UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL AND MINING ENGINEERING

PRACTICAL TRAINING REPORT, PT3

ACADEMIC YEAR 2019/2020

DEGREE PROGRAMME: BSC IN METALLURGY AND MINERAL
PROCESSING ENGINEERING

STUDENT'S NAME: MPEHE, KARRIM R

REGISTRATION NUMBER: 2017-04-08497

NAME OF COMPANY: STAMIGOLD BIHARAMULO MINE

NAME OF SUPERVISOR: DR. JANGA KANDO

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Foremost, I am very grateful to my almighty God for keeping me alive and safe during the whole
period of Industrial Practical Training 3 (IPT 3) at Stamigold Biharamulo mine.

I also like to express my special thanks to the gold plant team, exceedingly Eng. Kutika (plant
manager), Eng. Naziru Kyaruzi (senior plant metallurgist), Eng. Frank Charles (metallurgist) and
Eng. Grayson Kinanja (metallurgist), despite being busy with their daily duties, took time to
guide, train and supervise us throughout the practical training.

I sincerely acknowledge my family for the spiritual, moral and economic support and their
everlasting love and positive ideas that they had been providing to encourage me endlessly to
carry on during all the pleasant and difficult times I was facing during the IPT 3 period. May
God bless them so much.

In addition, I acknowledge the Management of the Department of Mining and Mineral

Processing Engineering in the School of Mines and Geoscience (SoMG) at the University of Dar
es Salaam (UDSM). My special thanks should go to Engineer E Masolwa, PT supervisor and
Doctor Katemi, PT coordinator and academic supervisor, for their endless efforts to ensure that
we students get the chance to visit, learn and correlate the theories and practical applications at
various large-scale industries,

It is my pleasure to place on record my best regards to all my fellow students since they have
become the party of my success during this period of my carrier, both from UDSM and MUST.
Furthermore, plant trainers and operators whom we cooperated with for the whole time during
practical training, bearing in mind, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the
Metallurgical laboratory operators for their academic and moral support for this time on PT 3.
Thanks, and God Bless you.
ABSTRACT
This report consists of three chapters. The first chapter consists of the weekly reports that briefly
describe the work performed each day of the week and details of the main job performed weekly.

The second chapter consists of the main report, which consists of the description of the location,
the main methods used in the production of gold and activities done in the Stamigold Biharamulo
mine

The third chapter of this report consists of the mini project conducted during the practical
training at Stamigold Biharamulo Mine. The title of the project was "optimization of grinding
circuit efficiency". The main objective was to determine the Efficiency of the grinding circuit
using the bond work index and optimal SAG mill operating parameters. The specific objective
was to suggest optimal key performance indicators (KPIs). The findings showed that for optimal
grinding efficiency, the throughput has to be 70tph, mill discharge density has to be 71% percent
solid by weight and the mill speed has to be 92% of its critical speed.
LIST OF FIGURES

Table 1: Table of results for experiment Part A.........................................................................................32

Table 2: Table of results for experiment Part B.........................................................................................32
Table 3: Table of results foe experiment Part C.........................................................................................33
Table 4: Table of results for experiment Part D.........................................................................................33
Table 5: Sieve analysis results....................................................................................................................34
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CIL Carbon-In-Leach

o
C Degree Celcius

Eng. Engineer

F80 80% passing size of the feed

g gram

hr. hours

IPT Industrial Practical Training

Kg Kilogram

Km Kilometers

KPIs Key performance indicators

M Meter

P80 80% passing size of the product product

ROM Run off mine

S Second

SAG Semi Autogenous Mill

SBM Stamigold Biharamulo Mine

t tonnes

tph tonnes per hour

µm micron
CHAPTER ONE: WEEKLY REPORTS
CHAPTER TWO: MAIN REPORT
2.1: INTRODUCTION

2.1.1: Location
Biharamulo Gold Mine was formally known as Tulawaka Gold Mine under the African Barrick
Gold Company (ABG). It is currently operated by STAMIGOLD Company Limited, a State
Mining Corporation (STAMICO) subsidiary. It is located 160km southwest of Mwanza in the
western part of the Lake Victoria Biharamulo District, Kagera Region. The mine is situated
within the Biharamulo forest reserve, 460km from Mwanza, by road via Kahama and Shinyanga.
It covers a 12 area of ca. 321.58km2.

