Volume Title: 12th Mill Operators' Conference 2014
The Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre has conducted an intensive VertiMill® (VTM) survey program at the Cannington mine concentrator as part of the ‘collaborative research in stirred milling technology’ program funded by Metso Minerals. Si...
15-May-2015
Mathematical modeling in conjunction with mineral characterization is widely used as a method for design and optimization of comminution circuits, to simulate the processes of crushing, grinding and classification. An important input parameter to the simulation models is the Run-of-Mine Particle Siz...
15-May-2015
Abstract
DRAMP was approached by the ARM/Lion Ore JV during July 2006 to conduct a feasibility study and Control Budget Estimate for a new Greenfield’s project for their NKOMATI Ni mine 45km east of Machadadorp. The scope included the evaluation and review of previous studies as well as a techno-...
17-Apr-2015
There are a lot of good reasons to manage energy use at mining operations. Optimizing process energy use reduces operating costs. Tracking energy use can help identify unplanned process changes or malfunctioning equipment early, which allows problems to be corrected promptly.
Sacré-Davey Engineer...
03-Apr-2015
Orway Mineral Consultants Ltd (OMC) as a consultancy has specialized in comminution circuit design for over 30 years. The OMC Power Model is OMC’s in-house software for specific grinding energy power-based circuit calculations. The model uses ore hardness parameters from testwork, circuit configurat...
03-Apr-2015
Niobec has been using vibrating screens and screw classifiers as a double stage classification in its grinding circuit since the very beginning of its operation in St- Honoré. Most of the other mineral processing plants around the world uses cyclones as the classification device in their grinding ci...
03-Apr-2015
New Gold Inc.’s New Afton concentrator commenced operation in June 2012, producing a copper-gold-silver concentrate. During the first two years of operation, various optimization efforts have improved mill throughput, recoveries and concentrate grade. Daily mill throughput has increased 20% above th...
03-Apr-2015
Abstract
Optimisation and better control of milling circuits require extensive modelling of milling data. This paper extends the enquiry to the use of the attainable region (AR) technique to determine the optimal residence time of ore in a ball mill. It also evaluates the energy requirements of the...
03-Apr-2015
Abstract
The total energy consumption for ore comminution will further increase within the next decades. One contribution to minimise the increase is to use more efficient comminution equipment. Vertical-roller-mills (VRM) are an energy-efficient alternative to conventional grinding technology. O...
03-Apr-2015
Abstract
Stirred mill power has been modelled empirically, adimensionally and computational intensively through the use of the discrete element method and computational fluid dynamics. To this range of power modelling efforts, one more is added through the development of a shear based power for s...
03-Apr-2015
CMP 2015
Orway Mineral Consultants Ltd (OMC) as a consultancy has specialized in comminution circuit design for over 30 years. The OMC Power Model is OMC’s in-house software for specific grinding energy power-based circuit calculations. The model uses ore hardness parameters from testwork, circui...
02-Apr-2015
The key themes for the 2014 Workshop were best practice and benchmarking. The workshop took place in Vancouver over a 2-day period. Each day included keynote speakers who set the scene for the participants prior to break our sessions for discussion. Keynote speaker topics included, but were not limi...
02-Apr-2015
Abstract
The surface chemistry and mineral liberation changes of a porphyry copper ore after high voltage pulse (HVP) electrical comminution have been investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and mineral liberation analysis (MLA). Previous studies suggest that electrical comminutio...
28-Mar-2015
Edge effect is the widely observed condition of impaired comminution performance at the edges of High Pressure Grinding Roll (HPGR) tires. This effect is caused by a reduction in the local crushing pressure at the edges of the tires resulting from the interaction between the static cheek plates and...
16-Mar-2015
High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) technology is the continuous version of the confined particle-bed breakage. Feed size distribution has a key role in total specific energy consumption and product size reduction. Fines in the HPGR feed are defined as relatively small particles that should not unde...
16-Mar-2015
CITIC SMCC has developed a comprehensive system for the design and optimisation of comminution circuits, which is primarily based on the broad range of comminution simulation models developed by Dr. Stephen Morrell and validated against CITIC SMCC’s large industrial database generated by over 150 op...
16-Mar-2015
Achieving resource efficient production throughout the metal value is an imperative for society. This paper will discuss resource efficiency in a system integrated manner. It will highlight the role technology and its innovation as well as system optimization and its innovation as key drivers. Integ...
