Increase Productivity

Ore Body Reduce Operating Costs

Knowledge Improve Long Term Sustainability
Sedat Esen and Sebastian Tello
Ore Body Knowledge

Purpose & Topics

Purpose: to understand the importance of ore body knowledge in

Mine-to-Mill Process Optimisation

Topics:
• Characterisation - purpose
• Rock mass characterisation for drill & blast
• Ore characterisation for crushing & grinding
• Ore characterisation for recovery

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Ore Body Knowledge

Ore Characterisation

What are we trying to characterise?

• define an attribute or
• understand the relationship between an attribute and process
performance
Reason for characterisation?

How are we trying to characterise

• Quantitative or qualitative
Measurement Method
• Relevance, accuracy, cost and timeliness

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Ore Body Knowledge

Characterisation Methods

Geologists Blasters
• Lithology • Strength and structure
• Mineralogy, texture • How easy or difficult to drill
o Grade and its distribution • How easy or difficult to blast
– veins, nuggetty vs
disseminated Metallurgists
o Oxidation • Bond work index
o Ore body shape and size • Impact Breakage tests
Geo-technical o JK Drop weight tests
o SMC
• Strength and structure o JK Rotary breakage tests
• Water, hydrology • Liberation characteristics
• Mainly for slope stability Mineralogy
• Flotation characteristics
o Kinetics
o Grade Vs Recovery

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How do we link these to Value and Risk ?
Ore Body Knowledge

Difference

1mm
Intact rock
Geo-technical and geological

Fault
Single
discontinuity
Blasting

Two
discontinuities
Ore

Several
discontinuities

Ore

Rock mass

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Ore Body Knowledge

Extraction Process
Mining
• Fragmentation, dilution and damage
• Loading rates, fill factors and transportation
• Slope stability
Crushing & Grinding
• Energy consumption
• Throughput, Grind Size
• Material handling (Hang ups)
Separation
• Recovery
• Leach rate/acid consumption
• Water consumption
• Deleterious elements

Environment
• Waste dumps – acid production
• Waste erosion
• Tailings – sulphate production
• Dust producing capacity
• Water
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Ore Body Knowledge

Rock Strength or Hardness

Miners (blasters, geo-technical)

• Force or stress required to break
• Compressive strength, tensile strength or shear strength
• Mpa, Psi

Process Engineers
• Energy required to achieve a certain size reduction
• Drop weight test, bond work index etc
• kWh/t
• Liberation targets

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Ore Body Knowledge

Rock Strength
Uniaxial compressive strength

Tensile strength
• Brazilian test

Point load test

• Similar to Brazilian test

Why point load index?

• Correlates with UCS
• Relatively inexpensive
• Can test large number of samples
• Better statistical representation
• Can test irregular shape samples

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Ore Body Knowledge

Stiffness
Stiffness Indicates:

 Brittle • The mode of failure

• Type of fragmentation


• Stiffness is represented by Young’s

 Fractured modulus



• Stiffness can be measured by the
Plastic stress: strain curve in a stiff testing
 machine

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Ore Body Knowledge

Rock Mass Structure

Friable and Powdery Fractured Blocky Massive

Block size

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Ore Body Knowledge
Rock Structure
Joint spacing
Orientation
Infill characteristics
For example
• Block size is important for
fragmentation
• Orientation is important for
damage / dilution in u/g
Level of details and accuracy
depend on the purpose
• Fragmentation
• Damage
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Measures of rock structure
• RQD
• Fracture frequency
• Block size distribution
Techniques to measure
structure
• Core logging
• Window mapping
• Scanline mapping
• Muck pile fragmentation
• 3D photogrammetry
Ore Body Knowledge

Blastability
Rock mass structure – fracture mapping
100

90

80

70

60

Cumulative %
50

40

30

20

10

0
0.10 1.00
Size (m)

Point load index Structure

Strength

Blastability = f (strength, structure)

Water has significant impact on blasting results

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Block Modelling - UCS and RQD

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Ore Body Knowledge

Ore Body Shape and Size

High grade
Low grade
High grade
Low grade

Less dilution potential

High dilution potential

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Ore Body Knowledge

Water
• Has major influence on drill and blast outcomes
• Has significant impact on stope stability
• Haul road maintenance and mine production

