An outstanding collaboration between Karara Mining Ltd and Nippon Eirich to implement grinding circuit process improvements at Karara Mine has been awarded the 2018 CEEC Medal.
The winning team – Sam Palaniandy, Matthew Spagnolo, Rinto Napitupulu Halomoan, Huiwen Zhou and Hidemasa Ishikawa – shared its work ‘Fine grinding circuit process improvement at the Karara Mine concentrator’ at the 2017 MetPlant Conference in Australia.
CEEC Medal Evaluation Committee Chair Dr Zeljka Pokrajcic said the CEEC Medal celebrated and recognised outstanding published research and field work on strategies for energy-efficient comminution. She said the winners documented a collaboration between Karara Mining Limited and METS company Nippon Eirich, sharing a well-planned and well-written operational improvement.
Site staff at Karara Mine, located in the mid-west region of Western Australia, faced the challenge of needing to exceed plant throughput in addition to tackling increases in ore hardness.
Zeljka said the authors documented how they converted the TowerMills to bottom feed for improved grinding efficiency, allowing increased throughput at high ore hardness.
“With a systematic approach to identifying and implementing circuit changes around the TowerMill and hydrocyclone installation, the team solved the site’s challenge and achieved significant energy and productivity gains, up to 50 percent reduction in specific energy of the fine grinding circuit,” she said.
“The team demonstrated the value of operational optimisation and showed a methodical approach to improving energy and process efficiency. They showed how operational improvements in part of the circuit can reduce overall comminution energy use. They also demonstrated that big improvements can be successfully incorporated into existing mines with live production needs.”
Zeljka said although no CEEC Medal was awarded in the technical research category, the standard of entries overall was high, with exciting research advances nominated from around the globe. A broad range of topics included advanced simulation and modelling techniques, novel approaches to microwave pre-treatment of plant feed, and use of different types and shapes of grinding media.
The CEEC Board congratulates the medal winners for publishing an excellent and practical contribution to the industry. CEEC Chief Executive Alison Keogh said by supporting the authors to share their learnings, Karara Mining was demonstrating leadership to the global mining industry.
“Karara Mining’s willingness to share how it solved site problems through this collaboration with Nippon Eirich shows its joint commitment to our industry’s improvement, innovation and partnerships. CEEC commends this leadership, which highlights how collaboration and systematic approaches can provide real solutions to help address pressing industry challenges,” she said.
