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Recent grinding practice in the copper concentrator of Mt Isa Mines Ltd

Conference Paper · October 2000

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Recent Grinding Practice in the Copper Concentrator of
Mount Isa Mines Limited
D R Carr1, M Gao2, V Lawson3 and W Valery4
ABSTRACT
Changes in metal prices and mine output over recent years have required
the Copper Concentrator of Mount Isa Mines to operate at annual
tonnage rates varying from 4.0 million to 6.5 million tonnes. Several
circuit combinations were operated during this period utilising up to two
semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mills and up to two ball mills. The aim
was to maximise grinding efficiency and keep unit costs constant
regardless of throughput rate.
Measures to improve the SAG-ball mill unit operation were
implemented with each circuit change. These included installation of a
splitter to divert SAG Mill cyclone underflow back to the mill, increase
SAG ball charge from four per cent v/v to eight per cent v/v, reduce in
SAG top feed size and increase of ball mill grinding medium size.
Modelling work and surveys led to a new design of the SAG liner
profile from 60 rows of rail bar liners in a high-low arrangement to 40
rows of top hat liners in a high-high arrangement. An on-line SAG Mill
feed sizing monitor was recently installed to improve grinding control.
INTRODUCTION
The Copper Concentrator at Mount Isa was commissioned in
May 1973 with a traditional crushing-grinding circuit consisting
of two-stage crushing using Symons standard cone crushers
1. GAusIMM, Mount Isa Mines Limited, Mount Isa Qld 4825.
2. MAusIMM, MIM Process Technologies, Level 2, 87 Wickham
Terrace, Brisbane Qld 4000.
3. MAusIMM, Mount Isa Mines Limited, Mount Isa Qld 4825.
4. Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre, Isles Road,
Indooropilly Qld 4068.
FIG 1 - Mount Isa Copper concentrator grinding circuit, 1973 - 1991.
Seventh Mill Operators’ Conference Kalgoorlie, WA, 12 - 14 October 2000
(2.13 m diameter) and Symons short head crushers (also 2.13 m
diameter) followed by rod milling and two stages of ball milling
(see Figure 1). The total installed power of the original circuit
was 13.7 MW, with classification being through the use of Krebs
20 inch cyclones generating a P80 of approximately 140 µm.
The ore is predominantly a silica-dolomite mixture with
chalcopyrite the copper mineral. The silica content generally
exceeds 60 per cent and the ore has a work index of 22 kWh/t.
The throughput has typically been 6.0 million tonnes per annum
(MTPA) with ore from the upper orebodies (1100 and 1900
series) and in increasing amounts from the deep copper
orebodies (Enterprise mine 3000 and 3500 series).
Approximately 0.25 MTPA smelter slag is also treated. The slag
has a work index of 30 kWh/t. The ore production of the mine
was reduced in 1997 as the Ernest Henry Mine was brought into
production before the completion of the expansion of the Mount
Isa Copper Smelter’s capacity.
In June 1991, the original crushing-primary grinding circuit
was replaced with a pair of 9.8 m diameter by 4.4 m
Boliden-Allis Chalmers autogenous grinding (AG) mills as is
shown in Figure 2. Each mill is driven by a pair of 3.2 MW
motors. The installed power of the circuit increased to 18 MW
despite the removal of the crushers, primary rod mills and
primary ball mills; however, savings in maintenance costs led to
an overall reduction in unit costs in the order of $A2/tonne.
Since commissioning the grinding circuit has undergone a
number of evolutions in order to meet mine and smelter
requirements and to maximise efficiencies to maintain an
acceptable and sustainable unit cost. The scope for change was
constrained by the need to treat Copper Smelter slag through one
of the mills on a campaign basis.
Line 1
flotation
Line 2
flotation
21
D R CARR, M GAO, V LAWSON and W VALERY
FIG 2 - Mount Isa Copper concentrator grinding circuit, 1991 - 1996.
