Operating performance of the Phu Kham IsaMill

G Harbort and D Zoetbrood

ABSTRACT

The Phu Kham copper-gold operation in the Laos People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) is owned and operated by Phu Bia Mining Limited. PanAust Limited holds a 90 per cent interest in Phu Bia Mining Limited, with the remaining ten per cent held by the Laos PDR Government.

The original 12 Mt/a copper-gold concentrator at Phu Kham commenced production in April 2008. An incremental improvement program resulted in a number of circuit changes being incorporated by 2011, including conversion of conditioning tanks to flotation cells and the installation of a Jameson Cell cleaner scalper. In 2012 the Phu Kham Upgrade Project was commissioned to increase throughput to 18 Mt/a. In April, 2013 the Phu Kham Increase Recovery Project was commissioned to maximise performance by debottleneckint the plant IsaMill^TM regrind and cleaning capacity.

With the variable mineralogy of Phu Kham ore, control of the c concentrate regrind circuit is essential in terms of achieving effective liberation to maintain concentrator performance. On a routine basis laboratory regrind signature plot data is compare with daily surveys of operational IsaMills^TM. More extensive surveys are also conducted to determine size distribution on a mineralogical basis and the effect of fine regrinding on pulp electrochemistry and flotation performance.

This paper provides a review of the operating performance of the Phu Kham IsaMill^TM with regard to power draw, feed and product size distribution, feed per cent solids, mineralogy and pulp electrochemistry. Operating performance is compared with the IsaMill^TM signature plot test for predicting performance.

CITATION:

Harbort G and Zoetbrood D. Operating Performance of the Phu Kham IsaMill^TM, in 13th AusIMM Mill Operators’ Conference, Perth WA, 10-12 October 2016, pp 39-49 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy).

CEEC would like to thank to The AusIMM for permission to reproduce this abstract.