The mine is accessed by road transport through the 1421 km main tarmac road from Dar es
Salaam to Burundi, which is connected to the S zone of the property by the 3km laterite road.
Also, the mine owns an airstrip which provides access to chartered flights.

Figure 1: Map showing the Location of Stamigold Biharamulo Mine

2.2: COMMINUTION
Comminution is the size reduction of ore to a smaller average particle size and eventually
liberates the minerals. It can be done by grinding, crushing, cutting, vibrating or other means of
size reduction. Plant comminution is carried out at the SBM process plant by crushing and
grinding. The crushing area is divided into two significant subsystems Crushing and Conveying

2.2.1: CRUSHING
Crushing is the first stage of comminution in the process plant. At SBM, there is a single toggle
jaw crusher. The size of material fed in the circuit is -600mm due to the static grizzly screen
aperture and delivers a product size of 100 percent passing 90 mm to the grinding circuit. The
crushed ore product passes onto a series of conveyor belts (CV 01 and CV 02) to the SAG mill
feed hopper and gets conveyed to a SAG mill by CV 03. When the hopper is full, it discharges
material onto CV 04 and discharges them to the emergency stockpile.

Figure 2: Jaw crusher and its parts

2.2.2: FACTORS AFFECTING JAW CRUSHER EFFICIENCY

a) Jaw gap/Close Size setting (CSS)
This is the separation space between the movable and stationary jaw plates. The jaw gap
determines the size of the material crushed.

b) Ore feed rate.

If the ore feed rate to the jaw crusher is very significant, it may affect its efficiency. For example,
a higher feed rate can cause a higher plate wear rate. The feed rate to the primary crusher is
controlled by heavy chains installed at the end of the Apron feeder to reduce the rate at which the
ore is fed into the vibrating grizzly and hence the crusher itself.

2.2.3: CONVEYING
A conveyor belt is one material handling and transport equipment used to transfer materials from
one point to another continuously. For example, at SBM conveying system is designed to
transport crushed ore, grinding balls, and recycled pebbles from the crushing station to the SAG
mill.

Principal components of conveyor belt design are pulleys, idlers, scraper, water sprays, alarms,
decking, belt tensioners, feed chutes, feeders, weight meters and metal detectors

Figure 3: Belt conveyor and its parts

2.2.4: GRINDING
Grinding is a processing plant's second and last stage of size reduction . The purpose of the ore-
grinding circuit is to reclaim the coarse ore from the bin and grind it to a size small enough to
expose the gold particles in the ore. SBM SAG mill is used for grinding in closed circuits with a
pebble crusher.

2.2.5: SAG mill

The term SAG mill is an acronym for a semi-autogenous grinding mill. The term autogenous
grinding means that all of the ore size reduction is accomplished due to the ore tumbling upon
itself. The size reduction is accomplished by the action of ore crushing and grinding other ore
particles. In semi-autogenous mills, a portion of the grinding is autogenous, and a portion is
performed by grinding balls.

Figure 4: SAG mill arrangement

Inside the SAG mill, impact or compression is most pronounced, followed by cascading motion
which together leads the ore to be ground into fine. The mill is charged with steel balls, and the
media charge occupies less than half of the mill volume (about 5%-8%), which assists in
grinding the ore into a slurry (106 microns), and the mill materials charge occupies a volume of
30% of the total mill volume. Due to the rotation of the mill and fraction of the mill shell, the
grinding media is lifted along the rising side (shoulder) of the mill until the materials cascade and
cataract down the free surface of the charge to the bottom or toe of the charge.

