A comprehensive energy study was carried out for the Red Chris mill, which processes copper-gold ore at a rate of 30,000 tonnes per day (t/d) and is located in Northern British Columbia. The study focused on identifying opportunities for energy conservation in the semi-autogenous grinding (SAG)-ball...
06-Jan-2020
Mineral processing consumes significant power, primarily in comminution, as well as significant amounts of water through hold-up in conventional tailings facilities. Reducing power and water consumption in comminution circuits can contribute to reduced operating costs and improved sustainability. Me...
06-Jan-2020
J. Starkey, B. Hilscher, S. Reeves and J. Hedderson
Canadian Mineral Processors Conference, 22-24 January 2019, Ottawa, Canada
ABSTRACT
As ore sorting becomes more common, it is important to quantify its impact on comminution circuits in order to precisely predict its effect on throughput,...
23-Apr-2019
G R Ballantyne, M Hilden, K Bartram and V Souto
14thAusIMM Mill Operators’ Conference, 29-31 August 2018, Brisbane, Australia
ABSTRACT
Particle sorting allows partially liberated minerals to be separated prior to energy intensive fine grinding.
Sensors select particles for separation a...
23-Oct-2018
B Nielsen, J Rohleder, H Lehto and C Robbe
MetPlant 2017 – Metallurgical Plant Design and Operating Strategies – World’s Best Practice, 11-12 Sep 2017, Perth, Australia
Abstract
Sensor-based ore sorting is being increasingly used to reduce the amount of low-grade and waste m...
26-Oct-2017
Lutke von Ketelhodt, L. Kotelo, N. Schmalbein
49th Annual Conference of Metallurgists, Vancouver, Canada, August 27-30, 2017.
Abstract
Barkerville Gold Mines (BGM) is focused on building a sustainable, low impact, innovative, high-margin mining company in British Columbia’s Cariboo mini...
26-Sep-2017
Brent Hilscher, Preetham Nayak, Leo Lorio, Nawoong Yoon
49th Annual Conference of Metallurgists, Vancouver, Canada, August 27-30, 2017.
Abstract
Mining has been a staple to technological advancement ever since the dawn of time. By harnessing the different physical and chemical properties...
26-Sep-2017
Henry Kurth
49th Annual Conference of Metallurgists, Vancouver, Canada, August 27-30, 2017.
Abstract
Real time analysis of conveyed bulk materials can be used to improve process performance by reducing variability, and upgrading ore quality through selective removal of increments of flow that...
26-Sep-2017
Arvin Mazhary, Huaizhe Li, Bern Klein
49th Annual Conference of Metallurgists, Vancouver, Canada, August 27-30, 2017.
Abstract
Although sensor-based ore sorting has gained significant attention recently, sorting gold deposits still face a high level of skepticism by gold mining companies. In...
26-Sep-2017
Peter Coghill, Channel Tissot, Rhys Palmer
49th Annual Conference of Metallurgists, Vancouver, Canada, August 27-30, 2017.
Abstract
Due to the low concentrations of gold, direct measurement of gold concentration in ore on-belt has not been seriously considered until now. Pre-concentratio...
26-Sep-2017
W VALERY (1), K DUFFY (1), P HOLTHAM (2), A REPLE (3), P WALKER (4), P ROSARIO (1)
PRESENTED AT IMPC 2016: XXVIII INTERNATIONAL MINERAL PROCESSING CONGRESS, AT QUEBEC CITY, CANADA
ABSTRACT
The mining industry is facing declining feed grades which require the mining and processing of larger volume...
18-Jul-2017
Bridging the gap: Understanding the economic impact of ore sorting on a mineral processing circuit
J Lessard (1), W Sweetser (1), K Bartram (2), J Figueroa (1) and L McHugh (1)
ABSTRACT
Automated, continuous ore sorting is a mature technology that has only been used to a limited extent...
26-May-2017
Technical Review and Evaluation of Ore Sorting Technology Incorporating Results from Four Properties
B Hilscher (1), P Nayak (1) and N Yoon (1)
49th Annual Canadian Minerals Processors Conference Proceedings, Ottawa, Canada, 2017.
ABSTRACT
The mining industry is currently facing chal...
26-May-2017
Upgrading low-grade gold ore stockpiles by preconcentration using ore sorting – an assessment of the economic impact and viability.
A N Parry and G van Wyk
Mill Operators Conference 2016
ABSTRACT
Sensor based automatic ore sorting technologies are used in the minerals industries to efficiently...
26-Apr-2017
Abstract
With energy costs increasing and ore grades diminishing, the role of pre-concentration in hard rock mining operations has been gaining greater interest. To maximise energy conservation, the pre-concentration process should be conducted at as coarse a grind size as possible, while minimis...
