WHERE ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES IN COMMINUTION FOR IMPROVED ENERGY AND

WATER EFFICIENCY?

*Greg Lane1, Simon Hille2, Joe Pease3, & Matt Pyle4

1
Ausenco
144 Montague Rd.
South Brisbane, 4001
2
Newmont Goldcorp
3400 – 666 Burrard St.
Vancouver, BC, V6C 2X8
3
Mineralis
Unit 2 Level 1/42 Morrow St.
Taringa, QLD, 4068
4
Ausenco
144 Montague Rd.
South Brisbane, 4001
(*Corresponding author: Greg.Lane@ausenco.com)

Abstract

In this paper, the authors review the opportunities for improved energy and water efficiency in comminution circuit
design and operation. Specifically, the authors discuss methods for improving throughput and/or energy and water
efficiency for semi-autogenous grinding (SAG)-based and high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR)-based circuits.

For existing plants, best practice is to start from the correct base to ensure the current circuit operates to its best
efficiency. This discussion covers instrumentation and calibration; correct cyclone components and maintenance,
ball size, and grinding control loops; routine checks; and key performance indicators (KPIs) to keep the
comminution circuit running optimally.

For upgrades to existing projects and new projects, topics include:

• Blast design and reducing run-of-mine (ROM) particle size
• When do ore sorting, dense medium separation (DMS), and coarse particle flotation add value?
• Targeting size reduction with the correct size media in milling – multi-stage milling
• Coarse waste rejection
• Autogenous and pebble milling to reduce media consumption
• Improved classification efficiency:
- screens vs. cyclones
- efficient cyclone operation
• Compression crushing to fine sizes with the use of dry grinding and classification
• Water conservation opportunities and their project impacts.
Examples of flowsheets and technologies that can reduce energy consumption and improve energy and water
efficiency are provided based on recent projects. These are supported by case studies based on brownfield
optimisation work.

Keywords

Energy efficiency, water efficiency, Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution (CEEC), plant design, HPGR, Canadian
Mining Innovation Council (CMIC), EcoTailsR, GeoWasteR, Blue-water footprint, sustainability, SAG mill

1 | SAG CONFERENCE 2019 VANCOUVER | SEPTEMBER 22–26, 2019

Introduction

There have been some recent significant shifts in the inputs that are used to select the most appropriate
comminution circuit. Community attitude, the cost of energy, and the cost and availability of water have
combined to motivate mining houses to consider ways of improving energy and water efficiency.

As the throughput of large copper projects has increased from less than 50 kt/d in the 1960s to over 300 kt/d
this decade, the relative complexity of the processing plants has decreased, facilitated by the increased scale of
key equipment such as crushers, mills, flotation cells, pumps, and thickeners. The increase in equipment scale
has brought efficiencies in personnel and maintenance. In concert, energy efficiency has decreased, and water
efficiency has only improved where high unit water costs have driven projects to improved processes, such as
high density or filtered tailings disposal.

The decrease in energy efficiency has resulted from three factors:

1. Lower grade and generally more competent ore bodies are now being treated.
2. SAG mill-based circuits have taken over from multi-stage crush, rod, and ball mill circuits, where multi-
stage crush, rod, and ball mill circuits were more energy efficient when treating harder/more
competent ores.
3. SAG mill operation has moved from AG milling in the 1960s to high ball load SAG milling this century,
increasing the steel consumption and, thus, increasing the embodied energy consumption.

In this paper, the authors provide examples of flowsheets that can reduce energy consumption and improve
energy efficiency. These are supported by case studies based on brownfield optimisation work where
significant improvements have resulted from a combination of innovative thinking and effective actions.

Emerging Processes

Contemporary mining companies prioritize new and more efficient approaches. These approaches start in the
mine with improved energy efficiency as a result of blasting practice and progress through using technologies to
sort ore by grade and discard waste material at the coarsest possible size to improve both energy and water
efficiency. Waste streams then consist of more rock, more sand, and less traditional fine tailings material that
may be filtered to maximise water recovery or co-disposed. Examples are provided by Filmer and Alexander’s
patent (2017) and the EcoTailsR and GeoWasteR processes (Moore, 2019).

Focussed, higher intensity blasting is being used to improve fines production ex-pit and decrease downstream
comminution costs.

Bulk ore sorting at the shovel, loader, and on-conveyor is being tested by many major base metal mining
operations to assess whether low grade ore can be upgraded by rejecting waste components or used to separate
ore from waste ex-pit to improve operating costs.

There are also some interesting new machines emerging in the market, including those targeting high reduction
ratios from coarse feed, such as:

• Vibrating crushers – SPURT and TransMicron crushers

• Hi-speed mills fed by coarse rock – VeRo impact crusher.

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In parallel, staged grinding circuit studies continue to identify energy savings based on reducing size reduction
ratios and targeting each stage with specific media sizes/types. A specific focus on the removal of fine (sized)
product at each stage reduces the downstream circuit demands for energy.

In concert with the above, the size of filters specifically designed to treat large tonnages of tailings has increased
significantly and dry stacking of filtered tailings, co-disposal of tailings (sand or paste) with mine waste, or co-
mingling of filtered tailings with mine waste to form GeoWasteR is mainstream for feasibility study assessment
of new projects.

All of the above can be used to debottleneck and optimise the performance of existing plants. However, new
technology is not as critical to positive outcomes as realising the significant latent opportunities that still exist in
many operating plants to improve performance from existing unit operations through effective metallurgical
practice.