Between 1991 and 1996 the grinding circuit was operated on
the principle of maximum throughput to minimise unit costs.
Power costs account for approximately 30 - 35 per cent of total
unit costs of the concentrator and once mine output dropped
below 6 MTPA then power efficiencies became the main tool to
reduce operating costs. A number of options were investigated
and implemented in the plant to reduce power and media costs
through the most suitable selection of available equipment.
This paper describes the various circuit arrangements and
operating philosophies that have been implemented over the
years. It includes a discussion of some of the problems that arose
during the optimisation of the grinding circuit and some of the
particle size data gathered during the work. It also outlines
options being considered for future changes to keep driving
down the Copper Concentrator’s unit costs.
AG-SAG AND TWO BALL MILLS (1991-1996)
While two mills were constructed to operate as AG mills in 1991,
one of the mills was converted to a semi-autogenous mill soon
after commissioning. It was operated with a ball charge of about
four per cent by volume. The ore segregates in the Crude Ore Bin
and this tends to bias the feed to Line 1 with fine feed and Line 2
with coarse feed. The addition of a small ball charge to Line 2
yielded better throughput.
As a result of the change in the grinding circuit, the flotation
feed F80 size dropped from 140 µm to around 90 µm. Based on
plant surveys and modelling of cyclone performance, the existing
Krebs D20B were replaced with Krebs D26B cyclones fitted
with 12 inch vortex finders and five inch spigots. The grinding
circuit typically treated 750 tph of ore. The changes to the
cyclones increased the flotation feed F80 size to approximately
120 µm, but there was a significant decrease in sharpness of cut
resulting in flotation losses in the coarse fractions.
22 Kalgoorlie, WA, 12 - 14 October 2000
Line 1
flotation
Line 2
flotation
AG-SAG AND ONE BALL MILL
Research was undertaken to improve the operation of the
grinding circuit. Grinding is a major consumer of electricity, and
electricity represents 34 per cent of the operating costs in the
Copper Concentrator. Early efforts focussed on the fact that AG
mills tend to produce large amounts of material less than 37 µm.
At times over 50 per cent of AG mill product was less than
37 µm.
In 1996, based on modelling, several attempts were made to
remove one of the secondary ball mills from the circuit. The aim
was to reduce operating costs by approximately $A1.5 M per
year by reducing electricity and grinding medium consumption,
and reducing over grinding of flotation feed. The one ball mill
circuit shown in Figure 3 was tested. The cyclopak and feed
pump of the 05 ball mill was used to scalp the combined AG and
SAG mill product, with the fine material sent straight to flotation.
The cyclone underflow was directed to the cyclone feed
pumpbox of the 09 ball mill and combined with the mill
discharge. D26B cyclones were utilised on both cyclopaks with
the original fittings.
The feedrate of this circuit could not reach the design rate of
750 tph without overloading the remaining ball mill or causing
roping of the scalping cyclones. The overflow of the scalping
cyclones was generally of the order of 60 µm whilst the ball mill
overflow was in the order of 180 - 220 µm. While the combined
flotation feed sizing P80 was around the desired figure of 160 µm,
the coarse chips found in the ball mill cyclone overflow caused
unsustainable sanding in the flotation circuit (up to two per cent
of the particles in the overflow were +1 mm). Incomplete mixing
of the two cyclone overflows led to flotation problems due to
high densities and coarse sizing.
The targets for flotation feed size were redefined to include the
shape of the size distribution as well as the P80 in order to reduce
disruptions in flotation. The initial efforts to operate with a single
ball mill were abandoned.
Seventh Mill Operators’ Conference

