Efficient Comminution Circuit Design for Decarbonisation and Sustainability

Decarbonisation through efficient and flexible comminution circuit design Sam Palaniandy Nippon Eirich Co. Ltd.

2023 Opportunities Related to Comminution Environmental, Social and Governance Climate change Licence to Operate Cost and Productivity Capital Digital and Innovation

Challenges in Comminution Ore variability Increase in Ore Hardness Lower grade Fine disseminated ore Higher Energy & Water demand Large capacity plant & equipment High CAPEX and OPEX Complexity in operation Higher CO2emission

Typical Concentrators Flowsheets Focus Magnetite Concentrators Ball Mills circuits Energy Intensive Tumbling mills Limited Flexibility Cleaner Mag. Sep. T T Intermediate Mag. Sep. -2 Tails Rougher Mag. Sep. Intermediate Mag. Sep. -1 c Concentrate f Tails Ball Mill Stage 2 Tails Stockpile Stockpile Ball Mill Stage 3 Ball Mill Stage 1 Tails Tails

Decarbonisation, Sustainability & Profitability Decarbonisation should be align sustainable resources extraction and business profitability Otherwise, we as the industry as a whole can t progress Balance is the key word to progress Technologies in Consideration HPGR, Stirred Mills, Sorting, Screens

Eirich TowerMill Vertical Stirred Mill Focuses on Low Total Cost of Ownership - Energy and grinding media consumption Operational flexibility VFD Reduces carbon emissions High efficiency as the it operates at the appropriate stress intensities for a given ore type. Feed size up 6 mm top size Secondary, tertiary and regrind High availability (95 - 98 %)

Bench marking for an Magnetite Concentrator Convectional vs. newly proposed magnetite grinding circuit Replacing the tumbling mills with HPGR and TowerMill Use of fine screen SMC Test data Parameter (kWh/t) Mia Mib Mib Mic Mih Value 20.7 22.6 36.6 8.40 16.3 Highly variable Bond Ball Mill Work Index 16 22 kWh/t

Conventional Circuit Flowsheet Cleaner Mag. Sep. P80 = 63 m P80 = 30 m T T Intermediate Mag. Sep. -2 Tails P80 = 150 m F80 = 20 mm Rougher Mag. Sep. Intermediate Mag. Sep. -1 c Concentrate f Tails Ball Mill Stage 2 Tails Stockpile Stockpile Ball Mill Stage 3 Ball Mill Stage 1 Tails Tails Large grinding media size Stage 1 100 140 mm Stage 2 40 60 mm Stage 3 20 -40 mm

Proposed Energy Efficient Circuit F80 = 32 mm HPGR P80 = 150 m Cleaner Mag. Sep. P80 = 30 m Fine screen P80 = 63 m Screen T F80 = 3.1 mm Intermediate Mag. Sep. -2 Tails T Rougher Mag. Sep. Intermediate Mag. Sep. -1 Stockpile Tails Concentrate TowerMill Stage 1 Tails TowerMill Stage 2 TowerMill Stage 3 Tails Tails Large grinding media size Stage 1 20/25.4 mm Stage 2 15 mm Stage 3 12.7 mm HPGR + TowerMill

Advantages of the proposed circuit Conventional HPGR + TM Energy Consumption ( kWh/t) 37.7 26.4 Grinding media (kg/t-of ground ore) 4.15 1.79 CO2 generation (kg/tonne of ground ore) 66 36 Flexible Operation Consumes 30 % lesser energy Consumes 45 % lesser grinding media Emits 45 % lesser CO2

How this is achieve Efficient fine grinding in TowerMill Use of smaller grinding media in TowerMill Use of HPGR for energy efficient comminution with a finer feed to grinding Fine screen that enhances the final concentrate grade

Capabilities and Performance Guarantees TowerMill grinding Test for accurate specific energy determination In house ore characterization test for ore variability Modelling and simulation Big database from operational data that allows benchmarking Performance Guarantee

Plant/Circuit Solution Cooperation with other OEMs, Engineering Companies Preliminary circuit design and layouts In-house grinding experience and global technical database

Summary Decarbonisation can be achieve with efficient equipment TowerMill, HPGR and Fine Screen Understanding the ore bodies and designing an efficient and flexible circuit is the key for decarbonisation Cooperation between all stakeholders is utmost important mining companies, consultants, engineering companies, and equipment suppliers