The Impact of Media Embodied Carbon Emissions on Regrind Technology Selection
Bianca Foggiatto (1), Jocelyn Quinteros (1), Grant Ballantyne (1), Sam Crane (1), and Sergio Lagos (2)
- Ausenco Services, Australia
- Ausenco, Chile
*This paper was presented at Procemin-Geomet 2022 Conference, 5-7 October 2023, Santiago, Chile. To view the full paper select download file below.
ABSTRACT:
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations are playing a more significant role in the mining industry, and ESG factors are becoming increasingly important. Ballantyne et al. (2023) proposed a method that integrates greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions into economic evaluations of comminution flowsheets. This paper applies the methodology to estimate the cardon dioxide (Co2) emissions inventory of regrind circuits.
Stirred milling technologies are used extensively in regring duties (mainly to regrind concentrates) due to its ability to deliver improved energy efficiency. The traditional approach for regrind technology selection is energy efficiency. However, aspects such as the embodied emissions of steel or ceramic grinding media need to be considered in the context of sustainable mining. The production of media requires mining, grinding, smelting and forging (for steel media), pelletizing and sintering (for ceramic media), and transport to site - with each stage contributing to GHG emissions.
This paper presents an assessment of three regrind technologies: ball mills, slow-speed vertical stirred mills and high-speed vertical stirred mills, for the expansion of existing regrind circuit treadting a rougher floation concentrate. The Scopes 2 and 3 emissions associated with the operation of the regrind circuits were estimated to provide a robust Co2 emission inventory comparison that can be integrated into the economic evaluations of various regrind technologies.