FIG 3 - One ball mill circuit with two cyclone stages in series.
Following a strategic review of mine production and metal
prices, the mine output was reduced to optimise cash flow returns
making the throughput requirements for the one-ball-mill circuit
more achievable.
An analysis of survey data indicated that the feed to the ball
mill cyclones contained such a large quantity of coarse material
that the cyclones would not be able to classify it with a
sufficiently steep split. The one-ball-mill circuit was redesigned
to reduce the coarse particles fed to the ball mill cyclones.
Figure 4 shows the modified one-ball-mill circuit. The
scalping cyclone underflow was fed directly into the ball mill
feed chute together with the ball mill cyclone underflow. This
had a noticeable effect on the size distribution of the ball mill
cyclone feed, as is seen in Figure 5, and improved the cyclone
overflow sizing. The cyclone overflow, however, continued to
contain a substantial quantity of >1 mm chips. These were not
predicted by modelling, and they were not caused by faulty
cyclone parts.
The ball size charged to the ball mills was increased from
65 mm to 80 mm diameter. This change was to increase the
breakage rates for the coarse particles circulating around the ball
mill circuit. This, combined with the addition of the scalping
cyclone underflow directly to the ball mill, led to the improved
cyclone feed distribution.
A significant effort was made to improve the operation of the
cyclones. The control of cyclone feed densities on both lines was
improved and this also contributed to better cyclone overflow
size distribution. Extended-length vortex finders and
modifications to the overflow pipes were tested unsuccessfully.
The vortex finders were eventually reduced to ten inch and spigot
size increased to six inch. This had the desired effect of removing
the coarse particles from the overflow.
Figure 5 shows the cyclone feed and overflow size distribution
for both of the one-ball-mill circuits tested. In the first circuit
with cyclones in series, the addition of the underflow from the
Seventh Mill Operators’ Conference Kalgoorlie, WA, 12 - 14 October 2000
RECENT GRINDING PRACTICE IN THE COPPER CONCENTRATOR
Line 1
flotation
Line 2
flotation
scalping cyclones to the ball mill discharge resulted in a coarse
feed size distribution and poor classification. In the second
circuit, the effect of runing the cyclones in parallel with the
underflows reporting to the single ball mill and the increase in
media size can be easily seen.
The circuit operated in this second configuration for
approximately one year at throughput of approximately 650 tph,
while keeping the unit costs at the desired rate. During this time,
several operational constraints were identified, the most
important being the rate of water addition around the AG-SAG
mills prior to the scalping cyclones. If cyclone feed density
dropped below approximately 1.5 SG, the overflow sizing
dropped from 110 µm to 60 µm, causing overloading of the ball
mill.
While the concentrator unit operating cost remained constant
during this period, flotation losses appeared on review to have
increased by 0.5 to one per cent of the copper contained in the
ore. This is presumed in part to have been due to higher
production of coarse composites that could not be floated in the
scavenger cells.
REVERSION TO AG-SAG AND TWO BALL MILLS
Copper ore production has increased progressively since January
1999. It became important to increase the feedrate of the
grinding circuit again. It was switched from the 1 SAG Mill-2
Ball Mill configuration back to the AG-SAG-2 Ball mill circuit
(see Figure 2) for feedrates above 700 tph. The SAG mill
cyclopak was modified to enable the cyclone underflow to be
split between the SAG mill feed chute and the downstream ball
mill. The SAG mill could thus be operated remotely from fully
open to fully closed circuit. This allowed a partial closed circuit
operation of the SAG mill, with the position of the splitter
controlled by the circulating load of the ball mill. The ball mill
was run until fully loaded and then any extra tonnage recycled
back to the SAG mill to maximise power efficiency. The splitter
23
D R CARR, M GAO, V LAWSON and W VALERY

