COMMINUTION & CRUSHING
Outotec’s HIGmill ® is gaining popularity as
miners look for more energy efficient final grind
options
Crushing the silos
Miners need to take an integrated approach to solve the
energy and water reduction requirements being placed on
them, Dan Gleeson discovers
he comminution sector has been in line for
a transformation for some time. Near-
identical flowsheets have remained the
status quo for decades, with the only variation
tending to be how many pieces of conventional
equipment are used, as opposed to what new
innovations are slotted in up or downstream of
primary crushing.
As has been acknowledged throughout these
pages for at least a few years, miners are no
longer just looking for higher throughputs and
bigger machines; they are after optimal solutions
that can be constructed quickly, easily and
cheaply; will reduce their energy consumption; fit
within tighter plant footprints; and – as of late –
use as little water as possible.
These same miners are being urged to look
across the entire mining process to achieve these
water and energy goals, in particular. This could
T
involve using tighter drill spacing in their drill and
blast patterns, employing pre-concentration
processes ahead of the costliest comminution
activities, or grinding material in a certain way as
to reduce the energy and water consumption
associated with the follow-on flotation process.
Bjorn Dierx, Global Product Manager for Weir
Minerals, recognises this market move and says
the industry’s original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs) have been responding.
“It is no secret that our industry currently sits
in a very exciting but challenging phase,” he told
IM. “Our clients are under immense pressure to
consume less energy, less water and reduce
carbon emissions. In fact, this pressure is higher
than ever.”
As existing high-grade orebodies deplete and
average ore grades in newly explored ore
deposits fall, higher volumes of ore need to be
processed in order to achieve the same recovery
rates. This makes the task of reducing energy and
water even more difficult.
“That is why efficient technologies are needed
to remain profitable,” he said.
It is this pressure that has led to the mining
industry, technology companies and research
institutes putting their collective heads together.
For example, Natural Resources Canada’s
(NRC) Crush It! Challenge has seen the mining
and research communities unite.
The primary objectives of the challenge are to
fight climate change by creating innovative
technologies that reduce energy consumption
and pollution, increase competitiveness by
developing world-leading clean technologies,
and transform the mining cycle to establish a
new “future in mining”, NRC says.
The six finalists in this challenge include:
n Gillian Holcroft from the Canada Mining
Innovation Council for her Conjugate Anvil
Hammer Mill (CAHM);
n Claude Gagnon from COREM for his
Optimization of High-Pressure Grinding Rolls
(HPGRs);
n Erin Bobicki from the University of Toronto for
her Microwave Pre-treatment and Ore Sorting;
n Tracy Holmes from Jenike & Johanson for her
Microwave Treatment and Materials Handling;
n Philippe Gagnon from COREM for his
IntelliCrush; and
n Cliff Edwards from Envisioning Labs for his
Transcritical CO 2 Pulverization.
Each finalist is eligible to receive up to
C$800,000 ($578,780) to build and test his or her
clean technology solution before advancing to
the next stage of the challenge.
Holcroft, specifically, has been helped along
the way by one of the industry’s biggest miners.
Glencore’s XPS (Expert Process Solutions)
technical and operational teams have been
involved in the development and testing of her
CAHM platform technology. According to
Glencore, this innovation – which has the
potential to replace conventional crushers and
SAG mills – could reduce energy consumption by
50%, transforming non-viable mineral
development projects into new mines in Canada.
Goldcorp (now Newmont), along with the
Centre of Excellence in Mining Innovation, also
got behind the initiative, offering a platform at its
#DisruptMining event at PDAC 2019 for all
second-round entrants to present their
innovations. In March 2021, a C$5 million Grand
Prize will be awarded to the innovator
demonstrating the best energy breakthrough in
crushing and grinding rocks.
The big technology companies and OEMs have
APRIL 2020 | International Mining 11