMIAUTOGENOUS AND HIGH PRESSURE GRINDING TECHNOLOGY, Vancouver, 20-24 September 2015.

(1) Ausenco, 144 Montague Road, South Brisbane, Australia QLD 4101

CEEC acknowledges and thanks Ausenco and the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM). The CIM Technical Paper Library may be searched here. Paper link is available from the authors here.

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