I SYMPOSIUM ON THE THOMPSON OPERATION I .

R. L. Puro
Mill Superintendent,

L. M. Ames
The Thompson Mill
Mill Engineer,

The International Nickel Company Annual General Meeting, Montreal, April, 1964
of Canada, Ltd.,
Manitoba Division fransactions, Volume LXVll, 1964, pp. 243-248

ABSTRACT
The Thompson mill of The International Nickel Com-
pany of Canada, Limited, began operating in 1960, treat-
ing a sulphide ore having a copper-to-nickel ratio of ap-
proximately 1 to 15.
Ore is crushed in an underground jaw crusher, set at
6 inches, and hoisted directly into the mill's coarse ore
bins. It is crushed to 1-in. size in cone crushers, and
ground to 65 mesh in a rod and pebble mill grinding cir-
cuit. The ground ore is then subjected to froth flotation,
producing a nickel concentrate, a copper concentrate and
sand fill. The nickel concentrate is pumped to the smelter.
The copper concentrate is dewatered, dried and shipped
to Copper Cliff. Sand recovered from the flotation tailings
is used as fill material underground, and the slime frac-
tion is pumped to the disposal area.
Introduction
HE Thompson mill began ·operating in 1960 and
T is now milling at a rate of 6,000 tons per day.
Its maximum rated capacity is 6,600 tons per day,
and this can be doubled without major additions or
structural alterations to the existing building. The
general flowsheet is shown in Figure 1.
Ore is crushed, ground and subjected to a froth
flotation process, producing a nickel concentrate,
a copper concentrate and tailing. The nickel con-
centrate is pumped to the smelter for dewatering
and further processing. The copper concentrate is
dewatered, dried and loaded into box cars for ship-

MINE HOIST

TRUCK DUMP GRIZZLY

COARSE

~
ORE BIN

~
WASTE SLIMES TAILINGS OISPOSA.l
' AREA

~OCK SCREENS

(,
TRIPPER CONVEYOR

~~---!..__
l -i SA.ND

' ~')RUNS

EJ H
FINE
ORE BIN
FINE
ORE BIN
l 8f01 SHORT HEAD
CONE CRUSHERS
z
0

~
UNDERGROUND
BACKFILL

lrntl l

®®® SCAVENGERS

CONE
llJ
CLASSIFIERS
NICKEL
CONCENTRATE
TO SMELTER
THICKENER

fl

Figure l.-General Flowsheet of the Thompson Mill.

Bulletin for November. 1964. Montreal 1167

 Figure 2.-The Crushing Plant.

SECTION THROUGH CRUSHERS SECTION THROUGH FINE ORE BINS, Mill AISLE & FLOTATION AREA

Figure 3.-Schematic Diagram of the Thompson Mill.

(1) Coarse ore from the Thompson mine (15) Conveyor to fine ore mills
(2) Coarse ore from outside source (16) Grinding mill
(3) Thompson coarse ore bin (17) Mill discharge sump
(4) Outside coarse ore bin (18) Cyclone classifiers
(5) Belt feeders (19) 10-ton hoist
(6) 6- by 14-ft. screen (20) 35-ton crane
(7) 7-ft. standard crusher (21) Flotation head sump
(8) 5- by 8-ft. screen (22) Pulp distributor
(9) 7-ft. short-head crusher (23) Scavenger ce'lls
(10) Collecting conveyor (24) Rougher flotation cells
(11) Conveyor to fine ore bins (25) Copper flotation cells
(12) Tripper (26) Nickel concentrate sump
(13) Fine ore bin (27) Flotation tailing sump
(14) Feeders to conveyor (28) 5-ton crane

