JKMRC Friday Seminars 2019

Some production blast-hole drilling rigs are capable of measuring and storing various operational parameters while operating (Measuring While Drilling data-MWD). There are a number of examples from the literature where MWD data is used to predict rock properties such as lithology, strength and fractures. This study investigates the links between the MWD data acquired in laboratory and ore breakage parameters.

Gravity processing is the oldest large-scale mineral concentrating technology. It has been mainly superseded in the past century by technology such as magnetic separation and flotation, but remains a very important process for base metal oxides (such as tin and tantalum) and precious metals recovery.

Over the last decade there has been a strong move toward implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and in particular Machine Learning (ML) to improve the productivity of mining operations, enhance environmental and social performance and increase the health and safety of personnel. The mining industry is at the technological stage that we can develop a fully autonomous underground mine, integrate operational data for near-real-time decision making, promote the safety of people and control energy and water utilisation.

Every year, we extract 9 billion tonnes of metal ores and in the process, we create a 350billion tonne waste problem, destroy tropical habitats and carbon sinks, releasing toxic substances into the environment and emissions into the atmosphere. While metals do not have renewable substitutes, they can be recovered and recycled – that’s the good news. The bad news is, we currently do not have enough metal in the system to close the loop and we will need to inject a lot of virgin metal to provide for an additional 3 billion people this century.

Process mineralogy is typically related to detailed examinations of metallic ores and the relationship between mineralogical properties and mineral processing. However, process mineralogical techniques are widely used within other mineral sectors as well, such as on industrial minerals, although the main objectives of such investigations can be different.

Trying to improve energy efficiency and modelling the energy of size reduction is one of the most important problems we face in comminution research. But regrettably, even the very definition of “energy efficiency” is elusive. The development of better grinding devices and circuits that use less of the world’s limited energy resources requires a clearer understanding of the relationship between energy and particle size.

The Global Mineral Sands industry is predominantly focused on the production of titanium and zirconium bearing minerals such as ilmenite, rutile and zircon. However, in recent years there has been a shift in the attention of both explorers and producers to consider the minor rare earth bearing minerals of monazite and xenotime.

Increasing complexity of ore deposits requires better prediction of comminution properties.

‘Enhanced Process Technologies’ (EPT’s) can provide genuine step change improvements to greenfield and brownfield projects. This presentation discusses EPTs, barriers to adoption and how to navigate those barriers in order to improve economic and environmental outcomes.

The seminar will provide a guided tour through a completely novel theory that can be used to generate a closed analytical solution to the physics of froth flotation, in a manner that is completely fundamental, yet robust and simple to use.

This talk will begin with two keys premises: that landscape change is an intrinsic part of mining and industrial development; and that novel ways of understanding landscapes can open up new possibilities for their future.

This presentation focuses on research developments at Monash University where drones have been combined with high performance compute and computer vision techniques, in order to remotely sense or sample our planet.

When considering safety, especially in operating mines, the reporting of incidents and the language used to describe them really matters. Natural Language Processing can now be used to classify and detect new classifications of incidents and detect previously unseen combinations of hazards and behaviours, allowing for the development of meaningful and targeted safety intervention programs.

A study of Co-rich samples from the Eastern Mount Isa Block was undertaken to constrain the IOCG mineral system and evaluate HREE prospectivity. Although these deposits are interpreted to have had a granitic source, the element association includes metals not normally concentrated in silicic melts e.g., Co, Ni, Sc and PGE's.

Metallurgical testing is critical to a minerals project development. There are some key questions that need to be answered at each stage of a project from Scoping, to Prefeasibility and to Detailed feasibility and a key component is the process parameters evaluated during metallurgical testing.

For decades the minerals industry has been challenged by inherent variability of ore deposits. Quantifying this characteristic of orebodies and estimating its impact on the process performance is becoming increasingly important because the mining industry needs to extract resources with lower grades and more complexities.

A decade of research on the nature of relationships between communities and the mining companies that work alongside them, has demonstrated that community acceptance, or social licence, depends on deeper trust in their relationships

With the decline of in-house expertise, in both the research organisations and end users of technology, Clarity bridges the implementation gap of new technologies and industry solutions.

Utilisation of a processing asset extends beyond the number of hours it runs for. When mines start to approach the end of their life, significant redundant capacity opens up in the mines processing assets. Is this capacity really redundant or can we re-think our approach to keep them delivering value at the design rate?

The Complex Orebodies program has now been going for 15 months. The program has the aim of identifying the challenges and solutions related to responsible unlocking of Complex Orebodies - orebodies which are currently inaccessible due to complexities across the range of Social, Environmental, Governance and Technical areas. This presentation will provide an update on the overall program, its performance against the original objectives, and future plans.

The seminar is linked to the risk factors preventing the utilisation of 75% of the world's large known copper resources.  A picture will be painted of how being able to link the processing route to the knowledge of primary rock properties can enable modelling, and therefore risk reduction and potential acceptance by the industry, of dramatically different approaches to the mining process.  Linking technical understanding to mapping routes that can dramatically change social benefit, environmental impact, water and energy usage, tailing and waste management, and long-term society benefit from mineral resources.

Iron oxide copper gold uranium ore is an important source of metal for Australia. Processing of IOCG-U ore is complex due to sequential separations resulting in multiple products and the need to carefully consider the deportment of radioactive elements. ‘For the process to be effective, geologists mineral processors pyro and hydro-metallurgists must work together.’

The objective of this seminar is to impart how the composition of the grinding media can influence particle hydrophobicity and the flotation response, and secondly explore how measurement of pulp chemical parameters can be used to improve flotation outcomes.

Do not wait for a disaster to improve the controls to prevent it.

The best examples of mine planning and closure work are transforming the notion of ‘the-life-of-the-mine”, so that closure is not simply the end of the mine, but a point in time in a much larger process of community development, environmental health, and economic transformation.

Parts of the mining sector are quickly recognising the risks and opportunities associated with their role in regional water systems, and are endeavouring to be better “water stewards”. Advances in unit process technology and efficient on-site operations underpin this effort, but increasing attention is being directed at the wider outside-the-fence and beyond-closure challenges. This seminar presents three diverse examples of research supporting the sector’s endeavours.