Hot, Reactive Ground and Acid Mine

Drainage
• AN based explosives which come into contact with pyritic material
can start an exothermic reaction
• Can start to fume, generate heat and finally deflagrate or
detonate, depending on the circumstances.
• Sometimes rock mass may have spontaneous combustion
characteristics and can pose problems for production and also
environmental issues
• Some rocks have potential generate acid over long exposure to
rain and when in contact with water. If rock has high AMD then
need to plan waste dumps carefully
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 Shoulder
Region

Ball

Drop
Height Rock

Impact Zone Attrition

Toe Region Zone

ROCK CHARACTERISATION FOR

CRUSHING AND GRINDING
Ore Body Knowledge

Comminution Testing

Ore characterisation and breakage tests:

• JK Drop Weight Test
• SMC Test®
• JK Rotary Breakage Test
• SPI Test
• Bond Rod / Ball Mill Work Index Test
• High Pressure Grinding Rolls Test
• IsaMill Test

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Ore Body Knowledge

AG/SAG Mill Modelling

T10 (%)
38.1

19.8

10.4

4.4
A*b =23 (hard ore) JKRBT

0.2 0.5 1.0 2.0

Breakage Energy (kWh/t)

Impact Breakage A*b parameter

Size fraction -11.2+9.5mm (4 energies)

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Ore Body Knowledge

“Brokeness” I – t Concept

100
90 t2
80
70
Cum % Passing

60
50 t4
40
30 t10
t25 20 Y
Y
10 10
t50 0
0.1 1.0 10.0 100.0
Y Y Y Y Y
t100 Size (mm)
100 50 25 4 2

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Ore Body Knowledge

“Brokeness” II – t10 v t** (Theoretical)

100

90
t2
t4
80

70 Each
Cum % Passing

60 Vertical
Section
50
is a
40
Size
t25
30 Distribution
20 t50
10 t75
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
t10

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Ore Body Knowledge

“Brokeness” III – t10 v t** (Practical)

Appearance Function Graph

100

90

80

70
Cumulative % Passing

60 t2
t4

50 t10
t25
t50
40
t75

30

20

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

t10

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Ore Body Knowledge

Energy and “Brokeness” IV

Represent t10 v Ecs curve by an equation with two

parameters:

−𝑏×𝐸𝑐𝑠
𝑡10 = 𝐴 × 1 − 𝑒

Where:
A and b = ore specific constants
t10 = size equivalent to 1/10 of original particle size
Ecs = specific comminution energy

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Ore Body Knowledge

Energy and “Brokeness” V

Energy v "Brokeness"

100
90 A=40 & b=0.3
80 A=55 & b=0.8
A=70 & b=1.3
70
60
“Soft”
t10 (%)

50
40 Decreasing resistance
30 to impact

20
10 “Hard”
0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
Ecs (kWh/t)

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Ore Body Knowledge

JK Drop Weight Test

Industry standard for characterising

ore for AG/SAG milling and crushing
conditions

• Analysis and prediction of AG/SAG mill

and crusher performance within
• Relate specific energy to product size
distribution using t10 concept
• Need large sample ie +70 kgs of <85mm
material
• Not suitable for detailed orebody
profiling
• Drop height α input energy (kWh)
• Specific energy = kWh/particle mass
(kWh/tonne)
• Break rocks at different specific energies
and size products
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Ore Body Knowledge

SMC Test®

Determines Drop Weight Index (Dwi) and A and b values of drill core
and lump rock
• Greenfield, brownfield and established operations
• Relatively small quantities of material required
• Profiles ore body & predict comminution circuit throughput
o Uses a full DW test to calibrate for the size effect
o Directly related to JK breakage parameters, A and b
o Correlates with Point Load index and UCS

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Ore Body Knowledge

Low Energy Characterisation

300mm diameter
laboratory tumbling
mill

-55 + 38mm rocks

Drop
height

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SAG Power Index (SPI) Test
Ore Body Knowledge

• Bench scale comminution test for SAG milling to determine the

energy required to achieve a standard size reduction
• SAG mill size: 30.5cm (1 ft) diameter by 10.2 cm (4 inches) long
• Steel media used: 1” diameter balls
• Test feed characteristics: 2kg of dry ore crushed to 80% passing
12.7mm
• Test production required: 80% passing 10 mesh (1.7mm)
• Test procedure: Grind (dry) in stages until the product P80 is 10
mesh. This is a batch test with the charge returned to the mill
after each stage.
• Test deliverables: The time (in minutes) required to achieve the
specified size reduction. Screen analysis of the mill discharge
providing the P64 size.
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Ore Body Knowledge

Bond Milling Work Index Tests

Historically Bond Work Indices

have been widely used to
indicate ore strength. Correctly
used, will supply answers to the
following:
• How much energy is required to
reduce the size of a feed from Xa to
product Xb?

