The Board of Directors of CEEC International Ltd is pleased to announce that Owen Hegarty has accepted the role of founding Patron. “We are delighted that Mr Hegarty has agreed to assist in promoting CEEC and its mission. Owen is passionate about the mining industry and has the ability to convert complex technical and business ideas into simple messages. His alliance with CEEC International will assist us in connecting at the most senior and influential levels of the mining industry” says Chairman, Elizabeth Lewis-Gray. CEEC (Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution) is a recently established not-for-profit company. Its mission is to market and raise awareness of relevant research and alternative comminution strategies with the objective of achieving lower process costs and further energy efficiencies in the mining sector. The comminution (crushing and grinding) step in mineral processing has been specifically selected for focus because it represents a substantial proportion of total energy cost in mining. For many mine sites the energy usage of the crushing and grinding processes represents at least 50% of total energy consumption.
The substantial comminution energy input, combined with a growing body of research that highlights alternative flowsheet and technology strategies, represents a major opportunity for beneficial change.
The announcement of our founding Patron also coincides with the unveiling of our “secret weapon”, CEEC International’s web-based information portal: http://www.ceecthefuture.com/” said Lewis-Gray. The CEEC website lists a range of key research papers and profiles consultants and researchers who specialize in the field of comminution design. This site will continue to be populated with additional data and information as it becomes available and a connection to the “Linked In” discussion page has been established.
It will also be a function of the Board and Executive of CEEC to encourage debate and discussion of this topic within mining companies; at Board, senior management, and technical levels. CEEC’s Board members includes world-leading scientists such as Dr Wayne Stange (CEO, AMIRA) and Professor Tim Napier-Munn (previous previous Director JKMRC and CEO JK Tech). CEEC anticipates debate will embolden and forearm researchers and companies in such a way as to drive change in comminution.
In a clear message of support, Hegarty commented that: “CEEC is an excellent technical initiative aimed at helping to deliver minerals and metals from our great mining industry with disciplined energy efficiency.”
The vision is to accelerate implementation of eco-efficient comminution strategies through promotion of supporting data and industry benefits.
Mission and Objective
To raise awareness of research findings, alternative comminution strategies and installed outcomes. To accelerate information, knowledge and technology transfer with the objective of lower processing costs and reduced carbon footprint as a result of improved comminution practices.
Why establish and why support CEEC?
The crushing and grinding steps in mineral processing of ores represent a substantial proportion of total energy cost and carbon emission in mining. For some mine sites the energy usage by crushing and grinding processes represents up to 70-90% of total energy consumption.
Despite the funding of a significant amount of research undertaken in this area, awareness in the industry of the significant impact of crushing and grinding on costs and energy usage, particularly at board level, is relatively low. Furthermore, the pace of technology transfer is painfully slow, reflecting the high perceived risk associated with change.
Extensive research and improved engineering design has established that a range of improved blasting, crushing and grinding techniques and flow sheets may lower project costs and carbon footprint. These include relatively straight forward strategies such as removing waste material before size reduction, a better combination of grinding technologies and targeting larger grind sizes where mineralogy allows.
The majority of existing comminution circuits feature tumbling mills, SAG/AG and ball mills. The nature of size reduction in such devices is ‘hit and miss’ leading to the generation of excessive mechanical energy and heat, so much so that less than 5% of the energy consumed by tumbling mills is used in size reduction.
The founding Board, sponsors and supporters of CEEC are confident that even a small investment in the additional promotion of research results and some alternative comminution strategies will significantly accelerate industry awareness, technology transfer and industry performance in this area.
The important role of CEEC in accelerating change has strong support from within the mining sector. Industry leadership is critical and a positive result for both the minerals extraction and mining sector as a whole.