Tag Archives: IsaMill

Glencore Technology, Global PAM formalise IsaMill agreement in North America

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Glencore Technology has announced what it says is an important formalisation and commitment with Global PAM to deliver services to clients of IsaMill™ technology throughout North America.

Global PAM has significant capabilities in technology commissioning and asset management, according to Glencore Technology.

The company will support Glencore Technology through the installation, commissioning and service of its fine-grinding technology, IsaMill, predominantly in the US and Canada.

Glencore Technology says it has had a long-term relationship with Global PAM and some of the company’s key team members, but elevating to a formal commitment is seen by the company as providing its clients in the region with an alliance partner that is trusted.

Servicing IsaMill for three years, Global PAM has worked with Glencore Technology on installations in Corbin, Teck and Las Bambas operations.

The company has significant experience in stirred mills, SAG and ball mills and is widely respected as a general mill maintenance specialist, according to Glencore Technology.

IsaMill is seeing significant growth in North America, so Glencore Technology is keen to see clients receive
maintenance services from a local and respected provider, it said.

Mike Hourn, Glencore Technology’s General Manager – Business Development, said: “Glencore Technology has had a long-term relationship with Global PAM, and we want to extend this to our IsaMill clients in the region. It gives our clients a highly skilled partner we can trust and who shares our values.”

Tom Shumka, President of Global PAM, said: “We have solid experience in providing a complete mechanical mill inspection of IsaMill applications and we’re extremely impressed with the technology. We’ve delivered full installation and commissioning support throughout all stages of the equipment. So this formalisation is a natural progression for us.”

Global PAM intends to deliver maintenance and operational training for IsaMill applications as well as continuous improvement solutions to allow for improved operations of the fine grinding circuit, adding to its service, engineering and aftermarket scope.

Glencore Tech draws McArthur River parallels at Ozernoye polymetallic project

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Glencore Technology says it and Hatch are helping the Ozernoye project in Buryatia, Russia, come up with a process flowsheet suited to the complex composition of ore at the polymetallic asset.
The mining and processing operation would produce zinc and lead concentrates.

Ozernoye’s Grigory Koldunov said the company is currently preparing the area for the Ozernoye polymetallic mine and concentrator in the Yeravninsky region, 60 km away from the Sosnovo-Ozerskoye regional centre.

“We’ll start mining works and stripping waste by November. Expected stripping volume by the end of the year will exceed 350 000 m3 of waste,” Koldunov said. In November, the company will begin the construction of temporary roads and a tailings storage facility.

Glencore Technology’s Adam Price said the ore mineralogy at the site was remarkably similar to Glencore’s McArthur River zinc-lead-silver mine, which originally brought about the need to create the IsaMill ultrafine grinding technology (an example pictured) – an innovation that turns 25 this year.

“Ozernoye’s mineralogy is complex, and it’s going to need the right flowsheet to improve the recovery and concentrate quality and therefore ensure the economic viability of the project,” Price said. The fine-grained lead-zinc ore at the Australia operation made for an obvious benchmark, he said.

This year, Ozernoye has been embarking on mining, capital works and construction of infrastructure facilities. Major construction of the plant’s facilities is planned for 2020-2022 and the company plans to reach design capacity of 8 Mt/y in 2024.

In September, Glencore Technology worked with Hatch, AMC and Ozernoye to finish a geotechnical drilling program, test work and analysis. The camp was recommissioned and the company began clearing the site for construction. Capital mine development and drill and blast works have started to provide contractors with structural materials and to begin stripping, according to Glencore Technology.

“But the main challenge with the Ozernoye deposit is the complex composition of the ore,” Glencore Technology said. “The task of the current geotechnical and test work program is to design and develop the flowsheet.”

Glencore’s McArthur River Mine in northern Australia contains a complex ore that remained uneconomical until the IsaMill was created to produce a steep particle size distribution without needing internal screens or closed circuit cyclones, according to Glencore Technology. The horizontal plug-flow design prevented short circuiting and provided for a reliable and easy to operate technology.

The original 1994 IsaMills are still operating at McArthur River Mine, but the IsaMill technology has been refined to occupy a small footprint, very high availability and significant energy efficiency, Glencore Technology says.

HPGR and ore sorting stack up for Vista Gold’s Mt Todd gold project

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Toronto and New York-listed Vista Gold reports recent high pressure grinding roll (HPGR) crusher and ore sorting tests on high-grade samples at its Mt Todd gold project, in the Northern Territory of Australia, have confirmed previous test results.

The company has also announced plans to complete fine grinding and leaching tests in the March quarter and to follow these results with updated prefeasibility study (PFS) economics in the June quarter.

Vista said additional HPGR and ore sorting tests were completed on two, 2.5 t samples from Mt Todd’s Batman deposit containing 1.39 g/t and 1.70 g/t gold, respectively. This testing programme confirmed two important results:

  • HPGR crushing, followed by screening, results in increased concentration of gold in the fine fraction, and;
  • The small amount of gold lost in the rejected material is proportionally lower when sorting higher-grade material.