2.2.6: PEBBLE CRUSHING

After the slurry exits the SAG mill trunnion, it discharges into the trommel screen. The screen
has slotted openings. Material more significant than these slots remains within the trommel
screen, passes through the inside of the screen, then falls onto the pebble recycle conveyor (CV
05) and is sent to the pebble crusher. The pebble can be diverted to a bunker on the ground floor
for a short time if the pebble recycling system is not in service.

In the pebble crusher, rock is crushed between an oscillating conical crushing cone, or head, and
a fixed curved bowl. In the case of the jaw crusher, the instantaneous production rate varies
widely and largely depends on the rate at which loaders deliver blended ore to the crusher. In the
case of the pebble crusher, the crusher is fed at the rate that the pebble is produced.

Figure 5: Pebble crusher

2.3: CLASSIFICATION
Classification is a process of separating particles of various sizes. In the SBM grinding circuit,
cyclones are used for size classification. A cyclone is a device to classify, separate or sort
particles in a liquid suspension based on the ratio of their centripetal force to resistance. Cyclone
gives two products: finished product (overflow), ground as fine as desired, and oversize material
(underflow), which is returned for additional SAG mill grinding.

In the SBM grinding circuit, the undersized slurry from the SAG mill discharge trommel screen
flows into the primary cyclone feed hopper. At this point, additional water is added. The amount
of water added depends on the desired cyclone feed slurry density (range from 46 to 48 in SBM).
A cyclone feed pump then pumps the slurry to the cyclone cluster containing six cyclones,s of
which three are operating and the remaining three are on standby.

2.3.1: PRINCIPLE OF CYCLONE OPERATION

Centrifugal force created by the circular motion inside the cyclone separates the fine particles
from the coarse particles. The large and heavier particles are thrown against the cyclone wall and
flow down towards the apex. The water drags the lighter particles to the overflow stream. The
balance between the centrifugal and drag forces determines where the particle will leave. The
fines are dragged with most of the water through the vortex finder.

Factors affecting the classification of particles;

 Cyclone Operating Pressure

 Vortex Finder and Spigot Diameters

 Feed Size Distribution

 Feed Pulp Density / % Solids

 Slurry Viscosity

Proper operation of the cyclones is essential to the success of the SBM operation. The particle
size delivered to downstream operations must be within specifications. For the ore processed at
Tulawaka, approximately 80 percent of the particles in the cyclone overflow stream must be
smaller than 106 microns (0.106 millimetres). Gold-bearing particles more prominent than this
size may not be ground small enough to sufficiently expose the gold and silver surfaces in order
to attain the target recovery in the leaching process
 Figure 6: Hydro cyclone

2.4: GRAVITY CONCENTRATION

The gravity concentration circuit is designed to remove free gold mineral particles from the
circulating load in the SAG mill circuit. This prevents over-grinding of the gold, which could
lead to a low gold recovery in the CIL circuit and losses of gold due to plating of gold on mill
liners

Gravity concentration methods separate minerals of different specific gravity by their relative
movement in response to gravity. At SMB, gravity concentration is done by knelson screen. The
portion of the cyclone underflow that is diverted to the gravity concentration circuit is first
screened to remove the coarse ore particles.). The screen has 1.22-meter-wide by 2.44-meter-
long. The screen oversize contains the coarse ore particles returned to the SAG mill feed. The
underflow from the screen contains the finer particles and is sent to the Knelson concentrators.
 Figure 7: A knelson concentrator

2.5: CIL CIRCUIT

Leaching refers to the branch of hydrometallurgy that deals with the dissolution of metal or
minerals in a liquid medium. It is the process whereby a solid material is dissolved into an
aqueous solution. Dilute alkaline cyanide solutions are used exclusively for gold dissolution
Adsorption is a term used to describe the attraction of the mineral compound to the surface of
another material. The material used in gold adsorption is called activated carbon.

The CIL circuit at SBM has one leach tank before six adsorption tanks and only partially leaches
the gold into the solution before entering the adsorption tanks. Hence leach is still occurring in
the adsorption tanks.

