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
The Dumont deposit is a large (1,179 Mt proven and probable reserve) low grade (0.27% nickel) nickel sulphide project located in the Abitibi region 25 km west of Amos, Quebec. Royal Nickel Corporation acquired the project in 2007 and has since taken the project from a scoping study in 20...
08-Apr-2016
Abstract
AngloGold Ashanti was an early adopter of High Pressure Grinding Roll (HPGR) technology at both Tropicana Mine and the Gramalote Project. The increased energy efficiency achieved by HPGRs through confined bed breakage has been extensively researched in small scale tests, but slow industry...
01-Apr-2016
Abstract
Stirred mill technology dates back to 1928 where the idea to use "an agitator and spherical grinding media" was presented. In the context of the mining industry, interest in stirred milling technologies has grown over the last 20 years where the typical observation reported in the literatu...
20-Mar-2016
Abstract
The Detour Lake mine is located in north-eastern Ontario, approximately three hundred kilometres north-east of Timmins and 185 kilometres by road north-east of Cochrane.
The mill processes a free milling gold ore using both gravity circuit and leaching with a state of the art carbon-in...
20-Mar-2016
Abstract
This paper discusses the process design and layout of the Constancia Project comminution circuit. The circuit consists of a 60 x 113 primary crusher, two 16 MW SAG mills and two 16 MW ball mills. All four mills are twin pinion with wound rotor motor and gearbox drives. Provision for pebb...
16-Mar-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
Mill filling is an important operational parameter in a SAG mill circuit and by its control and optimisation it can produce significant improvements in production capacity and energy efficiency. However, it is industry practice to report mill load as the total output given by load cells, o...
20-Feb-2016
Abstract
The breakage characteristics of a two-component ore in a confined bed was studied in this work in order to predict the breakage behaviour of a multi-component ore from the properties of individual components. Bed compression tests with each single component and blended components at differ...
19-Feb-2016
Abstract
A specific energy-based size reduction model for batch grinding ball mills was reported in a previous paper (Shi and Xie, 2015). A discharge function modified from the Whiten classification efficiency equation has been incorporated in the size reduction model to extend its applications fro...
19-Feb-2016
Abstract
The slurry level in AG/SAG and ball mills has an influence on their power draw, which in some instances can be profound. This is particularly the case with so-called slurry pooling in AG/SAG mills which can result in significant lowering of power draw. From a predictive viewpoint there are...
19-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
The Institute of Mineral Processing at the Montanuniversitaet Leoben in cooperation with the company CEMTEC has developed a pilot scale, 200 mm table diameter, vertical roller mill for energy controlled laboratory tests. The mill provides the technical options to vary process parameters li...
12-Feb-2016
Abstract
In the dry grinding industry the demand for very fine particle size distributions is increasing rapidly. At the same time a growing awareness for an economical management of our planet's resources has raised the demand for energy efficient processes.
Roller mills in general and specific...
12-Feb-2016
Abstract
Liners in grinding mills not only protect the mill shell from the aggressive environment inside the mill, but they also play a significant role in the efficiency of grinding. The design of mill liners dictates the charge trajectory and hence the grinding efficiency. The common approach in...
12-Feb-2016
Abstract
SELFRAG AG has developed a flexible pilot scale Pre-Weakening Testing Station (PWTS) using high voltage pulses (HVP). This provides a unique opportunity to investigate the machine setting conditions on ore breakage behaviour. A joint campaign was undertaken by the Julius Kruttschnitt Miner...
12-Feb-2016
Abstract
This paper compares the performance associated with both direct and reverse ball mill closed circuit configurations. Survey campaigns were carried out in both Samarco Mineração industrial plants, i.e., Concentrator I and Concentrator II. The former is equipped with a reverse-configured b...
12-Feb-2016
Abstract
Declining ore grade, leading to increased material transport and plant throughout requirements, is one of the major challenges in the current mining environment. This is accompanied by rising energy and labour costs, decreasing plant productivity and the requirement for highest plant avail...
20-Jan-2016
Abstract
Early gangue rejection or metal preconcentration at coarse scale (millimetres) based on size has been identified as a feasible operating alternative whereby energy efficiency and unit metal productivity can be greatly increased. This is achieved by understanding and exploiting ore-specific...
18-Jan-2016
Abstract
Reduction of energy consumption at Jhamarkotra Phosphate concentrator of M/s Rajasthan State Mines and Minerals Ltd was achieved in three stages (1) stabilizing the through put as per the norms of the detailed feasibility report of the project to achieve energy consumption to 53 - 56 kWh...
17-Jan-2016
Abstract
The latest state of the art on Discrete Element Method (DEM) and the increased computational power are capable of incorporating and resolving complex physics in comminution devices such as tumbling mills. A full 3D simulation providing a comprehensive prediction of bulk particle dynamics i...
12-Jan-2016
SAG 2015
A simple strategy is required for assessing the efficiency with which comminution circuits apply energy to achieve size reduction. A coherent methodology has been developed, based on well established theories, to graphically identify the opportunities for process improvement and the pote...
03-Jan-2016
Day Two of the International Mining and Resources Conference down in Melbourne opened with a bang on Wednesday 11 November 2015. After a fascinating talk from McLaren Applied Technologies on how the F1 industry has innovated by applying existing technologies in different ways, Tony O'Neill, Technica...
02-Jan-2016
The recent IMARC conference included a session on productivity in mining, addressing energy, systems and labour themes. Speakers for the session included CEEC Director Dr Zeljka Pokrajcic, and Anita Stadler from the Australian Alliance to Save Energy.