How are Energy and Water Efficiency Measured in Comminution Circuits?

ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Energy efficiency can be measured in a number of ways. Two of these are:

1. Benchmarking against laboratory test procedures and determining an “efficiency factor” as the ratio
actual energy consumed over a benchmark value; and
2. Assessing the energy consumption per tonne of metal produced.

The classical method is by comparing the operating work index in a plant with bench scale test work (Bond, 1961,
Barnes et al., 2004; McIvor, 2016). Internationally recognised benchmarking approaches are available based on
methods by Bond (McIvor, 2016) and Morrell (Daniel, 2016). All of these methods rely on the F80 and P80 as
measures of size distribution and cumulative size distributions of comminuted material tending to be parallel
with a slope of approximately 0.5 in log-log or Gates-Gaudin-Schumann space.

Issues arise when the ore size distributions are not parallel, for example when competent core is used in the
laboratory or the material is highly altered and has an abnormally high fines content. The crushing of competent
core can result in a fines deficient feed to a laboratory test. Conversely, tests done on material with high fines
content can result in an overestimation of the Bond work index if corrections to the method are not applied.

The Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution (CEEC) has been funding work to develop the concept of a size specific
energy (SSE) database (Ballantyne and Powell, 2015). The SSE calculation has typically used the amount of material
passing 75 μm as a reference point. This has a historical basis (Davis, 1919 and Hukki, 1968) as a reasonable amount
of material less than this size is produced by most comminution stages in current plants. Ballantyne (2019) has
observed the SSE approach can provide the same result as both the Bond and Morrell approaches depending on
the gradient of the size distributions. When the gradient of the size distributions equalled 0.5, the SSE was
mathematically equivalent to 1.44 times the Bond style operating work index. The SSE is proportional to the Morrell
approach when the gradient of the size distribution equalled the Morrell exponent parameter (0.295 + P80/1000000)
(Morrell, 2009). The advantage of using the size specific energy for efficiency benchmarking is that the reference
size can be altered to suit the specific stage of size reduction and various markers could be used to assess energy
consumption and efficiency at multiple reference sizes.

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WATER EFFICIENCY
Water efficiency can be defined as

• The water consumption per tonne of ore milled (m3/t); or

• The water consumption per tonne of metal produced (e.g., m3/t Cu).

The consumption per tonne of ore milled can range from as low as 0.2 m3/t for operations with filtered tailings
and mature water management practices to >0.7 m3/t for operations with low-density slurry tailings deposition
in arid climates. Whilst this measure is sometimes useful to benchmark the water consumed by the operation,
this metric can be somewhat misleading, as it simply defines the water consumption per tonne of tailings
produced.

An approach that better considers the “blue-water footprint” measures the total water consumption for the
operation (including mining, processing, tailings storage, product, discharge, and consumption) per unit of
product (m3/t product). For example, a copper concentrator treating ore at a head grade of 1% Cu with thickened
tailings might operate with a water consumption of 0.5 m3/t tailings and a water efficiency of 50 m3/t Cu. By
contextualising the water consumption in terms of product generated (rather than tailings generated) the
definition fundamentally changes the ways in which water-saving approaches are identified and measured and
refocusses on the goal of minerals processing to producing metal (rather than tailings). This approach to
assessing water consumption highlights that water efficiency actually decreases as head grades reduce. However,
water efficiency opportunities can be improved through a range of water conservation methods outlined later in
this paper, as well as plant improvements that include coarse waste rejection and methods to improve recovery.
Anything that increases head grade (e.g., selective mining, preconcentration, etc.) also reduces water
consumption per unit of metal.

An alternative approach for assessing water efficiency is to look at the water required by each stage of mineral
processing and to categorise the water demand in terms of unit water efficiency. For example, a SAG mill in a
typical copper concentrator will have a water efficiency of 0.4 m3/t of new ore, while a ball mill will have an
efficiency 1.9 m3/t of flotation feed when in closed circuit with cyclone. The impact of each stage of the flowsheet
can be assessed individually or as a whole, as required. This approach focusses on the root cause of high-water
consumption being the types of equipment selected to liberate and recover the metals. The high-water
consuming processes then become the “constraints”, and the water neutral or recovery processes are enablers
when trying to optimise water consumption or work with limited or expensive water supply.

Water efficiency is an area where a deeper understanding can be gained through appropriate benchmarking and
measurement. CEEC and Canadian Mining Innovation Council (CMIC) leadership teams recently proposed to
tackle the water intensity used in mineral processing in a similar way to that of the energy curves for
comminution and form “water curves” for the mining industry. The intent is to establish a new metric for water
intensity/efficiency in mineral processing that can be used to promote water efficiency.

Plant Optimisation Opportunities

The optimisation of plant comminution circuits starts in the mine and extends to the downstream plant processes.

The optimisation of project comminution processes typically comprises the following broad phases:

• Technical evaluation of what is possible (best practice) with the existing equipment to achieve
acceptable liberation.

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 • Challenging and changing the paradigms under which the project currently operates (policies and
people’s attitudes). This is a more strategic view of the process where the long-term sustainability of
the flowsheet from a broader community aspect needs to be considered.
• Consideration (including ultimate implementation) of new techniques or equipment to improve
performance. This aspect needs to be forward-looking to ensure that future value through
implementing emerging innovation is not left off the table.