16-Mar-2015
In the last years the mining industry due to the effect of continuous decrease of metal prices and increase of operation costs that has impacted the economic performance of Mineral Processing Plants. These effects made extremely necessary to optimize productivity and profitability in actual mineral...
16-Mar-2015
Developments in ore sorting technologies have provided the ability to achieve economic dry pre-concentration of ores prior to a grinding/concentration circuit and, in some cases, produce a high grade concentrate of sufficient quality for end use. The use of dual X-ray transmission (XRT) sorting has...
16-Mar-2015
Traditional motors for milling technology has relied on either Wound Rotor Induction, Low Speed Synchronous Motors, or Asynchronous Induction Motors with mechanical gear reducers. A new alternative is now offered: The Low Speed Asynchronous Motor. This alternative provides the benefit of reduced com...
16-Mar-2015
Multi-stage crushing plants, including high pressure grinding roll (HPGR) circuits, require more materials handling equipment than SAG and ball mill circuits. A temptation exists to neglect the energy consumption of materials handling when doing desktop comparisons of HPGR versus SAG milling circuit...
13-Mar-2015
The demand for minerals and metals is increasing. Head grades of ore bodies are dropping. Remaining ores are becoming finer grained, more complex, and more logistically challenging. Mineral processing – in particular comminution – already consumes a huge amount of energy. But in 20 years’ time, it w...
13-Mar-2015
It has been widely accepted to go for grate discharge ball milling when a coarse product is preferred or to avoid production of extreme fines, but overflow discharge mills are preferred for their simplicity of design and production of finer product. In grate discharge mills the product is discharged...
13-Mar-2015
The High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) is a relatively new comminution technology that has been shown to be more energy efficient compared to semi- autogeneous (SAG) mills. Full and fair consideration cannot be given to HPGR-based comminution circuits in early stage projects, because presently pilo...
13-Mar-2015
Lake Shore Gold is engaged in commercial gold production at both the Timmins West and Bell Creek mines, located in Timmins, Ontario. Run of mine ore is processed at the Bell Creek mill which consists of a conventional gold mill flow sheet involving crushing, grinding, gravity concentration and carbo...
13-Mar-2015
Taseko Mines Limited Gibraltar copper-molybdenum mine recommenced operation in 2004 with the initiation of a series of development projects to increase throughput capacity as well as modernize the mine.
In the second staged development project, a VTM- 1250-WB regrind mill was selected to replace...
13-Mar-2015
Recent copper price evolution pushes modern mining industry even harder to achieve highest production with maximum efficiency. Operations are bound by numerous contractual and environmental conditions that bring a high degree of complexity to both the operators controlling the process and the plant...
13-Mar-2015
The Functional Performance Equation for ball milling circuits provides plant staff with a new means to improve circuit performance. However, successful execution of a plant processing performance improvement project, with verifiable improvements, requires a significant number of accompanying steps b...
13-Mar-2015
Although ore sorting in mining is not a new concept, sensor-based sorting has failed to gain broad acceptance due to perceived challenges with the technology. In order to gain wider applications, this research focuses on treating waste rock and low-grade ore to identify and test appropriate sensors...
13-Mar-2015
Twin Metals Minnesota LLC, (TMM) has recently completed a prefeasibility study evaluating the development and operation of an underground copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), and gold (Au) mining project on the Maturi deposit in northeastern Minnesota.
The Maturi deposit is a...
13-Mar-2015
Abstract
Comminution is known to be an inefficient user of energy. This makes it the largest energy consumer in many mine sites and therefore a large component of cost. One would therefore have thought that improving comminution energy efficiency would be receiving the undivided attention of the mi...
13-Feb-2015
Abstract
This paper describes a methodology to monitor axial mixing in an IsaMill as a function of mill feed flow rate, mill tip speed and media load. Steady state temperature measurements (profiles) along the mill length were used to quantify the degree of mixing during the comminution process. Co...
13-Feb-2015
Abstract
Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulation using a breakage model is applied to study a broad range of existing compression based crushers to better understand machine level operation and to demonstrate that such modelling is now possible. Predictions for five types of crushers: jaw crusher,...
13-Feb-2015
ABSTRACT
Operational grinding mills emit significant acoustic emissions which are a consequence of the dynamic environment prevailing inside them. From a technical perspective, the noise presents an opportunity to determine some details of the processes occurring inside the mills. The noise generat...
