Minerals Processing

Advanced comminution circuit design – essential for

industry
by Zeljka Pokrajcic, Principal Process Engineer, Minerals and Metals – WorleyParsons; and Elizabeth Lewis-Gray,
Managing Director, Gekko Systems

C
omminution is the most energy
intensive component of mining
and mineral processing and is
extremely costly. Relatively simple
process flowsheet strategies such as
gangue rejection/ pre-concentration,
selection of coarser grind sizes and
the application of newer crushing and
grinding technologies will assist in
minimising costs and carbon footprint.
Yet, despite systematic and detailed
research in this area, the industry
remains somewhat reluctant to
implement these strategies.
Energy consumption in comminution
circuits worldwide has a significant
global impact. It has been estimated
in the 1980s that comminution
processes account for 3-4 per
cent of the global electrical energy
consumption (DOE, 1981). This has a
major impact on the planet’s carbon
footprint. Further, with the decline in
orebody quality, the need to mine and
process low grade, finely disseminated
ores at much higher through put rates
and finer product sizes will continue.
It is predicted that the processing
of such ore bodies using the current
design practices will prove very costly
not only to the environment but to the
operation’s bottom line.
Rob La Nause (then Chairman of
AMIRA and General Manager –
Technology, WMC) and John Temos
published the following analysis of the
carbon footprint at the Leinster Nickel
operation in 2003, see Figure 1: “It
clearly shows comminution circuits
are the largest contributor to WMC’s
emissions. Similarly, analysis of
energy expenditure by process shows
comminution circuits to be the largest
energy cost by a factor of two.”
Standard grinding
technologies are
extremely ineffective
relative to energy
consumed
The comminution process remains
inherently inefficient. Only a small
percentage of the grinding energy is
used in particle size reduction. The
majority of energy is lost to mechanical
energy and heat due to the operating
nature of grinding mills, where energy
transfer between grinding media
and particles is unconstrained and

1999 Leinster Nickel Operations CO 2 Emissions

40,000
Sulphur
35,000 Kerosene

Coke
30,000
LPG
tonnes CO 2 (e)

25,000
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20,000 Diesel

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15,000
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10,000

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FIG 1 - 1999 Leinster Nickel Operations CO2 Emissions (La Nause, R.D., et al. 2002).

38 August 2010
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 Minerals Processing
completely random see. Less than 5
per cent of the total energy in grinding
is used in rock breakage (Alvarado, S.,
et al, 1998).
Research has shown that new
technologies and flowsheet options
have emerged as alternatives.
However, the inclusion of these ideas
in comminution circuit design has
been extremely slow. Application of
technologies such as HPGR (High
Pressure Grinding Roll), VSI (Vertical
Shaft Impactor), and stirred mills
(IsaMill and Tower Mill) are few despite
many of these technologies being
available to the industry for over 20
years.
Grinding mills continue to be the power
house of most new comminution
circuits. The current trend has seen
the repeated installation of a large,
low capital cost, generic circuits
featuring two or three stages of
crushing, a large SAG mill(s), and to
a lesser extent AG mill(s), followed
by one or two large ball mills with a
single stage of classification. These
types of comminution circuits are
favoured over the traditional multi-
stage crushing and rod mill/ball
mill circuits, primarily due to the
lower operating costs, fast ramp up
time and large throughput capacity
(Barratt, DJ, et al, 2002). However, it
is questionable whether these types
of large and generic comminution
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circuits will meet the requirements
of the changing economic and social
environment.
Factors affecting the
rate of knowledge and
technology transfer in the
mining industry
Technology and process flow transfer
in the mining sector is typically very
slow. This is most likely due to reasons
including the following:
• Capital intensive nature of greenfield
installations;
• The perceived requirement for
extensive research and piloting
of conceptual flowsheets and new
technologies;
• Geological and metallurgical
variability of the ore;
• Natural tendency towards low
risk and conservative engineering
design options;
• Lack of metrics and KPI’s within
mining companies that reward
beneficial step change engineering
decisions;
• Fear of technical failure;
• Low management emphasis on supply
chain alliances and relationships;
• Reduction in in-house expertise and
an increased reliance on technical
advice from external consultants
and engineers. External advisors, by
nature of their position, are required
the
to take a more conservative view;
and
• Much of research supporting change
and providing strategies has been
funded by large mining houses and
is not publically available to smaller
miners. Smaller miners by nature
have smaller projects and decision
makers are closer to the risk reward
continuum and less risk averse.
Ways to improve energy
efficiency of comminution
Many of the strategies suggested to
improve the energy efficiency of mineral
processing, particularly comminution,
are not new ideas. Rather the old adage
of tailoring the mineral processing circuit
features to suit the ore properties,
for example, the inclusion of pre-
screening, multi-stage crushing, gravity
separation, etc. The benefit now is
that new techniques are available to
investigate these ore properties and
mineral associations, also there are
new and more efficient equipment and
flowsheet options to consider.
New flowsheet strategies
Some strategies for comminution
circuit design that challenge the
popular trend of large and generic
comminution circuits and promote a
better understanding and use of the
ore properties and options to reduce
energy consumption include:
Process Advantage™
August 2010 39