11-Jun-2016
X-ray transmission (XRT) sorting has been introduced into the minerals industry in 2006 and has found various applications in diamonds, industrial minerals, and metal ore processing since. The technology offers planar projection of the atomic density of single particles similar to the principle know...
21-May-2016
Abstract
Comminution and classification circuits consume significant amounts of energy. Some estimates show that comminution processes accounts for around 40 % of the total energy consumed in mining operations and 1.5-1.8 % of the total national energy consumption in mining intensive countries such...
19-Apr-2016
Abstract
This paper discusses how to effectively conduct energy efficiency studies during the design of new mineral processing plants and plant expansions. Energy management studies for new plants are ideally conducted as part of the feasibility study, but can also be done at the detailed design...
09-Apr-2016
Abstract
Near infrared sensors can be a very useful technique for the qualitative analysis of complex ores, and thus could be useful for the preconcentration of ores. In this paper, individual particles of hydrothermally-formed copper ore sampled from a mine in the Los Pozos mining district, northe...
29-Feb-2016
ABSTRACT
In 2012, a single module heavy medium cyclone plant (HMP) was installed at the Glencore Zinc’s (then Xstrata Zinc) McArthur River lead zinc mine. The HMP formed the first part of the MRM Phase 3 Project to increase run of mine (ROM) capacity from 2.4 to 5.5 Mt/a.
The purpose of the HMP...
17-Feb-2016
ABSTRACT
Over the 2012 to 2014 period, Anglo American Platinum (AAP) has been investigating the application of ore upgrading using XRF sensor technology sourced from Rados International, at Mintek South Africa. This has been in parallel with a more comprehensive sensor sorting investigation at th...
13-Feb-2016
Abstract
As high grade ore deposits are depleted, remaining deposits are generally lower grade and require the mining and processing of larger volumes of material per tonne of product. These low grade deposits often contain a large proportion of barren gangue. Pre-concentration aims to remove this...
26-Nov-2015
ABSTRACT
The benefits of pre-concentration using sensor-based sorting have been widely reported with the greatest potential impacts on low grade and high tonnage operations such those mining copper porphyry deposits. Due to the non-selective nature of bulk surface mining methods, significant quan...
25-Nov-2015
ABSTRACT
Geoscan (using PGNAA) is used for multi-elemental analysis of conveyed bulk materials in real time measuring continuously through the full bed depth, and unaffected by belt speed, particle size, layering and dust levels. Tonnage weighted results are used to monitor quality, divert increm...
25-Nov-2015
Abstract
In addition to minerals displaying variations in grade within an ore body, blasted rock often concentrates particular minerals preferentially into finer size fractions. Grade engineering strategies seek to exploit intrinsic heterogeneity and grade variability to improve the viability of op...
15-Nov-2015
Abstract
The UG2 ore in South Africa is exploited for its enrichment in the platinum group minerals (PGMs). Given that the PGMs are typically very fine grained, the potential for poor liberation is high, especially with conventional cyclones providing a poor split of the coarse silicates and fine c...
15-Jul-2015
Abstract
The JKMRC has recently reported a novel ore pre-concentration method using high voltage electrical pulses (Part 1 of this paper). The technique utilises metalliferous grain-induced selective breakage under a controlled pulse energy input, and size-based screening to separate the feed ore i...
15-Jul-2015
Abstract
A novel ore pre-concentration technique using high voltage pulses is proposed in this study. The technique utilises metalliferous grain-induced selective breakage, under a controlled pulse energy loading, and size-based screening to separate the feed ore into body breakage and surface brea...
14-Jul-2015
Abstract
There is increasing demand to optimise yield and increase capacity of crushing plants. Research in this area has resulted in the development of numerous optimisation tools, and recent research has shown that the quality aspects of production have great influence on the optimisation results...
12-Jun-2015
ABSTRACT
Pre-concentration of precious metal and base metal ore types is becoming more relevant with the discovery, development and operation of many lower grade deposits around the world. The fluctuations in metal prices expose many mines to risks especially dealing with low and variable ore gr...
02-Jun-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
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...
03-Apr-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
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
Abstract
Ore sorting technology represents a step-change improvement in eco-efficient comminution strategies. Sorting equipment offers the benefit of greatly reducing the comminution energy required per tonne of mineral processed by identifying stones that contain ore and separating them from sto...
02-Oct-2014
Ore blending for process optimization is becoming an increasing factor for managing cost and productivity. Economic mining and processing a very low value ore in an extremely competitive market results in constant cost-cutting initiatives. The inherent conflict between the lowest possible mining cos...
02-Jan-2004