Based on the authors’ experiences, the performance of all projects can be improved. Projects can be physically
constrained, typically in one or more of the following ways:

• Ore supply-bound, i.e., cannot increase throughput due to limitations in mine production; the revenue
improvements are limited to reducing operating costs and improving downstream beneficiation.
• Product-bound, i.e., it is not possible to produce more product due to market or materials handling
constraints.
• Infrastructure-bound, i.e., limited by water or power supply.
• Process plant-bound, i.e., the ideal case where the process plant is the economic bottleneck – more
often than not due to a grinding circuit constraint.
• Experience-bound, i.e., the plant personnel do not have the experience to recognise the opportunity
and/or the solution that results in improved performance of an operating plant.

Where the above limitations do not exist or have been recently addressed, the advantages of mine-to-mill
optimisation are magnified by the increase in throughput and resultant revenue. The revenue improvements
from increased throughput are generally substantially higher than the impact of operating cost reduction or
product quality.

Common to all cases, a well-planned optimisation program should be part of the “stay in business” planning
process.

ORE SUPPLY-BOUND OPTIMISATION

Ore supply-bound projects are limited by mine fleet/equipment, development rate, or shaft haulage capacity.
Optimisation processes are within the realms of the mining team, but decision-making needs to consider the
impact of mining processes on downstream plant production.

PRODUCT-BOUND OPTIMISATION
Optimisation of a plant when it is product-bound is limited to improving product quality and value and decreasing
operating costs. The focus of optimisation for product-bound operations is resolving the restriction, increasing
the value (grade) of the product, and reducing the unit cost of production. Hence, from a comminution
perspective this means increasing milling and classification efficiency needs to result in reduced unit costs and/or
increased liberation (to enable higher grade concentrate or recovery).

INFRASTRUCTURE-BOUND OPTIMISATION
Infrastructure-bound projects are usually restricted by water supply, power supply, or tailings disposal capacity.
Solutions to all three are available, albeit with significant capital expenditure or increased operating costs.

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Water consumption per tonne of ore treated can be reduced by filtering all or part of the plant tailings or to a
lesser degree by thickening to higher densities. HudBay’s Rosemont concentrator will filter up to 90 kt/d tailings
for dry stacking and target a water consumption below 0.22 m3/t (Meagher, 2017), significantly below best
practice for wet tailings dam disposal of 0.45 m3/t. Alternatively, coarse particle flotation (CPF), using for
example a Hydrofloat™ cell, can be used to increase particle size, reject tailings as sand rather than fine product,
and improve the overall dewatering characteristics. These approaches also debottleneck a project where tailings
disposal capacity is a throughput constraint limitation.

Debottlenecking power constraints is more complex in that there are many interrelated considerations that
feedback on mine planning, low-grade ore stockpiling, mine fleet requirements, and significant project capital
expenditure. More metal can be produced per unit of electrical energy by using one or more of the following:

• Bulk ore sorting can be used to increase the grade of the plant feed. At the shovel, this is relatively
inexpensive and cost effective. However, if a conveyor-based system is used, the capital implications of
crushing and conveyor upgrades, materials management, and handling can result in larger capital costs.
• Particle ore sorting can be used to reject coarse waste material from smaller streams or smaller projects
where the additional processing cost and loss of recovery are countered by a significant reduction in mass
to the value product (typically 10% to 25% of original feed mass recovery at greater than 90% metal
recovery).
• Coarse particle flotation can be installed either directly after grinding or as a scavenger following rougher
flotation. Both can be used to decrease the plant grinding energy consumption by grinding to a coarser P80
provided recovery is maintained or improved. The scavenger application is lower risk as recovery is not at
risk and the grind P80 can be slowly increased to obtain the optimum balance between throughput and
recovery in a combination of the conventional flotation circuit and the coarse particle flotation circuit.
Installation of the coarse particle flotation prior to conventional flotation requires that the CPF unit
achieves a “throw away tailing,” or a tailing suitable for lower cost reprocessing. Although this flowsheet
has been simulated and tested at various scales, there is no application of this style of flowsheet in
sulphide flotation at present.

PROCESS PLANT-BOUND OPTIMISATION

Process-bound projects require the maximum extraction of value (metal) at the lowest cost. Comminution
process optimisation therefore has three foci:

• Assisting in the optimisation of mining costs, e.g., reducing load and haul costs through blast
optimisation or accepting coarse fragmentation to aid pit wall stability, depending on circumstance.
• Maximising the benefit to downstream processes, for example by grinding finer due to increased
downstream process efficiency, perhaps enabled by improved ball mill and cyclone operation.
• Modifications facilitated by the addition of new equipment to recover values that are either too fine
or too coarse to be efficiently captured in the conventional process. Using, for example:
- Concorde™ or Stack Cells™ to improve the recovery of fine minerals
- Hydrofloat™ to recover coarse values from the flotation tailings, for example at Cadia (Vollert,
2019) where the addition of Hydrofloat™ on the scavenger tailings has allowed the grinding circuit
P80 to be increased by up to 70 microns (µm) resulting in a signification reduction in specific
energy and operating costs.

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The process plant-bound projects are the ideal cases for metallurgists to make a key difference by better
understanding the liberation demands of the valuable metal. While the above debottlenecking elements of bulk
and particle sorting will add value along with coarse particle flotation, where applicable, there is also the ability
to un-lock every unit process by maximising the installed power consumption.