1. Gangue rejection and
pre-concentration
Typically, gangue is readily liberated
at coarser sizes as it usually occurs
in the orebody as large mineral
groupings or “clumps” containing
little or no valuable minerals. The
rejection or recovery of this type of
gangue from the feed material, termed
pre-concentration, reduces the total
mass and increases the grade of
ore proceeding to the next stage of
processing.
Opportunities for gangue rejection
early in the comminution circuit can
best be realised through a better
understanding of inherent mineral
association and ore properties at
a large scale. Gangue rejection
can even be incorporated in mining
where selective mining techniques
can be used to excavate only large
sections of mineralisation leaving
the gangue behind. The variation in
mineral association at a smaller scale
can be examined using established
techniques such as MLA (mineral
liberation analysis); a more novel
alternative for coarser particles is CBT
(cone beam tomography).
Variation in ore properties such as
colour, density and magnetism and
the valuable mineral and gangue
association in the ore dictates the
method for pre-concentration. The
pre-concentration technique at the
head of a comminution circuit can be
as simple as pre-screening, gravity
separation or colour ore sorting.
Pre-concentration can reduce material
handling issues, as well as the surface
footprint and improve selectivity of
downstream separation stages. It can
also improve the utilisation of low
grade resources, which has positive
implications on resource recovery,
utilisation and profitability.
2. Improved combination of
comminution technologies
The approach here is the
re-distribution of comminution energy
in a comminution circuit to target
40 August 2010
problematic fractions such as critical
size and ultra fines. This can decrease
re-circulating loads and minimise or
even eliminate the generation of
these problematic size fractions. This
decreases the mill power draw, media
load and at times the actual size of
the mill required. These modifications
also assist in generating a steeper
product size distribution for improved
downstream processing.
The strategy is to:
• Encourage autogenous grinding
techniques in both primary and
secondary grinding;
• Employ a partial pre-crush stage
using a HPGR to reduce the
generation of the critical size
material and reduce the load in the
primary mill; and
• Include a additional grinding
stage (tertiary grinding) using an
IsaMill or similar and an additional
classification step to better treat
the fine material in the ball mill
product.
This aids the overall efficiency of the
process and minimises power usage
for the same throughput and product
size. It also limits the consumption
of grinding media and the associated
embedded energy resulting from
grinding media manufacture.
1.E+05
1.E+04
Energy (kWh/t)
1.E+03
1.E+02
1.E+01
1.E+00
1.E-01
1.0E-02 1.0E-01
Particle Size (micron)
FIG 2 - Relationship between energy input and product particle size in comminution (Hukki,
R.T. 1961).
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Minerals Processing
3. Targeting coarser grind sizes
The target product size of a comminution
circuit contributes significantly to the
energy intensity of that circuit. As
the target product size decreases,
the energy required to achieve this
size increases significantly. In fact,
the energy requirement increases
drastically as the target particle size
drops below 100 µm, see Figure 2.
The approach is to determine the
coarsest product size at which a
mineral, or group of minerals,
is sufficiently liberated or, more
importantly, exists in a form that
can be separated from the bulk. This
leads to the selection of successive
target product sizes where separation
methods such as gravity and flotation
can be used to separate gangue and
valuable bearing composites. The first
target product size chosen by this
process and therefore the coarsest
product size can be as coarse as
1 mm. In many instances much of the
gangue is liberated at this size can
be rejected from the circuit, thereby
increasing the grade and decreasing
the amount of material proceeding to
the next stage of size reduction and
separation. This successive separation
and size reduction continues until
all minerals of interested have been
recovered. This is not dissimilar to
techniques employed in platinum
1.0E+00 1.0E+01 1.0E+02 1.0E+03 1.0E+04
 Minerals Processing
processing and multi-component ores
such as lead and zinc.
The key to this strategy is thorough
understanding and interpretation of
mineral liberation data. Concepts such
as grouping minerals together to form
larger entities that are more readily
liberated and appreciating that that
recoverable particles are not limited
to only mono-mineral fully liberated
particles, when applied to mineral
liberation information shed new light
on the selection of target product
size(s) for a comminution circuit.
The selection of coarser target product
size(s) can reduce the amount of over-
grinding and allow for more efficient
separation in downstream processes,
not to mention a reduction in energy
requirements for downstream
comminution devices.
The combination of these strategies
can not only decrease the total energy
consumption of the circuit while
improving the operating efficiency
RME10017 The AusIMM Bulletin Magazine Ad ART.indd 1
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but as mentioned previously, enable
uneconomic reserves to become
profitable by lowering the cut off
grade, thereby maximising profitability
and utilisation of the ore reserve.
Further development and investigation
is required in the area of coarse particle
separation including classification and
flotation as well as material handling
(pumping), before the second and
third strategies can be included in a
comminution without concerns over
separation efficiency and performance.
Research in these areas has lead
to some recent innovations including
ultra fine screening and development
of flotation cells specifically for coarse
particles.
Conclusion
Concerns over increasing energy prices,
decreasing metal prices, ore reserves
of declining head grade coupled with
the desire to minimise the carbon and
ecological footprint of our operations
are all drivers to ensure improved
energy efficiency is not only good
practice but necessary for the long
term viability of the mineral processing
industry. This is particularly important
for the comminution process, as it is
the most energy intensive part of a
mineral processing circuit, accounting
for approximately 50 per cent of the
costs of running a mineral processing
plant1.
Energy efficient comminution circuit
design requires a holistic approach
where the comminution circuit features
and equipment are selected based on
the inherent properties of the orebody.
It is not a generic application of
design principles.
Energy efficient comminution may
include the integration of separation
stages for gangue rejection, the
use of more efficient grinding and
separation equipment and the
selection of coarser product sizes.
These are not new notions, rather a
return to ways of the past with better
insight into ore properties provided
2/07/2010 12:35:56 PM
August 2010 41
 Minerals Processing

