Ahead of the June issue focus on paste tailings comes information on a new Tailings Health Check. MinAssist has developed simple, easy to run, targeted process mineralogy health checks on specific streams and circuits. These are designed to take a quick, easy and cost effective look at the mineralogical controls and identify potential cost savings, recovery improvements and risk reduction through improved understanding of ore type(s). This ‘off-the-shelf’ program is designed to be run quickly with a minimum of fuss in order to gain economic benefits that do not require major circuit changes, expense or equipment.

The Tailings Health Check is aimed specifically at examining losses to tails, and gaining an insight in to why these might be occurring. In particular, this snap shot is a quick view on whether those losses are:

• Recoverable, through some basic changes in the operation

• Non-recoverable, given the nature of the ore, the flowsheet and the economics.

Upon commencement of the program, the client would supply MinAssist with the required samples, flowsheet and any relevant background information on the plant. The samples would then be split in to appropriate size fractions, assayed and a process mineralogy study undertaken. Assay and mineralogy data will be reconciled for data validation. A concise and targeted report will then be produced and sent to the client.

There are three options in the MinAssist Tailings Health Check for clients to choose between, depending on the tailings grade. Each study will be based on a composite sample from the tailings stream and will provide a concise and focussed report that will highlight:

• Liberation of key ore minerals

• Locking and association of key ore minerals

• Losses and their characteristics by size fraction

• Indication of recoverable versus non-recoverable.