1168 The Canadian Mining and Metallurgical

ment to Copper Cliff. Tailing is classified and the The crushers are equipped with a coarse cavity
coarse fraction used for mine sandfill; the slimes manganese steel bowl and ma ntle liners, a nd are
are pumped to the disposal a rea. lubricated by circulating oil systems with external
The mineral s recovered from Thompson ore are filters. The life of standard crus her wearing parts
pentlan dite, pyrrhotite and minor amounts of chal- is 838,300 tons for the mantle liner and 746,200 tons
copyrite. The gangue minerals are mica, quartz, for the bowl liner, as compared to 444,200 tons and
fe ldspar, other s ilicates and graphite. 568,600 tons, respectively, for the short-head crush-
er parts.
The su lphide content of Thompson ore, at approxi-
mately 34.5 per cent, is relatively high, and conse-
quently the ratio of concentration is low, averaging Grind ing
2.2 to 1. The ratio of pyrrhotite to pentlandite av- The grinding section (Figure 4) includes a rod
erages 2.1 to 1, and copper values in the ore are mill followed by two parallel secondary pebble mills,
also low, with average copper to nickel ratios in the each in closed circuit with hydro-cyclones . The mills
order of 1 to 15. are 12 ft. , 6 ins. in diameter by 16 ft. long. The
present capacity of the circuit is 275 tons per hour.
Crushing Flotation feed sizing averages 45.8 per cent minus
200 mesh.
The crushing plant ( Figure 2) consists of two
parallel open circuits designed to crush 950 tons per Ore is drawn from the bottom of the fine ore bins
hour to 8 per cent plus 1 inch. Ore is h oisted in two by variable-speed roll feeders and conveyed to the
15-ton bottom-discharge skips into a 2,500-ton bin. rod mill. (Refer to Figure 3). Pebbles for the sec-
Coarse ore is drawn out of the bin by 54-in. vari- ondary grinding mills are drawn from the storage
ab le-speed feeder be lts and conveyed to Ty-Rock bin, using a variable-speed vibrating feeder. Both
screens. Mine timber and rock bolts are picked off ore and pebble additions are regulated by electronic
this belt, and tramp steel is removed by electro- weightometers. '
m agnets. The mills have low trunnion overflow discharges,
Each of the two crushing circuits, (see section the trunnion diameter being 60 ins. The feed-end
in Figure 3) consists of a 6- by 14-ft. Ty-Rock vi- trunnion is conical in shape and no feed scoops are
brating screen, a 7-ft. standard cone crush er, a 5- used. Each mill is driven by a 1,500-hp. synchronous
by 8-ft. rod deck vibrating screen and a 7-ft. short- motor with a leading power factor of 0.80. The rod
head cone crusher in an open circuit. T h e standard and pebble mills operate at 61.0 and 72.2 per cent of
crushers, set at 1.5 in., discharge onto the rod deck critical speed, respectively, and are protected with
screens, and the oversize passes to the short-head Meeh anite trunnion liners and Ni-Hard head and
crushers, which are set at 0.5 in. shell liners. (See Figure 5) . The pebble mills are
The screens, conveyors and transfer chutes are equipped with trommel screens and discharge grates
un der a slight negative pressure produced by a 75,- across the trunnion to allow maximum pebble loads .
000-c.f.m. exhaust fan which draws the air through The rod and pebble mill product is pumped from
water sprays and a cluster of cyclones. Cleansed air the mill sumps by 8-in. sand pumps to a head tank
is discharged to atmosphere, and the dust is pumped feeding 30-in .-diameter cone classifiers. The total
to the flotation circuit. The crusher motors are
vented by air fans drawing clean air from outside
the building. Table I - Screen Analyses
Products from each crushing circuit are conveyed
to fine ore bins. The total length of the conveying
system is 1,059 ft., with a maximum incline of 14.5 Feed Product
degrees. Belt speeds average 455 f.p.m. A four-way
tripper-conveyor distributes the ore into two 56-ft.- Size, in . % Weight Size, in. % Weight
diameter by 63-ft.-high concrete bins with a capa-
city of 9,000 tons each.
+ 5 24 + 1 8
+ 3 14 + .75 17
A representative sample of the crushed ore, con- + 2 14 + .50 21
sisting of 35 pounds per 1,000 tons, is obtained in a + 1 14 + .25 17
+ .5 8 + .125 11
Vezin sample train. A Trans-Weigh weightometer .5 26 .125 26
measures a nd records the tonnage. The sampling
system a nd weightometer are maintained in peak
operating condition to ensure accurate assays and
weights, as these are used to determine plant metal Table II - Pebble Sizing Analysis
input.
Typical screen analyses of t he mine ore and final
product are sh ow n in Table I. Dimensions Weight
i nches pounds % Weight
The crushing plant is operated from a control
panel located on the rod deck screen floor; local 5.94 15.90 0
controls are provided at critical points where im- 4.99 9.40 14.9
4.20 5.60 13.3
mediate response is required. All conveyors are in- 3.53 3.30 19.9
terlocked electri cally and equipped with emergency 2.97 2.00 17.3
stop cords a long both sides of their full length. 2.50 1.20 9.3
2.10 0.70 7.7
Pebbles for the grinding circuit are produced from 1.77 0.40 3.5
mine ore in one crushing circuit on an intermittent 1.48 0.25 3.1
basis, and are conveyed to the pebble storage bin. - 1.48 -0.25 11.0
The pebble sizing anaysis is shown in Table II.

Bulletin for November. 1964. Montreal 11 69

in. batch centrifugal separator (Figtire 8). The sep-
arator discharges to a rotary bin feeder which sup-
plies two 25-ft. Holo-Flite steam driers in series.
The second drier discharges into a 37-ft. screw con-
veyor which delivers the concentrate to boxcars.

Sandfill Recovery
Flotation tailing is deslimed in a three-stage cy-
clone classifier circuit and used as fill material un-
derground. The slimes are pumped to the tailing
disposal area. Maximum sand recovery is essential
because of the low ratio of concentration. Sand re-
eovery is 84 per cent, and the percolation rate is
in excess of 4 inches per hour. The screen analyses
appear in Table VI.
Sand is stored in a steel tank with a capacity of
2,300 dry tons. The tank overflow, containing slimes,
is decanted to the waste sump. The tank has three
outlets, from which the rate of pour is regulated by
4-in. rubber flex valves. Water spigots in the dis-
charge line permit pulp density control - general-
ly 50 to 60 per cent solids by weight. Water jets are
located around each pouring outlet to control hang-
up. Sand is poured underground through 5.875-in.
bore holes connected to 6.0-in. reinforced rubber
hoses. Figure 8.-A centrifugal separator.