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The Mineral Industry Safety and Health Centre's Professor Robin Burgess-Limerick recently penned an insightful article for the Australian Resources and Investment journal in which he analyses what functions should be automated and why, and how to ensure human-related issues are adequately considered during that process. The article can be read here.

Mine closure is the topic of the moment. The recent Mine Closure 2019 in Perth was booked out for weeks beforehand. Why so and why now?
Ten years ago, the book “101 things to do with a hole in the ground” was published to a niche market of closure and sustainability practitioners. It sold out, twice! Centres of Excellence in rehabilitation have existed for much longer, and for many years the major mining companies established specialist closure teams within their corporate structures. So why the fuss now when mine closure has always been an integral part of mine planning?

The minerals industry invests a great deal of energy in comminution, both in terms of capital costs and operating costs. A number of people have published estimates of how much of the energy is consumed in comminution, including Ballantyne and his co-workers (2012) who estimated that in 2008-2009 1.3% of Australia’s energy was consumed in comminution circuits in gold and copper operations

Water presents a multifaceted set of issues that can rapidly become the touchstone for community acceptance or otherwise of resource developments. Not only are issues of water availability and quality important but water also presents an intrinsic set of values that are often interwoven into people’s perceptions of the issues. This elevates the importance of “getting water right” as an imperative in obtaining social licence to operate.

Assessment of comminution energy intensity has traditionally been confined to the crusher and mill motor power consumption. However, a measure of ancillary equipment power consumption is required to fairly compare disparate equipment types and circuit configurations.

Assessment of comminution energy intensity has traditionally been confined to the crusher and mill motor power consumption. However, a measure of the embodied energy consumed through media wear is required to compare disparate equipment types and circuit configurations fairly.

The comminution energy consumed for an ore can be dependent on the liberation and grade characteristics, therefore different commodities can have inherent energy signatures. The Energy Curve approach can be used to compare comminution energy consumption both within and between commodity classes.