Dr Pokrajcic presented a brief profile of CEE...
07-Dec-2015
ABSTRACT
The Kansanshi copper ore body consists of distinct sulphide and oxide zones as well as a variable transitional zone containing both oxide and sulphide minerals which is referred to as the mixed ore zone. All three ores exist in exploitable quantities for the life of mine. The impact and...
02-Dec-2015
Ban Houayxai is a gold-silver mine operated by Phu Bia Mining Limited in Laos since 2012. The first two years of operation processed predominately soft oxidised ore but subsequent years were expected to process more fresh hard ore. Fragmentation of the fresh primary ores was also expected to be much...
01-Dec-2015
ENHANCED OPEN GEAR LUBRICANTS PROVIDE TANGIBLE BENEFITS FOR HEAVY INDUSTRY – THEY ARE THE ‘CLEAR’ CHOICE FOR IMPROVED OPEN GEAR RELIABILITY
ABSTRACT
The maintenance of large open gear systems at mines, power or cement plants present a significant challenge due to the heavy loads and harsh enviro...
01-Dec-2015
ABSTRACT
PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara – Batu Hijau site mine to mill program has been systematically improved and resulting in Geo-Metallurgical detailed ore characteristics is successfully being used for short and long term business planning and mill throughput predictions. Actual plant operating an...
30-Nov-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...
26-Nov-2015
ABSTRACT
The total comminution and processing of hard ores to concentrate consumes a large amount of electrical energy and is theatrically reviewed. In the past two decades, research and case studies have demonstrated a beneficial relationship between explosive consumption and the grindability of...
26-Nov-2015
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
More complex ore bodies with lowering grades increase the challenges of maintaining high throughput, energy efficiency and required particle size for optimal downstream processing in grinding circuits. Continuous and often rapidly changing characteristics of the mill feed requires consta...
26-Nov-2015
Abstract
The effect of liner wear on SAG mill performance has gained much attention in recent years. It is commonly observed that the three key performance criteria of SAG milling; throughput, power and product size all improve as the liner wears.
The increase in throughput is generally ascrib...
26-Nov-2015
ABSTRACT
Mining consumes approximately 7% of the world’s energy from which almost half goes for comminution. Since the crushers are more energy efficient than mills, it is logic to push down-sizing in crushing stage(s) as far as possible. That has been Sandvik’s strategy in supplying crushers, in...
25-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
A process involving pre-concentration, drum agglomeration and column leach was evaluated for nickel laterite ores from Western Australia. The result showed that pre-concentration by selective comminution followed by size classification has a potential to upgrade nickel laterites and to i...
25-Nov-2015
ABSTRACT
A novel technique using high voltage pulses (HVP) for ore pre-concentration has recently been reported. The technique utilises metalliferous grain-induced selective breakage and size-based screening to separate the feed ore by grade. Four copper-gold ore samples were tested to demonstrat...
25-Nov-2015
ABSTRACT
Blasting plays a major role in the fragmentation of rock in open pit mining, which is then crushed and processed before the final product is obtained. Tailoring the blasting method to suit rock mass characteristics can lead to significant improvements downstream. Mine to Mill is a method...
25-Nov-2015
ABSTRACT
Comminution is usually the heaviest energy-consuming process in the mine site. These days when efficiency concerns are becoming more and more important, developing a reliable and highly efficient way to grind and crush ore is a new field being explored by main industrial players. This pa...
25-Nov-2015
ABSTRACT
The inherent conservatism of the mining industry is well understood, but the current hurdles encountered with financing new projects have complicated instances when new technologies such as high pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) are considered, especially if it translates into higher capita...
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
The ability to rank individual mines by comminution energy intensity in an international database was identified as a priority by the Coalition for Energy-Efficient Comminution in 2012 (Napier-Munn, Drinkwater, & Ballantyne, 2012). Providing a tool to compare the comminution energy int...
15-Nov-2015
Abstract
Selective comminution exploits differences in the comminution behavior of the various minerals an ore comprises. The wider the difference in a material property to be exploited the better the components accumulate in different fractions of the comminution product. The waste portion can be...
15-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 purpose of a mineral comminution circuit with a ball mill running in closed-loop with a hydrocyclone classification cluster is to feed the downstream process with the target particle size. Maintaining the optimal particle size in the flotation feed can significantly improve plant cash...
10-Oct-2015
Abstract
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd nominated Sunrise Dam Gold Mine as a case study via their involvement with the long-running Australian Mineral Industry Research Association (AMIRA) International P9P research program (AMIRA, 2015) . A group of researchers from the Global Comminution Collaborative (...
10-Oct-2015
Abstract
The comminution of commodity particles such as ore minerals in mining and metals from recycling of slags, armoured concrete, and incinerator slags by crushing, grinding, and milling makes up the biggest single cost factor in mineral processing. In spite of a marked lack in the developmen...
15-Sep-2015
ABSTRACT
In non-ferrous metal mining operations, it is generally necessary to crush and grind the ore to a very fine particle size to effectively liberate the contained mineral from the host rock. Fragmentation by blasting is the first stage of this comminution process. Numerous studies and indepen...
09-Sep-2015
Abstract
Over the last 30 years the average grade of ore bodies has significantly decreased while the proportion of waste removal has in many cases more than doubled. This in turn has led to a major increase in energy consumption and decrease in productivity across mining operations.
Metal preco...
09-Sep-2015