• what will be product size distribution

(again, assumption of parallel size
distribution relationships)?

• what throughput can be expected from

process or machine?

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Ore Body Knowledge

Bond Work Index Tests

Bond Rod Mill Index Test

• Determines grinding power for rod mills
Bond Rod Mill Index Test
• Determines grinding power for ball mills
• Design calculations for new and existing grinding circuits

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Ore Body Knowledge

Bond Tests

• Select appropriate closing screen size

• Conduct test to determine WI
• Apply Bond formula to calculate rod/ball mill pinion power
required to grind the required tonnage from the known F80 to
the required P80
• Apply the necessary Efficiency Factors
• Select (from tables) the size of rod/ball mill to deliver the
required power
Soft 7-9 kWh/t
Medium 9-14 kWh/t
Hard 14-20 kWh/t
Very Hard >20 kWh/t
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Ore Body Knowledge

Advantages of the Bond Method

• Very simple
• Works for most circumstances with reasonable
accuracy
• Can be used for comparison with operating conditions

o Calculate WIo from F80, P80 and feed rate for operating mill
o Apply relevant efficiency factors to give WIoc
o Operating Efficiency = WIoc/WI

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Ore Body Knowledge

Limitations of the Bond Method

• Poor predictor of effect of changing feed rate

• Relies on parallel feed and product size distributions
• Not good for large rocks (ie AG/SAG mills)
• Unreliable if particles have unusual screening
characteristics
• Square-root relationship not always correct

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Ore Body Knowledge

Abradability and Abrasion Resistance

Conventional abrasion test

• measures how much a rock type will abrade steel (how much
steel wears away)
• used for media and liner consumption estimates
JK abrasion test
• measures how much steel or other rocks will abrade a rock type
(how much rock wears away)

Obviously not interchangeable

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Ore Body Knowledge

HPGR Test – Piston and Die

• Power reduction: 20 – 40% reported

• No Grinding media
• Dry process – in a world running short of
water
• Pre-stressing and cracking of particles
o Weakening for further grinding
o Preferential liberation
o Exposure of minerals to leaching
• Ore characterisation requires quantification
of Compressed bed breakage
o Piston and Die Tests

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Ore Body Knowledge

HPGR Tests

• High Pressure Grinding Rolls

o Energy efficient, preferential liberation due to micro-cracks, high
throughput and high reduction ratios
• Type A Test: Ore energy response to HPGR
• Type B Test: Ore variability response to HPGR

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Ore Body Knowledge

IsaMill Test

• High intensity stirred

milling using inert media
• Aimed at reducing
energy requirements,
media and capital costs
for fine grinding
• Provides ‘signature plot’
o Specific Energy (kWh/t)
required to product specific
particle size (P80)

IsaMills are Marketed by Xstrata Technology

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– www.xstratatech.com–
ROCK CHARACTERISATION FOR
FLOTATION
Ore Body Knowledge

Flotation Characterisation

Liberation analysis (MLA/QEMSCAN)

• Determine if particles to be floated are sufficiently liberated &
composition of composite particles

Laboratory batch tests (floatability)

• Assess how particles behave under standard operating conditions

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Ore Body Knowledge

Establish Ore Specific Size Reduction Targets

Unbroken Ore Blasting Crushing & Grinding Liberation

Ore mineral Particle size progressively reduced

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Ore Body Knowledge

Liberation and Locking

100

90
(Valuable mineral in concte %)

80
CUMULATIVE GRADE

Only fully liberated ore

70 particles collected
Partially liberated
60 particles collected

50

40

30
Fully liberated
20
gangue collected
10
Feed grade
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
CUMULATIVE RECOVERY
(Valuable mineral in conc %)

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Ore Body Knowledge

Characterisation for Liberation

• Batch tests conducted on

critical streams to
estimate ore floatability

• Assist plant metallurgist

(and operators) in
estimating grade or
recovery improvements
across circuit

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Ore Body Knowledge

Floatability Test

• Standard batch flotation test at specific conditions

• Floatability is the most important indicator of the
success of the particle preparation process
• The floatability distribution of the valuable minerals
relative to the gangue minerals defines to a large
extent the performance that can be achieved in the
flotation stage

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Ore Body Knowledge

Floatability and Optimum Grind Size?

