Projects
MILL CONTROL BENEFITS ASANKO
Location: Ghana
Phase:
Producing
Resource: Gold
Asanko Gold Mine is a large-scale, multi-pit asset located in West Africa.
Asanko’s gold mine in West Africa has significantly improved
efficiencies after they installed an advanced milling control
system, using the MillSlicer instrument. Asanko is a large-
scale, multi-pit asset located on the Asankrangwa belt in
Ghana. Built in 2015 by engineering contractor DRA Global,
first gold was poured in January 2016, and commercial
production got under way in April 2016.
With Asanko focusing on efficiencies, the mine aims to
prevent unplanned or forced mill stoppages, which often leads
to costly setbacks for overall mine operations. Therefore, the
mine collaborated once again with DRA Global’s technical
processing specialists to develop a control system solution
that is able to produce real-time reporting and enable the mill
operators to better optimise the milling process.
According to Val Coetzee, DRA’s senior vice-president: Process,
the MillSlicer control instrument provides accurate signals
via a number of strategically positioned vibration sensors that
are used by DRA’s comminution and control specialists to
develop a bespoke control system, specific to an operation.
“The programme allows for accurate mill charge toe-angle
measurement and real-time polar plot determination, which is
used in the customised control system,” Coetzee explains.
The milling control system, which was commissioned by DRA
in August 2018, uses propriety ‘rule-based algorithms’, which
assist the mine’s operation with superior control, maximising
energy efficiency, and ensuring continual optimal mill
performance despite any changes in mine fragmentation or ore
type variances.
The milling control system, which was commissioned by DRA in August
2018, uses priority ‘rule-based algorithms’.
“DRA is able to provide remote operational support, data
analysis, and reporting to assist clients in reducing liner damage
and media consumption, and ensures that mill operators
efficiently maximise throughput at all times,” says Coetzee.
This MillSlicer hardware and the DRA Advanced Control
System, in conjunction with a number of other initiatives
relating to open-circuit modifications, use of cameras, and feed
blending, have successfully contributed to the performance
excellence of the Asanko processing plant in recent months.
DRA is able to provide remote operational support, data analysis, and reporting.
8 AFRICAN MINING MARCH - APRIL 2019
According to Russell Bradford, SVP Metallurgy at Asanko, the
MillSlicer hardware has enabled the Asanko team to optimise
the mill’s performance by ensuring the team always has the
right blend of ore at the right tonnages in the mill. “Since this
technology was implemented, the Asanko processing plant has
consistently delivered above its five million tonnes per annum
design rate,” says Bradford. b
www.africanmining.co.za