The chemical reaction for the dissolution of gold is as follows

4Au + 8NaCN + O2 + 2H2O= 4Na[Au(CN)2] + 4NaOH

To prevent the formation of toxic and deadly hydrogen cyanide (HCN), lime is added to raise
pH above 9
2.6: ELUTION CIRCUIT
After carbon absorption in CIL tanks, activated carbon loaded with gold and other organic and
inorganic material must be treated in an elution process to strip gold from the carbon o the
solution form but in a more concentrated form. In the stripping process, gold is converted into
the solution form to allow activated carbon to be generated and recycled to the CIL circuit

At SBM, the elution process was done at a temperature range of 92-120 degrees Celsius and a
pressure of 150 kPa. The solution derived from this process, called the pregnant eluate, is
pumped to electrolytic cells in the refinery, where the gold is recovered from the solution.

2.7: THICKENING
Thickener is the partial dewatering device that thickens diluted slurry to a higher % of solids to
reduce volume for downstream processing. In thickener, the feed enters tangentially at the centre
where the slurry contact with flocculants and lime causes the materials to settle. As a result, the
thickened slurry is withdrawn from the bottom, and clean water overflows the top.

Flocculant Is a chemical designed to increase the particle settling ratio in the thickener.
Flocculation causes the number of more minor indicates particles to join together to form an
agglomerate which settles much faster.

Lime is added to increase the rate of settling of slurry material in the thickener. The SBM plant
has a thickener that got a diameter of 12 meters. The parameters of thickener include;
i) The underflow speed
ii) Density of slurry
iii) Bed mass pressure
The bed mass pressure is directly proportional to the density and inversely proportional to the
 Figure 8: A thickener

2.8: PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED AND THEIR RESOLUTIONS

During my practical training, I observed problems in operation, which are as follows. The poor
grinding performance resulted in dropping in 106 microns from 86% percent to 68% 106
microns passing. Feeding foreign materials in the crushing system, mainly woods and timbers,
resulting in jaw crusher blockage and SAG mill feed chute blockage. The solutions to these
challenges were as follows;
 I conducted the project on optimizing grinding circuit efficiency with the primary
objective of determining the Efficiency of grinding circuit using bond work index and
optimal SAG mill operating parameters
 Immediately remove foreign materials at the apron feeder before entering the jaw crusher
 When the foreign material succeeded to enter into the crushing system, they were
removed at the conveying system before entering the SAG mill

2.9: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OBTAINED

During my practical training, the experience I gained were as follows;
 Knowledge in SAG mill relining, inching and starting.
 I gained knowledge of crusher and conveying circuit operation.
 Troubleshooting Skills.
 Understood the effect of more significant particle size F (80) feed into the SAG mill
 Understand the effect of throughput, mill speed, ball charge level and discharge density
in grinding
 Understood the concept of close communication with the ore control concerned ore
grade, type of ore and quantity of ore going to the stockpile.
 Understood the maintenance issues in the grinding circuit.
CHAPTER THREE: MINI PROJECT
3.1: PROJECT TITLE
Optimize grinding circuit efficiency.

3.2: PROBLEM STATEMENT

SBM grinding circuit is being experiencing poor grindability performance that resulted on
dropped 106 microns from 86% percent to 68% 106 microns passing.

3.3: OBJECTIVES

3.3.1: Main objective

 To determine Efficiency of grinding circuit using bond work index and optimal SAG mill
operating parameters.

3.3.2: Specific objective

 Suggesting optimal key performance indicators (KPIs)

3.3: PROJECT METHODOLOGY

The following were the methodologies implemented in conducting the project
 Consultations
 Literature Review
 Experimentation

3.3.1: Consultation
This project was done at grinding circuit field and SMB laboratory, with aid of plant
metallurgists the idea on how to conduct the project. Also through consulting grinding circuit
operators who are also responsible for operation, the description of operation and ways of sample
collection were obtained.

