SMI-JKMRC Seminar: Understanding ore breakage variability - where averages do NOT work. Part I: Experimental Development

Farhad Faramarzi, PhD Candidate, JKMRC, Sustainable Minerals Institute, UQ

The most common comminution testing methods and the associated analytical procedures provide average values and do not capture the intrinsic variability in breakage behavior of ore particles. Therefore, plant designs and process performance predictions use only average values, hence the inherent variability that exists in an ore domain translates into variation in process performance.

The aim of this work is to highlight the impact of intrinsic breakage variability of ores on plant design and process performance. The presentation will focus on the drawbacks of using the average approach to impact comminution testing and plant design. To clearly delineate breakage behaviour of each broken particle, a novel experimental technique using the JK Drop Weight Tester (JKDWT) has been developed by which actual comminution energy per particle and breakagen intensities were measured directly. The highlights of Farhad’s presentation are as follows:

1. Average-Based testing methods are not sufficient.
2. Development of breakage testing methods to capture breakage variability is important.
3. A methodology is developed at JKMRC and research is ongoing.

Bio

Farhad Faramarzi is educated in Iran and holds BEng (2009) and MEng (2011) in mining engineering. He is specialised in optimisation of drilling & blasting operations in open-pit mines and Rock Engineering Systems (RES). After graduation, he started working as a superintendent drill & blast engineer. This position provided him the valuable opportunity to design, manage and analyse more than 150 blasts in open pit mines. Being interested in research, he moved to Australia in 2015 to pursue a PhD at JKMRC and became a Graduate member of AusIMM. Farhad Faramarzi research focus is understanding ore breakage behaviour in the context of weathering and development of new techniques in ore breakage characterisation to capture and quantify intrinsic rock breakage variabilities.