• Water balance around the SAG and ball mill circuit to improve cyclone classification efficiency.
• Choke feeding crushers not only improves particle breakage by reducing the P80 but also has the
benefit of reducing the abrasion wear as ore particles are now moving more slowly through the
crushing chamber.
• Assessing latent or installed power and increasing feed configurations to improve the consumption of
installed power with a resultant throughput improvement without the expense of new capital
equipment.
• If modest capital is available, adding secondary crushing before a SAG limited circuit can be a simple
way to enhance throughput.

EXPERIENCE-BOUND OPTIMISATION
The experience-bound optimisations require a team that can recognise the opportunities for improvement and
understand what good looks like. The primary considerations are:

• Lack of graduates entering the market with a minerals processing background. Typically, universities
are now blending mining/geology and metallurgy into a combined degree, which provides the
graduate with a general knowledge of all aspects of the operation. However, this results in a converse
lack of deeper understanding of unit processes and the ability to optimise.
• Complex circuit expert systems, which may, in the case of a long-life mine, have been set up for a
different ore type with different optimisation requirements. Good practice would have these expert
systems reviewed for relevance on a frequent basis.
• Lack of operational level of autonomy to interact with the circuit and make process changes. This is a
critical aspect of making sure cause and effect of the comminution circuit is understood, which leads
to the next level of optimisation.

STARTING FROM THE RIGHT BASE

The objective of comminution is to adequately liberate minerals for downstream processing. Such an obvious
objective can be overlooked. It is questionable whether plant management can adequately name plant
throughput rate and P80 size and quote as confidently the percent liberation of the target mineral in rougher (or
leach) feed, cleaner feed, and final concentrate.

The emphasis on P80 over liberation is explained by the relative ease with which size distributions can be
measured, both online and in site laboratories. A good flotation plant design will consider liberation before
choosing the P80 – and the accompanying full-size distribution – to best balance liberation with grinding cost (for
the samples tested). But often in operations the P80 gradually morphs into a proxy for liberation. This has obvious
failings:

• The orebody is not homogenous; different areas have different grain sizes requiring different grind
sizes for the same liberation.

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 • Equating P80 with liberation proxy assumes a size distribution. But if the plant size distribution
“flattens” (e.g., due to inefficient classification) then liberation will be lower at any P80.
• Plant throughput inexorably increases. The resultant coarser P80 is gradually accepted as the new
norm, and the new liberation level is accepted but perhaps not quantified (nor compared with the
liberation used in the feasibility study).
• Often the largest mineral losses are in the fine or slime particles, so understanding the P25 or material
in the -20 µm range is often more important for a flotation process.

Therefore, the first step to grinding efficiently is to recognise that its primary purpose is liberation. The question
becomes, how can liberation be improved, or how can separation be improved at a given (or lower) liberation.
This is not just semantics—addressing the primary need (liberation) leads to different actions than responding
to the proxy measure of P80. The circuit design and operating principles for flotation are:

• For rougher flotation, the aim is to liberate just enough gangue to be able to recover most of the
valuable mineral to a low-grade rougher concentrate, with due consideration of the limitations of
downstream process performance by size fraction.
• For regrinding and cleaning, the aim is to liberate mineral as much as necessary to make target grade,
low impurity concentrate at optimum recovery.
• The corresponding grinding sizes depend on the shape of the size distributions. A “sharper” size
distribution allows the same separation outcome at a coarser P80.

For example, in porphyry copper flotation, a copper sulphide liberation of 70% in rougher feed achieves good
rougher recovery. To make a high-grade concentrate (or to remove penalty impurities), liberation in cleaner feed
needs to increase to around 90%.

For downstream leaching, testwork will determine the grind size that achieves adequate lixiviant contact and
leach kinetics. The shape of the size distribution is important—coarse particles in the tail of the size distribution
will have lower recovery.

The fundamentals of grinding circuit operation are well known and widely reported. Unfortunately, in many
plants at least one of the following simple rules is breached:

• First, understand liberation target and relationship to separation.

• Use the highest grinding density allowed by rheology in each stage (maximise residence time in the mill).
• Use the highest circulating load possible with existing equipment (or maximise pre-cyclone efficiency
for open-circuit applications) to focus energy on the coarser particles.
• Use the finest media size possible in each stage (maximise grinding surface area), as long as it can
break the largest particles as quickly as they enter the mill. A dual-sized charge may balance the two
objectives. It is far too common for sites to reduce media cost by using larger-than-optimum media.
It is easy to see the pennies saved in media cost; it takes detailed analysis to see the certain dollars in
lost revenue.
• Maximise classification efficiency to get the sharpest possible size distribution (see “cyclones” section).
• Maintain high and consistent ball charges. Monitor mill power draw, and visually check ball charge at
every opportunity.

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 • Choose liner profiles to get good media flow over the majority of liner life (maximising liner life is
important but is secondary to the liners assisting grinding).
• Employ proven process control techniques to stabilise flow rates, pressures, and density throughout
the circuit. Use sumps and variable speed pumps to dampen variations rather than pass them to the
next unit.

Energy Efficiency Opportunities

The energy efficiency opportunities for new and existing projects are significant. The following discussion
summarises some of these opportunities.

COARSE WASTE REJECTION

Mineral processing is commonly defined as the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their
ores. However, a better definition is to “reject uneconomic material from ores as economically efficiently as
possible”. This definition leads us to the same guiding principles for plant optimisation outlined earlier in this
paper but also encourages us to consider a range of waste rejection technologies and flowsheets.

