Quantifying the energy efficiency transformation at Cadia due to HPGR crushing

G S Lane, J Seppelt and E Wang

14^thAusIMM Mill Operators’ Conference, 29-31 August 2018, Brisbane, Australia

ABSTRACT

Newcrest’s Cadia concentrator operated from 1998 to 2012 with a traditional SABC grinding circuit treating Cadia open pit ore. The Cadia comminution circuit was well characterised through surveys and data that are available in the public domain, and became a benchmark standard for the industry and practitioners modelling large SAG mill based circuits. In 2012, the HPGR-based crushing circuit was introduced in front of the SAG mill to increase throughput when treating the Cadia East ore that was derived from an underground block cave. This ore was expected to be more competent and have a coarser run-of-mine size distribution.

Numerous previous papers have described the design and commissioning of the Cadia HPGR-based circuit. 

This paper describes the improvement in comminution energy consumption resulting from the introduction of the HPGR, including identifying the impact of process complexity and an increase in ancillary energy consumption for conveyors, screening, and crushing.

AUTHOR DETAILS

G S Lane (1), J Seppelt (2) and E Wang (3)

1. FAusIMM, Chief Technical Officer, Ausenco, Brisbane Queensland, 4001. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
2. MAusIMM, Manager Ore Treatment & SAOC – CVO, Newcrest Mining Limited, Orange NSW 7079. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
3. Senior Process Engineer, Ausenco, Brisbane Queensland, 4001. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CEEC acknowledges and thanks The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy for organising the 14^thAusIMM Mill Operators’ Conference (MillOps 2018). 

Abstracts can be found at the MillOps 2018 website.