Castlemaine Gold’s Ballarat plant has a
three stage crushing and screening circuit
designed to recover at a P80 crush of
650 µm.
by new technologies such as the
CBT and MLA, and the availability of
more efficient equipment such as the
IsaMill and HPGR.
These strategies not only decrease
the total energy consumption of a
comminution circuit but can act to
decrease operating cost and, when
combined, can increase the size of ore
reserve and overall profitability of the
operation.
Strategies for
accelerating change
Slow change in this economically
and environmentally critical area
of mining is no longer acceptable.
It is imperative this issue to be
debated and reviewed at all levels
in the mining sector. Most critically,
awareness and knowledge of this
issue must be pushed up into the
boardroom of mining companies so
that key decision makers are aware of
the alternatives and the implications.
Furthermore, the development and
publication of industry metrics and
KPI’s are important for non-technical
management to understand the
comminution circuit options and
associated environmental, financial
and technical benefits and risks.
References
Alvarado, S, Alguerno, J, Auracher, H,
and Casali, A, 1998. Energy-exergy
optimization of comminution, in Energy
Oxford, Vol 23, No 2: pp153-158.
Barratt, D J, and Sherman, M, 2002.
Factors which influence the selection
of comminution circuits, in Conference
Proceedings Mineral Processing
Plant Design, Practice and Control,
Vancouver, Canada, pp539-565.
DOE, 1981. Comminution and
Energy Consumption, Report of the
Committee on Comminution and
Energy Consumption, Publication
NMAB-364, National Academy Press,
Washington, D.C.
Hukki, R T, 1961. Proposal for a
Solomonic settlement between the
theories of von Rittinger, Kick and
Bond, in Trans SME/AIME, Vol, No
220: pp403-408.
La Nauze, R D, and Temos, J, 2002,
WMC Resources Ltd, Technologies for
Sustainable operations Conference
proceedings CMMI Congress, Cairns,
Australia May 2002 pp 27-33
Pokrajcic Z, Morrison R D, and
Johnson N W, 2009. Designing for a
reduced carbon footprint at greenfield
and operating comminution plants,
in Conference Proceedings Mineral
Processing Plant Design, Tucson,
USA. ■

1
Derived from OpEx estimations using the WorleyParsons database.

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