Assessment of a conventional copper concentrator by the above definition could produce a graph where the
operating cost is considered through the flowsheet, from the ore in the ground to final concentrate. A copper
operation with a head grade of 1% Cu, strip ratio of 2, and conventional crushing, grinding, and flotation would
present a graph such as Figure 1. One hundred percent of the mined ore tonnes undergo crushing, grinding,
flotation, and rougher flotation, 10% of the tonnes report through regrind and cleaner flotation, and 3% of the
mined tonnes present to concentrate. The total area gives the average operating cost of approximately $17.50/t
for mining and processing for this example.

Figure 1 – Operating Cost by Mined Tonnes for a Conventional Flowsheet

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A flowsheet that includes a range of coarse waste rejection technologies such as bulk ore sorting, pre-
concentration (particle sorting/DMS), and coarse particle flotation, results in a plot similar to Figure 2. This
operating cost breakdown illustrates that instead of milling 100% of the tonnes, 40% of the tonnes are milled to
a coarse product size (to suit coarse particle flotation), and only 25% of the tonnes are re-milled to the primary
grind size. Even if an additional 20% material is mined to offset metal losses in the coarse waste rejection steps,
this flowsheet consumes half the power and 25% of the water and achieves a lower operational expenditure
(OPEX) than a conventional flowsheet. In addition, filtered tailings could be employed at a fraction of the cost of
a conventional plant and achieve even further water savings. Plant capital costs would be competitive with a
conventional circuit.

Figure 2 – Operating Cost by Mined Tonnes for a Coarse Waste Rejection Flowsheet

In practice it may not be economic to include three forms of coarse waste rejection within the one flowsheet,
but the example is intended to illustrate the concept that it can be economic to reject waste (even if it contains
some metal) in order to save power, water, and operating cost. Flowsheets that can reject half the mass at a
coarse size at around 90% metal recovery are compelling to consider, as are projects that are infrastructure-
bound through power or water constraints.

There is a range of coarse waste rejection technologies, including grade control in the truck or at the shovel, bulk
sorting, screening, particle sorting, dense media separation, gravity concentration, electrostatic/magnetic
separation, and coarse particle flotation. Each of these technologies requires heterogeneity at different length
scales within the deposit to be effective. These technologies also need to produce a waste stream that is
sufficiently low grade to warrant throwing away, based on trade-offs that consider the economic cut-off grade
through the circuit, recovery, and incremental cost and benefits of further processing. If a tailings grade that is
sufficiently low to constitute tailing cannot be generated, there may still be some (lesser) value through further
processing (i.e., heap leaching) or stockpiling as low-grade reserves.

AUTOGENOUS AND PEBBLE MILLING TO REDUCE MEDIA CONSUMPTION

This topic alone is worthy of a full paper. It is very much a back-to-the-future approach to energy and cost
efficiency. Autogenous grinding (AG) milling originated in the 1950s and has morphed into high ball load SAG
milling for large projects due to the lower capital cost, simpler flowsheet, and lower process risk associated with

10 | SAG CONFERENCE 2019 VANCOUVER | SEPTEMBER 22–26, 2019

high ball load SAG milling. A few projects, such as BHP’s Olympic Dam (single stage autogenous) and Boliden’s
Aitik (AG and pebble mill), have gone against this trend on the basis of lower operating costs and better
understanding of the ore and its response to AG and pebble milling.

A typical copper concentrator or gold carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant consumes between 1 and 2 kg of balls/t of ore
milled. A typical ball consumption rate is about 0.06 kg/kWh of energy consumed by the media. At a steel ball
price of US$1,100/t this equates to $0.066/kWh and is equivalent to unit energy costs for some operations.
Arguably, operators are expending up to 100% more on combined energy and media operating costs when
selecting a SAG and ball mill circuit over an autogenous circuit.

A number of studies have been completed for a large brownfield project expansion where the operating company
runs both SAG and ball mill circuits and an autogenous circuit. In one such study, the owner’s paradigm was that
as all new concentrators are based on high ball load SAG mills, this must be the best solution. It is the lowest
capital cost solution.

One study compared the use of a standard semi-autogenous-ball-crusher (SABC) circuit with autogenous milling
and concluded that the difference in operating costs was $2.50/t (Table 1).

Table 1 – Comparison of Operating Costs for SAG and AG Mill Circuits

Operating Cost ($/t milled)

Major Facility SABC Circuit Autogenous Circuit
Maintenance and overheads 1.75 1.66
Electrical energy 1.96 1.72
Relining material 0.70 0.65
Relining labour 0.44 0.27
Grinding media 1.92 0.00
Water 0.32 0.32
Utilities 0.07 0.07
Total Operating Costs 7.20 4.70

The bulk of the difference in operating costs above reflect the difference in energy efficiency based on combined
power and media at $2.16/t or a 56% reduction in energy related costs for autogenous milling.

In a second, parallel study by another consultant the difference in operating costs was determined to be $1.25/t
if the primary mills were maintained in autogenous mode and up to $2/t if the primary mills were converted to
SAG mills.

The key to implementation of autogenous milling is understanding the variation in ore competency across the
orebody and the management of autogenous media. The operating cost advantages were significant for
companies like Boliden and Western Mining Corporation (now BHP) that have been sufficiently persistent and
diligent to assess an implement the approach.

