CHEM-E6155 Minerals engineering

project work
Spring 2017, Aalto University

Design Project Cases

Background
A problem that is currently being faced by mines around the world is the decrease in the valuable
grades in extracted ores as a result of site exploitation. Consequently, companies are looking into
alternative solutions to maintain their production goals. Among these alternatives is to further
process their scavenger tailings or treat the minerals in the tailing dumps that were discarded in
the past but are now economically attractive.

One of the main reasons why valuables are not reported to the concentrate is the lack of
liberation. To overcome this, further grinding is required. Obviously, this represents an
additional investment and an increase in operating costs associated with the installation of new
mills.

Nevertheless, our Company is evaluating the possibility of installing a ball mill capable of
liberating valuables in a sufficient extent for them to be further concentrated. Your team’s task is
to design a mill (or mill series) for the processing of the tailings stream in preparation for the
concentration step. The expected service life of the mill will be 15 years and a salvage value of
5% is forecasted.

Your report is expected to contain the technical details of your design and justify why do you
consider this to be the most suitable. A questionnaire containing the pertinent information should
be prepared for potential suppliers, in case our company decides to proceed with the project.
Based on your estimation of costs and potential revenue due to additional liberation, suggest
whether this is a sound investment.
Case 1. A copper ore operation in Chile

Mineralogy
The tailings produced from the current concentration process have an average grade of 0.12%
Cu. About 97% of the Cu in the tailings is found in the form of chalcopyrite, with the rest being a
mixture of enargite, chalcocite, covellite and bornite. The main component of these tailings is
quartz, which also contains up to 1% pyrite and about 1% other miscellaneous minerals such as
molybdenite and arsenopyrite. The d80 particle size of the tailings is of 157 microns (Fig.1a)

Fig.1a. Particle size distribution of Cu-containing tailings

Capacity
The planned throughput for the tails enrichment plant is of 130 000 tons of ore per day.

Economic drivers
The current smelter contract reads as follows: Deduct from the copper assay 1 unit and pay for
the remainder at 95% the LME price for higher-grade copper. A penalty of 5 units will be paid
for Cu grades lower than 20%. The minimum acceptable Cu grade is 15%. Molybdenum will be
paid at 90% the LME price. Refining charges are 220 US Dollars per ton of payable Cu.
Note: For simplicity, in this particular case assume that 45 kg of Mo are associated to every ton
of payable Cu.
Background information
In a flotation cell at laboratory scale under scalable conditions, the correlation between particle
size, grade and recovery in Fig.1b was found.

Fig.1b. Grade and recovery as a function of particle size for the treatment of copper ore tailings
Case 2. An enrichment operation for a South-African PGM-
containing ore

Mineralogy
The ore being treated by the current plant contains platinum group metals (mainly Pt and Pd with
traces of Ph) in a cumulative grade of 5 g/ton. The enrichment process produces a concentrate
containing 150 g/ton of PGMs with a reported recovery of 88%. The vast majority of the ore is
chromite (>90%), the rest being mainly feldspar, magnetite and olivine with traces of other
minerals. The particle size of the tailings present a d80 of 128 microns (Fig. 2a).

Fig 2a. Particle size distribution of PGM-containing tailings

Capacity
The new enrichment plant should process up to 280 000 tons per day of ore.

Economic drivers.
The smelter contract reads as follows: Smelter payment terms for Pt and Pd will be 86% of the
average London Metal Exchange price of the day. Treatment and sampling charges add up to a
total of US$185/ton of dry concentrate. A grade penalty of US$100 per dry ton of concentrate
delivered to the smelter shall apply if the grade of concentrate is below 150g/t PGM’s, US$150
for grades below 130 ppm and US$200 for grades below 110 ppm. The minimum acceptable
grade for the smelter is 100 g/ton of PGM’s.
Note: For simplicity, assume that the ratio of Pt to Pd in the concentrate is of 4:1
Background information
In a flotation cell at laboratory scale, the following correlation between particle size and recovery
was found:

Fig.2b. Grade and recovery as a function of particle size for the treatment of PGM tailings