3.3.2: Literature Review

SAG Mill Grinding
One of the major developments in the mining industry during recent years is the use of
autogenous grinding (AG) and semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mills. An AG mill is a tumbling
mill that utilizes the ore itself as grinding media. The ore must contain sufficient competent
pieces to act as grinding media. An SAG mill is an autogenous mill that utilizes steel balls in
addition to the natural grinding media (Wills, B.A, 2006)
Factors affecting Operation of SAG mill
a) Mill Charge
Usually a SAG mill is charged to 30-35% of its interior volume. The grinding balls occupy 5-
15% of the volume. The charge volume can be estimated by measuring the distance between the
top level of the charge and the central axis of the mill. It can also be computed from known bulk
volumes of ore and bulk density of balls. Water is added, and slurry is usually between 65%-
75% by weight (SME, 2006)

b) Feed Size
The feed to high aspect SAG mills are usually preferred from gyratory crushers, while the feed to
low aspect mills are preferred from jaw crushers. Depending on the set, the maximum size of the
particles discharged from gyratory crushers is about 300 mm and from jaw crushers is about 180-
100 mm, thus the optimum feed size may be taken to range between 150-300 mm. According to
MacPherson and Turner the optimum feed size consistent with maximum power draw is given by
the relation:
F 80=53.5 D 0.67 (1)
Where F 80=feed 80% passing size in mm,
D = inside diameter of the mill in meters.
The feed in SAG mills contains a fraction that serves as the grinding medium. These larger ore
fractions break the smaller particles but also breakdown themselves and exit the mill as product.

c) Ball charge level

Steel balls charges range up to 20% by volume, and typical value range from 4-15% for SAG
mill. Steel balls will have to be charged to help break the more competent lumps to retain the
balance and maintain throughput. The number of steel balls and their size depend on the hardness
of the ore, the original ore size and the size distribution. Increasing ball numbers increases the
breakage rate and therefore increases the throughput rate. Hence a balance between the number
and size of balls is required. Ball sizes used under Australian conditions normally range between
100 mm and 125 mm with a maximum of 175 mm. For ores that easily disintegrate (classed as
incompetent), 50 mm size balls may be used, whereas harder ores may require 150-175 mm balls
to maintain the required tonnage (Gupta, D & Yan, D.S, 2006).

d) Mill speed
At the critical speed of the mill the theoretical trajectory of the medium is such that it would fall
outside the shell. In practice, centrifuging occurs and the medium is carried around in an
essentially fixed position against the shell hence no grinding will occur. Mill critical speed is
given by;
42.3
Nc= (2)
√ D−d
Where NC is Critical speed in rev/min, D is Mill diameter in meters and d is Ball diameter in
meters Mills are driven, in practice, at speeds of 50-90% of critical speed, the choice being
influenced by economic considerations. Increase in speed increases capacity, but there is little
increase in Efficiency (i.e. kWh/t) above about 40-50% of the critical speed. Very low speeds are
sometimes used when full mill capacity cannot be attained. High speeds are used for high-
capacity coarse grinding.
e) Energy Consumption
In size reduction process, energy must be required to break down material and this energy can be
estimated by using Bond's theory
Bond's theory (1960); Energy required for the reduction of feed particles of specific size (80%
passing aperture size) to a product size at which 80% of its particles pass a sieve of specific
aperture size is given by bond's formula as expressed in equation 4 below

W =10W i
[ 1
−
1
√ P80 √ F 80 ] (4)