Improvements in energy efficiency (direct and embedded) can often justify the extra capital costs for the
autogenous circuit option.

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COMPRESSION CRUSHING TO FINE SIZES WITH THE USE OF DRY GRINDING AND
CLASSIFICATION
Key goals of dry comminution technologies are:

• Break the particles in a way that maximises liberation at a given particle size
• More efficient breakage, reducing energy consumption
• Improve classification, to minimise over- and under-grinding of particles, as discussed above.

HPGRs have demonstrated the benefits of compression crushing within the mining industry including reduced
energy consumption for competent ores (Daniel, 2019), improved leaching extractions, and liberation for some
ores (Von Michaelis, 2005) compared with SAG mill-based circuits. Dry compression crushing/grinding mills have
been developed for the cement industry and are coupled with dry classification systems. These systems include
Loesche vertical roller mills and Krupp Polysius Quadropol roller mill. Recent test work on a copper ore using
compression milling to final product P80 has indicated that comminution energy efficiency is substantially better
than that achieved with SAG mill-based circuits, but the energy costs associated with dry classification are
substantially higher than those with wet classification. Other high-speed impactors are also in development,
including the VeRo Liberator® and the conjugate anvil hammer mill (CAHM) under development though a CMIC
consortium that also uses dry classification systems.

Dry classification in air has potential for improved classification versus hydrocyclones due to the reduced viscosity
of the medium, reducing hindered settling. Furthermore, dry air classifiers can be operated dilute without being
constrained by the volumetric capacity of downstream equipment such as leach tanks or flotation cells. Other
dry classifiers include the dry rotary classifier, developed by CSIRO and the Polysius Sepol® air classifier.

A key limitation of dry grinding and classification is ensuring a dry feed to the mill and classifier to enable particle
transport and classification; ore feeds with greater than 2% moisture require drying energy at least equivalent
to the comminution energy, although this heat energy can be provided through more cost-effective sources such
as gas burners.

Perhaps a key reason dry grinding and classification has not seen significant adoption within the minerals industry
is the lack of dry separation techniques that are comparably effective to froth flotation. Dry separation processes
are yet to be developed and adopted to the same extent as wet surface chemistry methods and
hydrometallurgical processes. Dry separation techniques include electrostatic, gravity, and magnetic separation,
which are high cost compared to flotation or leaching. Application to magnetite separation may be a pathway to
broader adoption. Perhaps a viable flowsheet for the future of copper ore processing will be compression
crushing to suit coarse particle flotation for coarse-grained ores, followed by staged grinding (one or two stages)
with flotation to reject waste.

TARGETING SIZE REDUCTION WITH THE CORRECT SIZE MEDIA IN MILLING – MULTI-
STAGE MILLING
There has been a number of reports of the benefit using finer media, typically in vertical mills, in the primary
milling circuit when grinding to fine cyclone overflow P80s (less than 100 µm). One of the first applications was
at Red Dog in Alaska in the early 1990s where a SAG mill was followed by a small ball mill and then multiple
parallel vertical mills (Pumnea, 1996).

12 | SAG CONFERENCE 2019 VANCOUVER | SEPTEMBER 22–26, 2019

A combination of high-pressure compression crushing (e.g., vertical roller mill or high-pressure grinding rolls),
ball milling, and high intensity milling presents an opportunity to improve the efficiency of the comminution of
competent and hard ores to fine product sizes.

Energy efficient compression crushing to fine sizes is possible when the crushing stage is closed by dry
classification, but one of the limiting factors for fine dry classification is the large amount of energy required to
operate the air classifiers where the ore contains more than, say, 1% moisture. Hence, compression crushing to
a size where screens are efficient may be a limiting factor. This “transfer size” may be in the order of P80 0.5 to
4 mm depending on the material, a material that requires 30 to 80 mm media (typically too coarse for a vertical
mill or higher intensity mill). In this case, a ball mill may be used to comminute to a P80 suitable for a vertical or
higher intensity mill. Where a final circuit P80 of less than 100 µm is required, a high intensity mill using media
as fine as 3 to 6 mm may be considered with a F80 of 300 µm in order to improve energy efficiency. The validity
of this style of circuit has been increased with the recent manufacture of 5 MW vertical mills, albeit that the
higher intensity vertical mills have not been proven in operating plants and may have issues with wear and
accelerated maintenance requirements.

IMPROVING CLASSIFICATION EFFICIENCY

Efficient Cyclone Operation
The principles of efficient cyclone classification are well understood and readily available. They will not be
repeated here. The following discussion identifies:

• The inefficiencies that are still so common in operating plants as outlined earlier in process plant
bound optimisation; and
• Why it is important to fix them.

It is common to hear specialist opinion that operating plants could increase recovery by around 2% (or increase
throughput at the same recovery) by attention to classification basics. These include:

• It is the full particle size distribution that matters, not the P80.
• The cyclones must be correctly sized and fed at the right, and consistent, pressure.
• Add as much water to cyclone feed as allowed by downstream processing and dewatering.
• Target the right underflow density for efficient grinding with your rheology.
• Blocked and “roping” cyclones cost recovery and increase downstream wear. Find them and fix them
quickly.
• Plan maintenance to maintain cyclone components within target specifications. Saving pennies on
maintenance will cost pounds in recovery.
• Process control is not meant to maintain constant sump level. Levels are meant to vary to
absorb/dampen variations to stabilise cyclone feed volume and pressure.
• Cyclones should be fed via a centrally fed, large diameter radial distributor. A horizontal manifold pipe
will never distribute feed evenly. If you have one, give up and replace it with a radially fed system.