Total installed power:

15.4 MW
Line 1
flotation

01 AG

Line 2
flotation

02 SAG

FIG 4 - One ball mill circuit with two cyclone stages in parallel.

also protected the SAG mill against changes in feed size that
might result in low loads and liner damage from the balls. The
splitter can also maintain a more even flotation feed size by
allowing a finer product to be fed to the secondary mill when
throughput was not an issue. The splitter also meant that the total
plant throughput could be maintained more consistently. As the
AG mill throughput varied due to feed size, the SAG mill
throughput could be manipulated by altering the splitter position.

ONE SAG AND TWO BALL MILLS

In July 1999, extended repairs put one SAG mill out of operation
for six weeks. During this time the circuit was consequently
modified to operate the remaining SAG mill and two ball mills
utilising the standby pipelines to split the discharge from the
SAG mill to both ball mills. The resulting circuit is shown in
Figure 6. The ball charge in the SAG mill was increased from the
usual four per cent to approximately six to 8.5 per cent and the
mill operated predominantly in fully open circuit. Feedrates
averaged 600 tph of ore over a period of three months. These
changes allowed the concentrator to keep pace with mine
production. A modification to the duty gravity feed line was
made to incorporate a splitter to distribute the SAG discharge to
the two operating ball mills to ensure an equal circulating load
and more even product to flotation.

TWO SAG AND TWO BALL MILLS

FIG 5 - Size distributions of ball mill cyclone feed and overflow.
The work with the mills over the years had indicated that the
grinding circuit would operate more effectively if the remaining
AG mill were converted to semi-autogenous grinding. This was
the mill that received the finer feed resulting from segregation in
the Crude Ore Bins, and a significant amount of this feed was in
the critical size range for AG milling.

24 Kalgoorlie, WA, 12 - 14 October 2000 Seventh Mill Operators’ Conference

 RECENT GRINDING PRACTICE IN THE COPPER CONCENTRATOR
Total installed power:
11.6 MW
02SAG
FIG 6 - One SAG mill and two ball mill circuit.
Temporary repairs were made to the shell of the 01 mill and
SAG mill liners were installed. It was restarted with a four per
cent ball charge and operated in fully open circuit in conjunction
with the existing SAG mill. While the ore feedrate to the 01 mill
could not match that of the 02 mill, the small ball charge allowed
it to operate at a more steady feedrate. The splitter installed on
the 02 SAG mill was used to bleed tonnage across to the Line
one ball mill to even out the ball mill circulating loads when mill
feed tonnages varied noticeably.
The conversion of the 01 mill to SAG milling was a success.
The total feedrate to the two SAG mills averaged 800 - 900 tph
while ore was available. When ore supplies decreased the plant
would operate in a one SAG-two ball mill mode at 600 tph or in
a two SAG-two ball mill mode when the mine output increased
(essentially following mine hoisting profile, two-SAG-two-ball
Friday to Monday, one-SAG-two-ball Tuesday-Friday).
During this period an online ore sizing system, Split Online,
was installed on the mill feed conveyors to quantify the size
distribution of the ore that give the best mill feedrates and to
provide feedback to the mine engineers on the effect of ore
quality on mill throughput. An analysis of data over several
months showed that the preferred size distribution for maximum
throughput was with an F80 of 90 - 110 mm and an F20 of 3 -
5 mm. This correlated to periods of throughput in grinding of up
to 1100 tph which could be sustained in grinding for over six
hours; however, flotation capacity is now the limiting factor on
concentrator throughput and continued operation at these rates
would lead to unacceptable flotation losses.
CIRCUIT SUMMARY
See Table 1.
Seventh Mill Operators’ Conference Kalgoorlie, WA, 12 - 14 October 2000
Line 1
flotation
05 Ball mill
Line 2
flotation
09 Ball mill
FUTURE MODIFICATIONS
It is expected that further improvements to SAG mill operations
can be achieved by working with the mining operations, who
determine blast patterns and operate the primary jaw crushers..
Survey work and modelling carried out by the JKMRC are being
used to determine the best product sizes from the primary
crushers. The typical top size from the mine is in the range of
160 - 200 mm, with regular excursions up to 300 mm (too large
for the current ball charge of 105 mm balls). Structural
restrictions with the jaw crushers installed underground are
unlikely to allow the gap to be reduced from around 200 - 250
mm, and vibration restrictions from blasting prevent an overall
increase in powder factors to increase fragmentation, an
approach that would be undertaken in most open cut mines. The
options are, however, under continued review and investigation.
A review of stope design is being considered. The aim is to
increase the intensity of the blast in the centre of the stope and
decrease it at the extremities to increase fragmentation at the
centre without increasing vibration at the ground level.
An investigation of ball trajectories in the mill with JKMillTraj
led to the development of a new liner profile design, changing
from the traditional 60 rows of rail bar lifters in high-low design
to 40 rows of top hat liners in high-high configuration with a 20
degree relief angle. This design was chosen as allowing the best
trajectory path for the life of the liners and allowing an
increasing ball size to 125 or 150 mm and possible increases in
ball charges up to ten per cent by volume.
The modified liner design was fitted to the 01 SAG mill in late
May and operated in fully closed circuit for one week. The mill
was then converted to run in fully open circuit with throughput
rates ranging from 300 - 550 tph with the existing four per cent
charge depending on the feed size to the mill, compared with a
throughput of 250 - 450 tph with the old liner design. For a given
feedrate, the power draw appears to be approximately 0.3 - 0.5
MW lower with the new liner design.
25
D R CARR, M GAO, V LAWSON and W VALERY