• Where the costs are minimised ?

• Where the recovery is maximised ?
• Where throughput is maximised ?
• Where the metal output is maximised ?

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SOLID-LIQUID SEPARATION
 Ore Body Knowledge

Laboratory Settling Tests

Important Measurements:
• P80 or Particle Size Distribution
• Water Quality or Test Conditions
• Percent Solids
• Settling Rate
• Final Density

Test % solids Settling rate (corrected) Final density P80

mm/min g/l µm
Control 7.36 4.93 1308 50.5
Soda Ash 8.32 2.88 1342
Lime 7.05 2.59 1272 65.1
Aluminium chloride 7.81 1.77 1249

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Ore Body Knowledge

Filtration

Testwork – filter leaf test

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INTEGRATION ACROSS VALUE CHAIN
Ore Body Knowledge

Rockmass Variability

Rockmass variability
• Variation in properties
Fractured
• What proportions ?
• Which properties should be
considered for design? Massive
Soft and and hard
Sample representation friable

Information availability in
time

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Importance of Studying Breakage Variability
Faramarzi et.al. 2018

4 5
2 3
1

9 7 6
10 8

Average
Characteristic
Shortcoming with Average-Based Testing Methods
The Mean

Probability
Domain A
WITHIN
A
A&B

Strength
BETWEEN

Probability
A&C

Domain B
WITHIN
B
B&C

Strength

Probability
Case 2 Case 1
Domain C WITHIN
C

Strength

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Quantifying Variation (Faramarzi et.al. 2018)

Ore 2

47
Average Axb value= ~30 40

21
17

Ore 3

5
Average Axb value=~30
6
46

18

1
3

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Ore Body Knowledge

Hardness Variability
Comminution Footprint
20

18
Bond Ball Work Index (Grinding)

16

14
Ease of Grinding

12

10

4
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
A*b (Impact Breakage Index)

Ease of Breakage

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 Hardness (UCS
Impact of rock characteristics on value Blastability
or PLI)

Rock mass
Structure
Feed size
Drill and blast
design and
Process design efficiency
/ efficiency Primary
crusher
Throughput operation
Grindability
Axb ,Bwi, SPI Rock
Hardness
property
Crushability
Process design
/ efficiency

Grind size
Blending Mineralogy
Ore recovery
Revenue Recovery characteristics
Mine block Grain size and
mineralogy texture
Process design
/ efficiency Alteration and
chemical
characteristics
Mine block
Insitu grade Ore control

Value Mill grade Blending strategy

and implementation
Processes Blasting
Concentrate
grade Mine
Process design Production
/ efficiency Dilution / ore equipment
loss type and size process

Mill cost Ore body size

and shape
Operating cost

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Cost Fixed cost
Ore Body Knowledge

Summary
• Rock mass / ore characterisation is a key element in M2M
optimisation
• Characterisation methods depend on the purpose
• Structural and strength properties are important for fragmentation
• Rockmass variability is an important factor and needs to be
considered during optimisation
• Rock characterisation methods need to
• capture the spatial variations in the rock mass
• provide information in time
• MWD can be used to characterise rock mass and predict
fragmentation
• Understanding the impact of rock characterisation on overall value is
necessary to maximise the resource value
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Contact Us
For More Information

Head Office JKTech South America Website & Email Social Media
40 Isles Road Av. Apoquindo 2929, Of 301 www.jktech.com.au Facebook.com/ JKTech.Pty.Ltd
Indooroopilly QLD 4068 Las Condes Santiago jktech@jktech.com.au Twitter.com/jktech
AUSTRALIA CHILE
Phone : +61 7 3365 5842 Phone: +56 2 2307 9710

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