Development of a Lab-Scale Test for Pre-Concentration Evaluation

Speaker

Dr Adrian Dance

Abstract

Pre-concentration opportunities are available for most operations to improve the grade of their mill feed and eliminate fine/soft contaminants or coarse/hard material. For a greenfield project, pre-concentration is difficult to evaluate due to a lack of standardised testing methods and sample top-size constraints. This is exacerbated by our current testing practices where sample preparation involves stage-crushing down to a manageable size – destroying the opportunity to evaluate coarse beneficiation methods. This presentation will cover development of a standardised ranking test using half drill core samples. The objective is to consider pre-concentration at an early study stage and quantify the impact on project economics. The laboratory test can be done on 10kg to 50kg of half core samples, measuring the metal deportment by size at different levels of impact breakage, comparable to primary/secondary stage crushing. By incorporating this test protocol with an established comminution test, it can be inserted into current metallurgical testwork programs with minimal disruption. As well as estimating the grade by size response to crushing and screening, coarse particles are tested for sensor response; at this time, typically dual-energy XRT. This provides an independent evaluation of pre-concentration at the laboratory scale before committing to the cost and sample mass requirements of manufacturer’s performance tests.

Bio

Adrian Dance is a Principal Metallurgist with SRK Consulting Canada. For over 30 years, with both industrial and consulting experience, Adrian has worked at operations in Eritrea, Australia, Canada and Peru. For the past two decades, Adrian has established himself as an authority on comminution circuit operation and practices a proven methodology in gaining improvements from “Mine–to–Mill” optimisation projects.

Adrian has spent most of his career working with existing operations to gain added efficiency. With SRK, he is providing similar expertise including pre-concentration assessment and development of mill forecasting models embedded in the geological block model, or geometallurgical modelling.

This seminar will be presented via Webinar only