TABLE 1
Circuit summary.

Circuit Shifts Tph P80 +210 µm Flotation grade and

recovery
AG-SAG-2 Ball 194 720 106 4.5 28.1 @ 93.2
AG-SAG-1 Ball 14 486 187 15.5 26.8 @ 93.1
AG-SAG-1 Ball 405 670 138 9.5 27.2 @ 93.2
SAG-2 Ball 122 518 118 5.2 27.3 @ 93.6
SAG-SAG-2 Ball 100 845 131 7.2 26.7 @ 92.9

Options being investigated for increasing mill throughput or
reducing unit cost at current tonnage await the outcome of a life
of mine study. Improvements in the short-term will be targeted
from improvements in fragmentation from blasting, crushing
product size, ball charge and ball size. Other options requiring
capital include the following:
a. Increasing mill motor power to 8 MW and shutting down
the second SAG mill. Modelling suggests throughput rates
of 800 - 850 tph with one mill can be achieved at a ten to
12 per cent ball charge, but this would require an increase
in mill motor power. The increase in transfer size should be
acceptable to the existing ball mills.
b. Installation of a gyratory crusher for partial secondary
crushing of ROM ore to reduce the top size from +150 mm
to -100 mm.
c. Scats recycle options to replace the current water jet recycle
option. Both of these aim to increase tonnage to allow
two-SAG-two-ball mill operation for the maximum
expected feedrate (800 - 1100 tph), one-SAG-two-ball mill
operation for intermediate tonnages (700 - 800 tph) and
one-SAG-one-ball mill operation for low throughput (<700
tph). Each of these circuits has been shown to operate the
plant for extended periods with similar low unit costs and
allows the concentrator to tailor its operation to the mine
output
CONCLUSIONS
A large amount of effort has been put into understanding and
optimising the operation of the grinding circuit in the Copper
Concentrator at Mount Isa. The result has been to lay to rest the
myth that unit costs must increase as throughput decreases. The
Copper Concentrator is able to keep its unit costs constant over a
wide range of feedrates by varying the configuration of the
grinding circuit. There are now effectively three ‘gears’: the
one-SAG-mill-one-ball mill circuit for low ore feedrates,
one-SAG-mill-two-ball mill circuit for intermediate feedrates,
and two-SAG-mill-two-ball-mill operation for the highest
feedrates. Each of these circuits can treat ore for approximately
similar low unit costs. The system is flexible enough to cope with
large variations in feedrate over the course of a week.
Future work will include further increases to the throughput of
the grinding circuit to rates as high as 1100 tph.

26 Kalgoorlie, WA, 12 - 14 October 2000 Seventh Mill Operators’ Conference

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