As with previous tests, the samples were HPGR crushed at the facilities of ThyssenKrupp Industries in Germany and screened at 16 mm. The coarse fraction (+16 mm) was sent to the facilities of Tomra Sorting Solutions in Germany, where two-stage (X-ray Transmission and laser) sorting tests were completed using production-sized and commercially available equipment. The following table summarises the results of the testing programme for each of the samples and compares these results to previous bulk tests on low-grade samples:

Sample

(g Au/t)

 Sorter Feed (+16mm) Sorter Product Sorter Reject Gold Loss (%)
Fraction of Total Sample (%) Grade

(g Au/t)

 Fraction of Total Sample (%) Grade

(g Au/t)

 Fraction of Total Sample (%) Grade

(g Au/t)
1.39 17.8% 0.731 9.4% 1.238 8.4% 0.158 1.0%
1.70 18.6% 0.737 10.3% 1.239 8.3% 0.110 0.7%
Previous Results
0.63 17.5% 0.533 10.5% 0.817 7.0% 0.103 1.1%
0.34 17.8% 0.255 11.0% 0.365 6.8% 0.075 1.5%
0.67 18.7% 0.619 11.3% 0.901 7.4% 0.192 2.0%

Frederick Earnest, President and Chief Executive Officer, said the tests confirmed the benefit of ore sorting for Mt Todd and demonstrated lower gold losses with higher grade crusher feed.

“We attribute these results to the favourable characteristics of the Batman deposit. Simply stated, the gold-containing sulphide minerals and quartz/calcite veining are more easily broken into small particles than the non-mineralised host rock,” he said. “Where this breakage does not result in clean separation from the host rock in the first pass of HPGR crushing, the gold-bearing minerals are easily identified and separated in the ore sorting circuit.”

The results complement Vista’s previously announced fine grinding and leaching test results, Earnest said, adding that he expects them to support additional improvements in the economics of the Mt Todd gold project when the PFS is published later this year.

The crushed and sorted samples have been transported to the facilities of Resource Development Inc, where sample preparation has been completed for assaying and additional fine grinding, leaching and tailings characterisation tests.

Samples are being sent to Core Metallurgy Pty to obtain additional fine grinding data simulating grinding in the horizontal IsaMill and to the FLSmidth Minerals Testing and Research Center to obtain data simulating grinding in the vertical VPX Mill.

“Both tests will target a final product size of 38-45 microns and will generate a sufficient volume of material for subsequent leach tests,” the company said, adding the fine grinding and leach tests were expected to be completed in the March quarter, with final results expected in the following quarter.

The company has completed additional tailings characterisation tests and concluded that no material design changes are required to proceed to the economic analysis using a final grind size of 38-45 microns.

Pybar starts underground mining at Heron’s Woodlawn zinc project

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Pybar Mining Services has started up underground mining at Heron Resources’ Woodlawn zinc project in New South Wales, Australia, ahead of full commissioning by the end of the year.

The company entered into a four-year underground mining contract with Pybar in February and the contractor has now kicked off mining. This includes the ground support of box cut walls and the first portal blast of the decline.

Heron said the overall project, as of the end of August, was 73% complete, with earthworks substantially concluded, equipment purchasing at 98%, concrete almost complete and offsite fabrication 92% signed off. Sedgman is the EPC contractor.

Woodlawn is envisaged as a 1.5 Mt/y operation able to produce 40,000 t/y of zinc, 10,000 t/y of copper and 12,000 t/y of lead at steady-state production over a 9.3-year mine life. This is based on a reserve base of 2.8 Mt at 14% ZnEq from underground and 9.5 Mt at 6% ZnEq from reprocessed tailings.

The operation is set to use an IsaMill™ to treat the zinc-rich reclaimed tailings, as well as polymetallic primary ore in different processing modes. The 3 MW 10,000 IsaMill comes with an IsaCharger™ media delivery system, as well as commissioning services from Glencore Technology.

Heron’s Managing Director Wayne Taylor said: “Exploration over the last four years has defined a very high-grade, high-quality resource and reserve position, and the access which has now commenced will enable us to deliver underground ore into the processing plant in 2019.

“Once underground, our geological team will focus on further expanding the known mineralised positions to build upon the excellent and cost-effective work they have undertaken to date.

“Elsewhere on site, I am pleased to report that good progress continues to be made with all aspects of the build, and that works remain on schedule for the commissioning by the end of the year.”

Heron’s Woodlawn zinc-copper project ramps up as IsaMill arrives

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Heron Resources’ Woodlawn zinc-copper project in the New South Wales, Australia, is really starting to take shape, with the company taking delivery of an IsaMill™ (pictured) earlier this week.

The mill is an important part of the company’s processing plant, providing the fine grinding capability to reduce the flotation feed to 30 microns in size. It will treat zinc rich reclaimed tailings, as well as polymetallic primary ore in different processing modes.

The 3 MW 10,000 IsaMill comes with an IsaCharger™ media delivery system, as well as commissioning services from Glencore Technology. It will be the 50th M10,000 installation.

Heron’s Managing Director Wayne Taylor said: “The arrival of the IsaMill marks the step change in technology to be applied to the Woodlawn zinc-copper project. This technology only became available after Woodlawn’s former operations (which stopped in 1998) and it enables Heron to reduce the grind size to provide the most effective mineral liberation, allowing for the highest recoveries to our base metal concentrates.”

The IsaMill is manufactured in Germany and first entered commercial use in 2000.

In the meantime, Heron’s EPC contractor, Sedgman, continues to make good progress with overall construction of the project, reporting the development as 62% complete at the end of June.

The project remains on schedule for the commencement of commissioning in the December quarter.

Woodlawn has an annual steady-state production target of some 40,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate, 10,000 t of copper concentrate and 12,000 t of lead concentrate, along with associated gold and silver.