Tag Archives: CRC ORE

CRC ORE and Canada’s NRC to move LIBS mineral analysis to the mine site

Metallurgy, Mineral exploration, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , , , , , ,

The Cooperative Research Centre for Optimising Resource Extraction (CRC ORE) and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) have partnered on a project to bring the benefits of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) chemical element analysis to the mine site.

LIBS, a rapid chemical element analysis technique, is used in a variety of applications including analysis of soil, effluents, scrap metal, alloy and molten metals. It works through a focused laser pulse striking the sample surface and removing an amount of material to generate a high-temperature plasma plume. Atoms and ions are excited to higher energy levels and, while returning into their ground state, emit characteristic energy signatures for each element.

The robustness of LIBS is well suited for real-time minerology analysis and at all stages of the mining production cycle, according to CRC ORE, with commercially available laboratory-based quantitative mineral analysers (QMA) – such as QEMSCAN and MLA – historically used in mining.

“However, these technologies are not suited for in-stream or on-belt applications due to their meticulous sample preparation and measurement protocols,” the centre said. The analysis is limited to costly lab-based sampling, which requires the extraction of extensive samples and the transport of these to lab facilities, sometimes many hundreds of kilometres away from the mine site, according to CRC ORE.

To provide a timelier solution to the mining industry, the CRC is working with the NRC to explore the use of LIBS sensor technology for applications such as mineral characterisation across a conveyor belt. Additionally, the use of LIBS is being examined as an industrialised elemental and mineralogical analyser for scanning coarse rock streams.

CRC ORE Program Coordinator, Dr Greg Wilkie, said the two organisations are taking LIBS use in the mining industry to the next level by putting the technique to use in operating mine sites.

“By applying LIBS in a real-time application, such as across an operating conveyor belt, operators are empowered with high volumes of rapid analysis provided in real time,” Dr Wilkie said. “Analysis in real time speeds up the mineralogy process, providing operators with detail they may have previously had to wait days or weeks to obtain.”

He added: “We are proudly putting the minerology back into process minerology.”

The NRC’s Senior Research Officer, Dr Alain Blouin, said the NRC and CRC ORE are working on a long-term LIBS project, which is nearing the end of an intensive two-year study.

“We are developing a novel application of a LIBS rapid on-line mineralogical characterisation instrument suitable for deployment on mine sites,” Dr Blouin said. “LIBS can measure a large number of elements simultaneously with the ability to detect light elements beyond the capability of many other techniques.”

Dr Wilkie said since LIBS can perform analysis several metres away from what it is measuring and still detect extremely low concentrations it is well suited technology for the mining industry.

“Beyond cross-belt scanning, LIBS can work in a variety of settings from in-pit muckpiles, underground draw points and on-line slurries,” Dr Wilkie said.

It is anticipated that the real-time LIBS solution be used in conjunction with CRC ORE’s Grade Engineering® – an approach to the early separation of ore from waste material. Grade Engineering is minimising the impact of declining grades and productivity in the Australian and global minerals sector, according to CRC ORE.

Future-proofing mineral processing plants

Automation, Comminution of minerals, IoT, Mineral processing, Mining events, Mining services, Mining software, Water management, , , , , , , , , , ,

As minerals processing, digital plants and effective plant operations become more important for mining companies, Australia’s largest mining event is set to examine the challenges of processing plants of the future.

Finding intelligent solutions, future-proofing grinding circuits and embracing the opportunities of digitisation will be discussed at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Melbourne next month (October 29-31).

Ahead of the conference, Sandvik Lifecycle Development Manager, Simon Adams; CRC ORE Chief Executive and Managing Director, Ben Adair; and Weir Minerals Global HPGR Product Specialist, Bjorn Dierx, discussed the issues in a special IMARC webinar.

All agreed mining companies faced increased challenges as ore stocks depleted, forcing them to move to more remote locations and dig deeper in a bid to maintain recovery rates of past years.

Dierx, who will deliver an IMARC presentation on dry air classification technology to remove the need for water, said: “Our customers are under immense pressure to reduce energy consumption, use less water and reduce carbon emissions.