These basics were well established over 50 years ago. Perhaps they are so obvious that it seems they may be
assumed rather than methodically applied.

13 | SAG CONFERENCE 2019 VANCOUVER | SEPTEMBER 22–26, 2019

Classification technology has changed little in the last 50 years but there is an important new tool—sensors that
indicate a coarse particle spike in individual cyclone overflows, alarming operators to a blocked or roping spigot. This
may prove to be the most important yet unheralded “big data” breakthrough in comminution efficiency in a decade.

Cyclone design principles and operation practices are well documented. This is important to getting a good size
distribution. A “sharp” size distribution helps separation. The cost of poor operation and classification needs to
be clearly quantified in order to direct appropriate attention on the basics.

The following graphs combine and redact examples from several porphyry copper operations.

The behaviour of a particular particle size and mineral class is typically constant in any operation. For example,
particles in the <300 >212 µm size fraction that have between 10% and 15% surface exposure of copper sulphide
have the same recovery every month (unless there is an equipment or chemistry upset). In the absence of upsets,
recovery changes can be explained by movements of particles between classes, e.g., a coarser grind creates more
of the lower-recovery coarse size fractions, or more complex mineralisation produces more low-recovery 0% to
5% surface exposure particles for the same grind size.

Figure 3 – Recovery by Size and Copper Sulphide Surface Exposure

Sharpening the size distribution by moving a few percent of the coarsest particles to the next size fraction has a
significant effect on recovery from that fraction due to the combination of finer size and higher surface exposure.

14 | SAG CONFERENCE 2019 VANCOUVER | SEPTEMBER 22–26, 2019

 Figure 4 – Recovery by Size and Copper Sulphide Surface Exposure – Impact of Size Reduction

Many operations do not collect mineral class data, but size-assay analysis of tailings gives the same conclusion. In the
redacted example below, around 15% of the tailings mass is in the coarsest fraction, containing 35% of the copper
losses. Shifting a few percent of the two coarsest particles one size fraction finer will significantly improve recovery.

Figure 5 – Tails Losses by Size for a Copper Porphyry Operation

15 | SAG CONFERENCE 2019 VANCOUVER | SEPTEMBER 22–26, 2019

This graph, and common perception, also suggests that sharper size distribution improves recovery by moving
some of the finest fraction to coarser sizes. Reducing unnecessary fines production in grinding is undoubtedly
good. However, the recovery benefit is not as high as the graph suggests because the fine fraction consists of
two components:

• Fines created in blasting, mining, and handling – these particles often have damaged surfaces created
in uncontrolled conditions. They often behave poorly in flotation and may represent half of the losses
in tailings. There is little the metallurgist can do to reduce the amount in feed or improve their
recovery.
• Fines created in comminution – better classification can reduce the quantity of fines, save energy, and
improve overall values recovery.

It is very difficult to measure the performance of fines in feed vs. fines from grinding, so they are unhelpfully
grouped as “slimes.”

Sharpening the size distribution is good for energy efficiency (reduction in fines) and recovery (reduction in
coarsest fractions). These typical graphs illustrate the consultant’s rule of thumb that simply improving grinding
and classification efficiency of existing equipment often improves recovery by 2% to 3%.

Screens vs. Cyclones

Installing screens for classification in a milling circuit requires significant footprint, large distribution systems, and
can represent capital costs that are an order of magnitude higher than cyclones. Screening is therefore rarely
justified for greenfield plants. However, brownfield expansion projects, such as Minera Saucito (Frausto, 2017),
have highlighted the benefits that screening affords, including:

• Minimised material in the coarsest size fractions, improving liberation and recovery, particularly at the
coarse end of the size distribution
• Reduced overgrinding of valuable minerals, improving recovery in finer fractions
• Tighter size distribution, reducing specific energy consumption, and increasing throughput.

These benefits can be compelling, particularly where cyclone efficiencies are compromised by density segregation,
preferential breakage and sliming of softer valuable minerals, cyclone water addition through volumetric
constraints, or where screens present an opportunity to debottleneck throughput through the milling circuit.

To take full advantage of screens in the grinding circuit, the plant metallurgist needs to ensure that installing
screens and reducing the recirculating load around the ball mill doesn’t inadvertently increase the ball mill
residence time and increase overgrinding, flattening the size distribution and mitigating some of the advantages.

Water Efficiency Opportunities

Coarse waste rejection and other plant optimisation opportunities outlined in this paper present viable methods
to reduce both energy consumption and plant water consumption. Water consumption can be reduced by 75%
by causing a step change reduction in the amount of fine (<200 μm) tailings generated. In addition to these
approaches, there is also a range of water management improvements that can be implemented for brownfield
and greenfield projects.

16 | SAG CONFERENCE 2019 VANCOUVER | SEPTEMBER 22–26, 2019

The key concepts for improving water efficiency focus on reducing, re-using, and recycling water as much as
practicable, by matching water demands at various qualities to the different types and qualities of available water.

Water quality drivers include the quantity of dissolved metals and salts, scaling potential and reverse solubility (i.e.,
gypsum), total suspended solids, solids size, and pH, and limit how these different types of water can be used.