Where
W Is work input (kWH/t), W i is work index (kWH/t), P80 is 80 % passing aperture size of the
product in μm and F 80 is 80 % passing aperture size of the feed in μm.. Work (energy) input
per ton of Solids processed is given by taking average power divided by average tonnes
The work index gives the energy in kilowatt-hours required to grind one tonne of ore to a
specific size. Numerically it is the kilowatt hours per short ton required to reduce the material
from theoretically infinite feed size to 80% passing 100 μm
Work index efficiency
The Bond method allows for quantification and comparison of relative energy efficiencies of
most industrial comminution circuits. Work index efficiency is used for early analyses of plant
grinding efficiency issues. It is given by;
Kwh
Bond Work Index of the ore( )
t
Efficiency ( WI ) %= (5)
kwh
OperatingWork Index of the Circuit ( )
t
-If the WI Efficiency is 100%, the circuit is performing with the same Efficiency as the Bond
Standard Circuit (and the ore Wi = circuit operating Wi).
-If the WI Efficiency Ratio is greater than 1.0 or 100%, the circuit is performing at an energy
efficiency that exceeds the Bond Standard Circuit.
-If the Wi Efficiency Ratio is less than 1.0 or 100%, the circuit is performing at an energy
efficiency that is lower than the Bond Standard Circuit. (GMG 2016)

Particle size analysis

The aim of particles size analysis is to determine the particle size distribution of particular
materials such that products of crushing and grinding. Sieving is common method used to
determine particle size distribution and method is known as sieve analysis.

Sieving process occurs in two stages which are elimination of particles smaller than the screen
apertures which often occurs fairly rapidly and separation of the near size particles. These stages
require a manipulated sieve in such a way that all particles have opportunities for passing
through the apertures and therefore sieve shaker is employed (Wills 2006).

After completing the sieving process, the weights of material retained on each sieve and in the
pan are recorded. The material contained in the pan represents the undersize product from the
finest sieve. Data can presented graphically and common graph is that of commutative weight
undersize (%) against particle size
3.3.3: Experimentation
The following KPIs were tested to determine the grinding Efficiency;

Part A: Effect of Ball Charge level

Procedures;
 Throughput, initial power draw and grind size was recorded before starting an
experiment
 About 500g of wet sample was collected from SAG mill feed conveyor to determine
the F80 and 500g of mill discharge to determine P80
 2 tonnes of steel balls were added after every 24 hours, the samples of the mill
discharge were taken and the readings were recorded 30 minutes after adding the
balls as per below table at constant throughput of 85tph and mill speed.
 Operating work Index of the circuit(Wio) was then calculated using the bonds energy
formula given that the bond work index of the ore is 17.28kwh/t the grinding
Efficiency was deduced and tabulated as per below table.

Part B: Variation of throughput

Procedures;
 Throughput, initial power draw and grind size was recorded before starting an
experiment
 About 500g of wet sample was taken from SAG mill feed conveyor to determine the
F80 and 500g of mill discharge to determine P80
 The SAG mill feed rate was increased by 5 tones after every 4 hours and the samples
of the mill discharge was taken and the reading was recorded 30 minutes after varying
throughput.
 Operating work Index of the circuit(Wio) was then calculated using the bonds energy
formula given that the bond work index of the ore is 17.28kwh/t the grinding
Efficiency was deduced and tabulated as per below table.
Part C: Variation of mill speed
Procedures;
 Throughput, initial power draw and grind size was recorded before starting an
experiment
 About 500g of wet sample was taken from SAG mill feed conveyor to determine the
F80 and 500g of mill discharge to determine P80
 SAG mill speed was adjusted after every 4 hours, the samples of the mill discharge
was taken and the reading was recorded 30 minutes after adjusting the mill speed as
per below table at constant throughput of 85tph.
 Operating work Index of the circuit(Wio) was then calculated using the bonds energy
formula given that the bond work index of the ore is 17.28kwh/t the grinding
Efficiency was deduced and tabulated as per below table.