“Overall, as commodities are depleting, companies are making large investments in new plants to dig deeper, crush more ore and at remote locations with limited access to power and water to achieve the same recovery rates as the past 20 years.”

He said about 3% of global energy consumption was attributed to crushing rock so greater efficiencies in comminution would make a big contribution to reduced emissions.

For Adair, efficiencies are available now in existing operations.

“It’s important to optimise and run your equipment to the best of its ability,” he said. “Most sites I visit that’s simply not the case. We are a little bit delusional if we think we are there at the moment in a digital sense in optimising various grinding circuits.”

He agreed limited access to water was a critical element.

“It’s interesting water was mentioned. That is one of the major challenges for the industry. It simply won’t have access to potable water and it will have to head rapidly to a closed-loop situation otherwise the costs will be extraordinarily prohibitive,” he said.

“Most of our work is done in the sorting space. . . It’s patently ridiculous and it has been for the past 15 to 20 years that we mine something and stick it through various expensive process plants when in fact 99% of it has no value whatsoever.

“If you are looking at the mine of the future, it is going to be about exploiting heterogeneity at the mine face as opposed to deliberately destroying heterogeneity and looking for homogenous feeds for downstream processing plants.”

The digital transformation at the plant and processing level offered opportunities for miners, with Adams saying the ability to collect and analyse data was crucial.

“If you can have digitisation and automation that moves towards cognitive behaviour, once you get those algorithms down you can have far more efficient plants operating through that process,” he said.

“We have to turn data into knowledge; looking at power consumption and efficiencies and getting to the cognitive stage where we can foresee failures or predicted failures and we can capture them early and shut down in an organised fashion.”

Dierx said digital transformation presented a big opportunity for the industry to attract new people from traditional software programmers and those in the gaming industry to work in the mining industry.

“The big iron ore miners, if those autonomous devices need to be switched off, they use Xbox controllers to correct them. That’s good news for children of today,” he said.

“From an education perspective, there is still some work to be done. Universities need restructuring to ensure we not only educate traditional operators, metallurgists and process engineers but ensure that understanding algorithms and working with digital tools become standard practice.”

IMARC, developed in collaboration with its founding partners the Victorian State Government of Australia, Austmine, AusIMM and Mines and Money, is where global mining leaders connect with technology, finance and the future. For more information, please visit https://imarcmelbourne.com/

International Mining is a media sponsor of the IMARC event

CRC ORE grade engineering trial pays off for Minera San Cristóbal

Base metals, Comminution of minerals, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A successful full-scale production trial of Australia-developed grade engineering techniques is paying dividends for a South American mine, and its local workers, according to CRC ORE.

Once fully implemented, this is expected to generate an additional A$451 million ($312 million) in profit for the mine and reduce its energy consumption, it said.

Located in the south-western Bolivian province of Nor Lípez, and owned by Sumitomo, Minera San Cristóbal (MSC) is the country’s largest mine. Operating since 2007, the mine produces around 1,500 t/d of zinc-silver and lead-silver concentrates. To achieve this result, MSC needs to move a daily average of 150,000 t of rock – ore and waste.

Part of MSC’s vision is to “develop a model mining operation through safe operations, at low cost, with innovative technology”.

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Summit Mining International, Sumitomo is a participant of the Cooperative Research Centre for Optimising Resource Extraction (CRC ORE). Based in Brisbane, Australia, CRC ORE works to minimise the impact of declining grades and radically improve the productivity, energy and water signatures of mining operations, CRC ORE said.

The centre is jointly funded by what it calls ‘Essential Participants’, which includes mining companies such as Sumitomo; mining equipment, technology and services (METS) companies; research organisations; and the Australia Government.

One of CRC ORE’s key solutions developed for the mining industry is grade engineering. “This solution deploys a range of waste rejection technologies that integrate with a suite of separation technologies relevant to ore specific characteristics,” CRC ORE said. “A deeper understanding of the orebody can be achieved, leading to the ability to exploit inherent ore deposit heterogeneity and variability.”

For mining operations such as MSC, this involves an innovative approach to the early separation of ore from waste material, minimising the impact of declining grades and productivity.