Major water consumers for mining operations include:

• Dust control in the mine, process plant, or tailings dry stack

• Fluid medium for slurring ore for comminution, flotation, leaching, and pressure oxidation
• Evaporation and seepage from ponds and tailings dams or heap leaches
• Water for transport of ore and waste
• Truck washing
• Concentrate washing
• Water for cooling systems in the mine and process plant
• Potable water for mine and process plant towns and operations.

For operations in arid environments, tailings dam pore water lock-up, evaporation, and seepage are the largest
water consumers and therefore progressing from conventional thickening to sand stacking, high-density tailings
and filtration with dry stack tailings can significantly increase the water returned to the plant. In some cases,
tailings filtration and dry stacking presents economic synergies with other parts of the operation, which can help
to offset the costs (Pyle, 2019). Other methods include tailings dam sectorization to reduce the evaporation area,
collection of seepage from bores, and evaporation covers. Water consumption can be reduced from 0.7 m3/t to
approximately 0.25 m3/t with improved tailings management practices. For heap leach operations, evaporative
losses can be reduced by drip-feed systems as well as liners and covers to reduce the evaporation from leach
pads and ponds.

Within the process plant, the main raw water consumers are reagent and flocculant mixing, gland water for
pumps, cooling water and sprays for dust suppression, filter cloth sprays, and concentrate washing. Water
requirements can be reduced by using process water for secondary flocculant dilution, switching to low-flow
gland seals or mechanical seals for pumps, installing closed-cycle cooling water systems, and using filtered water
with antiscalants for spray systems.

Within the mine, contact water should be minimised through mine and drainage design. Lower quality contact
water can be used for mine dust suppression. Dust suppression water requirements can also be reduced through
the use of polymers that help to contain dust with much lower water consumption.

Operations need to manage the seasonal variations in water supply and consumption; this includes ensuring
sufficient water during dry (or cold) periods and managing excess water during wet periods.

The same water management measures that help reduce water consumption for dry climates can also serve to
reduce the positive water balance for projects in wet regions.

17 | SAG CONFERENCE 2019 VANCOUVER | SEPTEMBER 22–26, 2019

Conclusions

There are many aspects to process plant flowsheet design and operation that need to be thoroughly considered
in order to move towards the most sustainable mining future. Key aspects of sustainability are the energy and
water intensities of the processes applied to extracting valuable metals along with the mining footprint and blue-
water footprint we create.

For new projects, it is important that time is spent to better understand the overall objective of the mine and
how the minerals are presented, the strategic view of the operator and their view of sustainable mining, and the
appetite and application of innovation into future flowsheets.

As the authors have discussed in this paper, understanding the necessary liberation at each stage of the process
for all ore types, getting the right base, is a critical first step in evaluating the total energy consumption. It is
strongly recommended that the more robust SSE measurement be used when comparing unit process efficiency
and overall flowsheet energy balance.

The application of water efficient flowsheets for large tonnage (>100 kt/d) base and precious metal concentrators
is becoming more common as technology advances, such as EcoTailsR, make it possible to recover higher
proportions of water from processing tailings as compared to traditional cyclone sand or thickened tailings options.
When these innovative dewatered tailings options are coupled with a co-mingling stage of waste rock to form
GeoWasteR the goals to further reduce mining footprint and produce a stable final product can be achieved.

Both energy and water efficiency are potentially vastly improved by the application to the minerals industry of
the emerging sensing and sorting technologies. First prize is to reduce the waste reporting to the first level of
comminution through bulk sorting prior to or just after primary crushing, through shovel and bulk belt sensors.
This is then followed by particle sorting, which is applied after secondary crushing with the resultant goal being
a total reduction in milled material of up to 50%. Primary beneficiation at the coarsest possible size is the
underlying mantra. There are clear an obvious sustainability wins associated with less overall material processed
for equivalent metal recovery.

Emerging technologies in both the dry grinding space and the coarse particle separation space can potentially
make a step change in energy consumption, filtration rate through coarser particles, and therefore less water
consumption. This can then lead to future flowsheets, which will potentially reduce significantly the water
requirements to extract valuable metals.

For existing operations there are many opportunities for improvement in both energy and water efficiency, and these
have been categorized here into ore supply-bound, product supply-bound, infrastructure-bound, process plant-bound,
and experience-bound operations. Each have different constraints that determine the scope of the energy and water
use optimisation possible without the expense of major capital while focussing on maximizing value.

Simple metallurgical elements that are common in most process plants are the size separation and classification
efficiency, which drive latent value if firstly understood in relationship to liberation requirements and then deployed
in terms of best practice application. As discussed, depending on the circuit configuration, selecting the correct ball
size for the application along with the steepening of the classification curve at the desired liberation will lead to the
best all round result as the influence of coarse and slime particles can reduce overall value.

Comprehensive measurement and understanding of all water uses in a mining operation is a key responsibility
to achieving sustainable mining practice. As discussed in the paper, linking water use in some form of
measurement with the overall process or as a unit process will be an important next step to help bring
improvements the next wave of water-scarce technologies. The proposed joint water curve initiative, from CEEC

18 | SAG CONFERENCE 2019 VANCOUVER | SEPTEMBER 22–26, 2019

and CMIC, is designed to replicate the success of the energy curves and may help to create a meaningful water
specific efficiency measure.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the parent companies: Ausenco, Newmont Goldcorp, and
Mineralis for permission to discuss this important topic with the broader mineral processing network. We would also
like to make special mention of CEEC and CMIC for their support and vision on energy and water efficiency matters.

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