Part D: Percentage Solids and water Addition

Procedures;
 Throughput, initial power draw and grind size was recorded before starting an
experiment
 About 500g of wet sample was taken from SAG mill feed conveyor to determine the
F80 and 500g of mill discharge to determine P80
 Amount of water added in the mill was adjusted after every 4 hours, the samples of
the mill discharge was taken and the reading was recorded 30 minutes after adjusting
the percent solids and water addition as per below table at constant throughput of
85tph and constant mill speed.
 Operating work Index of the circuit(Wio) was then calculated using the bonds energy
formula given that the bond work index of the ore is 17.28kwh/t the grinding
Efficiency was deduced and tabulated as per below table.
3.4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

3.4.1 Results
92

90

88

86
Efficiency (%)

84

82

80

78

76

74
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
Balls added (tonnes)

Figure 9: Graph of Efficiency against tonnes of balls added

100
90
80
70
60
efficienct (%)

50
40
30
20
10
0
65 70 75 80 85 90
throughput(tph)

Figure 10: Graph of Efficiency against throughput

 90

88

86

84

82
Efficiency(%)

80

78

76

74

72

70
87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95
Mill speed (%)

Figure 11: Graph of Efficiency against mill speed

100

90

80

70

60
Efficiency (%)

50

40

30

20

10

0
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Water feed rate (m3/h)

Figure 12: Graph of Efficiency against water feed rate

3.4.2 Discussion
PART A
Work index efficiency was increased from 80.55 to 90.9. It can also be observed clear in the
table of results that as more balls added the mill power increase, this is due to increase in mill
weight. Also the % grind size (-106 microns) was increasing as ball charging increase.

PART B
Work index efficiency was increasing from 71.9 to 88.2% when throughput was decreasing from
85 to 70tph at the interval of 5tph.Throughput of 70tph seems to be perfect since it yielded
highest Efficiency and low power draw. Also the %grind size (-106 microns) was increasing
from 66.8 to 72.9 at throughput of 70 tph ball charging increase.

PART C
Work index efficiency was increasing from 76.4 to 87.4% as the mill speed increasing from 88 to
92%, but at speed of 94% the Efficiency was dropped to from 87.4 to 85.96. This indicates that
some of mill charge was starting to centrifuge since mill was about to attain its critical speed

PART D
Work index efficiency was increasing from 74.3 to 88.6% when water feed level increase from
24 to 26m3/h (mill discharge density drop from 73 to 71%). Discharge density of 73% seems to
be imperfect due to high power draw (1020 kW). Work index efficiency was decreasing from
88.6% to 70.1% and from 70.1% to 65.47% at feed rate of 28 and 30m 3/h respectively. This is
because as much water is added in the mill it will flash the mill and lead to poor grinding.

3.5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

To improve grinding circuit efficiency, I would like to recommend the following
 Throughout the surveys performed, the % grind size (-106 microns) could not reach 86%.
This can also be contributed by poor performance of classification system.
Hydrocyclones performance should be assessed and improved.
 To avoid high power draw, only 4 tonnes of balls should be added. The added four balls
should be of different size such that 2 tonnes of 100mm and 2 tonnes of 80mm, this will
improve size reduction
 The mill throughput should be decreased to about 70tph to optimize circuit efficiency and
grinds as well.
 The mill speed should be set to 92% to optimize grinding
 The mill discharge density should be maintained at 71%.
 The pebble crusher should be in operation so as to reduce the circulating load
REFERENCES
Gupta, C.K. (2003). Chemical Metallurgy. India: Wiley VCH verlag.
Gupta, D and Yan D.S. (2006). Introduction to Mineral processing Design and Operation.
Australia: Perth.
Marsden J.O & House C.I. (2009). The chemistry of Gold Extraction. United stste of America:
The society for mining, metallurgy and Exploration Inc.
Stange W. (1999). The process design of gold leaching and Carbon in pulp circuits.
Johanneburg, South Africa: Hatch Africa Ltd.
Wills, B.A. (2006).
APPENDIX
Appendix A: Surveys and experiments raw data
READINGS Initial Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
F80(μm) 48970 48970 48970 48970
P80(μm) 320 300 270 230
Power Draw(kW) 939 952 968 992
steel Balls added (t) - 3 4 4
Mill Discharge Density(%) 71 71 71 71
SAG mill Water Feed 21.4 21.4 21.4 21.4
rate(m3/h)
Throughput(tph) 85 85 85 85
W of the Ore(kWh/t) 17.28 17.28 17.28 17.28
Wio(kWh/t) 21.45 20.9 20.19 19
% Efficiency 80.55 81.34 85.59 90.9
(%)Grindsize(-106microns) 62.4 66.1 69.8 68.9
Table 1: Table of results for experiment Part A