CRC ORE and MSC teams conducted site studies and analysis in 2017 to determine the level of opportunity available at the mine by deploying grade engineering, and a great deal of potential was evident.

Since late 2018, CRC ORE and Sumitomo have been working together on a full-scale production trial of grade engineering using screening at MSC. A Metso Lokotrack ST2.8 mobile screening plant, which can process up to 450 t/h, was deployed on site to assist in providing a production-scale testing capability.

The trial focused on upgrading mineralised waste from the pit to determine if grade engineering could efficiently produce a new economic stream of valuable material that could then be combined with run of mine feed through to the concentrator and produce a positive net smelter return.

CRC ORE Chief Executive Officer, Ben Adair, said initial results of the trial were impressive and encouraging, with 66% of value now contained in just 25% of the grade engineered mass.

“So far, results show that by applying grade engineering to areas previously designated as ‘mineralised waste’, the value of grade engineered feed to the mill can be increased by over 2.5 times,” Adair said.

“This has the potential to convert this waste material into high-grade ore feed with associated opportunity to increase metal production and reduce process power and water intensities.”

A 15-20% reduction in energy has been evident in the mine’s SAG mill when processing a combined grade engineered and direct run-of-mine feed, according to CRC ORE.

The success of the grade engineering trial has led to Sumitomo considering deployment of grade engineering techniques for life of mine extensions, CRC ORE said.

MSC Operations Director, Dave King, said: “The big benefit of grade engineering is its potential ability to extend the life of the mine and add over A$451 million in profit to its value.”

To fulfil its goals of knowledge transfer and for its technology to directly benefit the local mining industry, CRC ORE says it has recently commenced similar production trials at Australia mining operations.

CRC ORE welcomes Metso to the fold

Comminution of minerals, Environmental, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , ,

The Cooperative Research Centre for Optimising Resource Extraction (CRC ORE) says it has officially welcomed industrial equipment and services provider Metso as its newest participant.

Earlier this year, Metso joined a select cohort of Australian and international mining, equipment, technology and services (METS) participants to assist CRC ORE to achieve its goals.

“Since its origins 150 years ago, Metso has provided equipment and services for several industries, including mining, and is at the forefront of the supply of technologically advanced mining equipment,” CRC ORE said.

Metso Vice President of Innovation LAB, Lars Grönvall, said that the work of CRC ORE closely aligns with Metso’s vision of being the best choice for sustainable processing of natural resources.

“Metso’s cutting-edge services and solutions improve availability and reliability in minerals processing and flow control, providing sustainable process and profit improvements,” Grönvall said.

“We are excited by what can be achieved by partnering with CRC ORE and its high-quality participants in developing solutions to more efficiently separate valuable ore from waste material as early as possible in the mining process.”

CRC ORE Chief Executive Officer, Ben Adair, has previously worked closely with Metso, in areas including process control and concentrator equipment application, according to CRC ORE.

Adair said he was encouraged by the commitment of the major European company to improve the productivity, energy and water signatures of mining operations.

“Now well into our second term at CRC ORE, we appreciate the support given by specialist equipment provider Metso and the expertise they bring as a participant,” Adair said.

“In their short time so far as a participant, Metso has made a valuable contribution through the supply of one of its Locotrack mobile screening units (pictured) to support a major production trial of grade engineering at Sumitomo’s Minera San Cristóbal mine in Bolivia.”

Adair said that CRC ORE worked with Minera San Cristóbal to use off-the-shelf equipment from Metso to support this innovative site trial, helping to minimise the complexity and cost of the project.

“CRC ORE aims to drive collaborations such as this to help deliver positive change across the mining industry,” he said.

CRC ORE is a cooperative research centre focused on optimising resource extraction. It delivers value to Australia by improving mine productivity, commercial return and environmental outcomes, CRC ORE says.

Established in 2010, CRC ORE has made significant progress in rapidly developing and integrating technology from concept to implementation, it says. CRC ORE uses innovative methodologies to develop new technology, or repurpose existing technology, often from outside the mining industry, to significantly reduce the time from prototype to production scale application.