Project Status: CSRP componenet of the project complete. Further work continued through AMIRA.
Project Participants: Alcoa, BHP Billiton, Newmont, Rio Tinto, University of Queensland, Xstrata, Anglo Platinum, Hatch, AMIRA
Project Leader: Emmy Manlapig (University of Queensland)
The vision of the AMIRA P9O project is to improve comminution, classification and flotation performance on sponsor sites through modelling, simulation and characterisation of particles and their process environments, and through training and transfer of skills and technology to the industry. Based on the past achievements of AMIRA P9N, the AMIRA P9O project and associated projects aim to
develop an integrated, multi-component simulator structure of the entire comminution, classification and flotation process chain, and multi-component models of the unit operations. The project will also deliver new measurement and characterisation (and other) tools, which will considerably enhance the ability to predict and improve plant performance.
The goals of this research are to incorporate mineralogy and rock type along the process chain through multi-component modelling, integrate simulation of comminution, classification and flotation circuits, improve understanding of specific comminution processes and understand physico-chemical effects on floatability (reagents, grind/regrind).
CSRP participants have been working with AMIRA project participants on several areas:
Work continued on a multi-component model that can predict the distribution of minerals in the broken fragments of ore, given the size distribution and grain size distribution of the minerals in the parent rock. Three surveys were conducted at Kanowna Belle plant and a model of the grinding circuit was developed. Analysis of the particles using cone beam tomography is underway, with the outcome to be
validated from measurements using MLA. Development of the breakage model is also underway.
CSRP's work on a multi-component Autogenous Grinding/Semi-Autogenous Grinding (AG/SAG) mill model has previously proved the hypothesis that the breakage rates, mill load and throughput are affected by the proportion of the different components in the feed. Development of the model incorporated feeds with different hardness and measured the breakage of a hard component (mineral) and a soft component (mineral) in the SAG mill environment.
An integrated pilot plant campaign was carried out at the Frank Pilot Plant testing facility of Anglo Platinum in November 2009. A total of six runs were performed in order to generate a good data set to validate the models and testing procedures. The application of the model is being studied using data from this pilot plant study.
A Run-of-Mine (RoM) ball mill project is developing a model for this type of mill. There is little information on the best operating practices for the RoM ball mill and the influence of key operating variables on throughput and grind is not well understood. Both full plant scale surveys and pilot plant campaigns were adopted to collect data for the RoM ball mill operations. The main deliverable is a model that can be used for both optimisation and design studies. Site work was carried out at Lonmin and Anglo Platinum operations in South Africa. Ore characterisation tests for the base case survey were performed at the JKMRC and the results were incorporated into the database for RoM ball mill modelling.
A mathematical model to predict the breakage of monosize particles has been developed and has been very successful in describing the breakage of a variety of materials under variable breakage conditions (ball size, impact energy and bed configuration). This model allows the mechanistic model of the ball to take into account explicitly the effect of several physical variables, with little or no need for model fitting.
Further development of these models, test work and surveys will continue beyond the term of CSRP, through the support of AMIRA.