READINGS Initial 2 hours 4 hours 6 hours

F80(μm) 91803.25 91803.25 91803.25 91803.25
P80(μm) 275 240 260 300
Power Draw(kW) 1080 996 1020 1040
Throughput(tph) 85 70 75 80
Mill Discharge Density(%) 71 71 71 71
SAG mill Water Feed 26.3 22.5 23.6 24.7
rate(m3/h)
W of the Ore(kWh/t) 17.28 17.28 17.28 17.28
Wio(kWh/t) 24.03 18.32 22.6 23.46
% Efficiency 71.9 88.2 76.39 73.65
(%)Grindsize(-106microns) 66.8 72.9 69.8 68.9

Table 2: Table of results for experiment Part B

READINGS Initial 2 hours 4 hours 6 hours
F80(μm) 82829.67 82829.67 82829.67 82829.67
P80(μm) 280 290 234 210
Power Draw(kW) 948 944 950 940
Mill speed 92 94 90 88
Mill Discharge Density(%) 71 71 71 71
SAG mill Water Feed 21.9 21.9 21.9 21.9
rate(m3/h)
Throughput (tph) 70 70 70 70
W of the Ore(kWh/t) 17.28 17.28 17.28 17.28
Wio(kWh/t) 19.77 20.1 20.04 22.62
% Efficiency 87.4 85.96 86.22 76.4
(%)Grindsize(-106microns) 69.9 67.9 66.4 66.8
Table 3: Table of results foe experiment Part C

READINGS Initial 2 hours 4 hours 6 hours

F80(μm) 73150 73150 73150 73150

P80(μm) 475 392 267 327
Power Draw(kW) 948 980 952 1020
Mill Discharge Density(%) 64 68 71 73
SAG mill Water Feed 30 28 26 24
rate(m3/h)
Throughput(tph) 85 85 85 85
W of the Ore(kWh/t) 17.28 17.28 17.28 17.28
Wio(kWh/t) 26.39 24.65 19.45 23.26
% Efficiency 65.47 70.1 88.6 74.3
(%)Grindsize(-106microns) 60.8 63.3 70.7 65.7

Table 4: Table of results for experiment Part D

Appendix B: Sample calculations
Consider experiment part B at throughput 75tph P80=260 μm
1. F80 and P80
Consider experiment part B at throughput 75tph
Sieve Weight Percent weight Cumulative weight Cumulative weight
size(μm) retained(g) retained (%) %retained passing
1000 21.78 7.66 7.66 92.34
300 28.1 9.89 17.55 82.45
212 38.9 13.69 31.24 68.76
150 56.2 19.78 51.02 48.98
106 56.8 19.99 71.01 28.99
75 46.1 16.22 87.23 12.77
pan 36.3 12.77 100 0
total 284 100
Table 5: Sieve analysis results

100
90
80
70
cum wt passing

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
sieve size (μm)

Figure 13: Graph of cum wt passing vs sieve size

 2. Work index efficiency
Power draw= 1020kW
Tonnes=75tph
From equation 4

W =10W i 0
[ 1
−
1
√ P80 √ F 80 ]
And W = power draw/tonnes
W= 1020W/75tph = 13.6kWh/t
Therefore

13.6=10W i 0
[√ 1
−
1
260 √ 91803.25 ]
Operating work index of the circuit W i 0=¿ 22.6kWh/t

From equation 5
Kwh
Bond Work Index of the ore( )
t
Efficiency ( WI ) %=
kwh
OperatingWork Index of the Circuit ( )
t
Since bond work index of the ore is 17.28kWh/t
Kwh
17.28( )
t
Efficiency ( WI ) %=
kwh
22.6( )
t
Efficiency =76.39