11-Feb-2015
The process of grinding in drum mills is directly dependent on the dynamic forces occurring in the free movement of the grinding bodies in the volume. The subject of discussion are the potential impacts between grinding bodies having different shape and equal weight in a drum mill that has a diamet...
04-Feb-2015
Spherical grinding media (balls) are the most widely used media for comminution of ores by grinding.
One way to optimize the grinding process in a tumbling mill is associated with the development and testing of a new media shape. by modelling simulations study of the behavior of two types of grin...
04-Feb-2015
ABSTRACT
Copper Mountain’s concentrator was commissioned in May 2011. The circuit consists of a 34’ x 20’ EGL SAG mill, a Raptor 900 pebble crusher and two 24’ x 39’6” ball mills. Each mill is equipped with a 2 x 8500 HP dual pinion drive system. The plant was designed to process 1585 mtph of SAG...
03-Feb-2015
Abstract
An energy audit was conducted on a base metal milling facility where a top-down, bottom-up approach was presented to balance data measurements and estimates. The relation between throughput and specific electricity consumption, presented as a part-load efficiency curve for a milling operat...
03-Feb-2015
The Mine to Mill course identifies the changes to practice required to optimise performance in blasting and comminution to maximise profitability and energy efficiency.
February 2015 | Denver, Colorado
9-11 July 2015 | Zambia
October 2015 | Chile
17-Jan-2015
Today the main objective of improving the process of ore dressing is toreduce energy consumption and performance of the basic rule of auxiliary enrichment processes.
One of the modern means of ore destruction with a minimum of energy consumption is the inter-particle fracturing , for example in t...
07-Jan-2015
Most SAG grinding operations currently use ball size between 5.5 and 6 inch maximum size, However, in most cases the use of these ball sizes hasn't been justified by a phenomenological analysis of the real effect on the grinding process, but rather by trial and error. The analysis of the influence o...
07-Jan-2015
SABC circuits have gained widespread attention within China, and are being gradually applied to many mines. However the domestic knowledge of commintion process is still relatively basic, and the design and production management of the application of SABC technology lack guidance of scientific theor...
06-Dec-2014
The consumption of aggregates in civil construction has increased considerably in Brazil for the last years. The extraction of sand and gravel generates significant environmental impacts. As the quarries and sand deposits are getting exhausted near the big cities, the price of aggregates is increasi...
06-Dec-2014
In recent years, DEM ( discrete element method) software, along with 3D laser measuring equipment, have become powerful tools to describe mill charge behavior, as well as forces acting on the liners of SAG mills. With the aim of contributing to streamline this application of the advanced technologie...
06-Dec-2014
EEO program
Industry: Mining, minerals processing
Key driver for optimisation: Productivity
Improvement Focus: Process control
Location: Laverton, Western Australia Product(s): Gold
Cost to implement: NA
Annual Savings: NA
Payback Period: NA
Employees: 500
Energy sources: natura...
04-Dec-2014
Industry: Mining, minerals processing
Key driver for optimisation: Productivity
Improvement Focus: Process control
Location: Laverton, Western Australia Product(s): Gold
Cost to implement: NA
Annual Savings: NA
Payback Period: NA
Employees: 500
Energy sources: natural gas and diese...
04-Dec-2014
Case Study Snapshot
Industry: Mining
Energy Management System (EnMS) guidance/standard: CAN/CSA-ISO 50001
Key driver for EnMS: Cost reduction
Improvement focus: Energy efficiency for mine production and operations
Location: New Afton Mine, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
Product(s): Gold an...
04-Dec-2014
The search for energy efficient technologies for comminution processes is constant in mineral processing studies, since those processes represent a major percentage of operational costs. In this context the sue of stirred mills is increasing, especially for ultrafine grinding. Although many authors...
22-Nov-2014
Volume Title: 12th Mill Operators' Conference 2014
Semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill control is complex and depends on many dynamic process variables. Good control strategies ensure that a mill is operating as close to optimal as possible, resulting in significant economic benefits to an operatio...
15-Nov-2014
Volume Title: 12th Mill Operators' Conference 2014
The grinding circuit at PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PTNNT) – Batu Hijau mine consists of two SABC (semi-autogenous milling, ball milling, pebble crushing) trains, including four 20′ × 33′6″ ball mills that have been lined with steel liners since the...
15-Nov-2014