SELECTION OF HPGR TECHNOLOGY FOR THE CÔTÉ GOLD PROJECT: EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT ON COST AND METALLURGY

*SAMI MAKNI1, REMI LAPOINTE2, CHRISTINE CROTEAU1 & DAISUKE SATO2

1COREM1180, rue de la Minéralogie, Québec, Québec, Canada, G1N 1X7

2Project Côté Gold(Iamgoldand SMM)1111, Saint-Charles Street West, East Tower, suite 123Longueuil, Quebec, Canada, J4K5G4 (*Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

SAG Conference Vancouver, Canada September 22 – 26, 2019

ABSTRACT

IAMGOLD’S Côté Gold Project is a Greenfields open pit gold mining project located approximately 125 km southwest of Timmins, Ontario, Canada. Côté’s mineralization is free-milling. However, grindability testing on several samples from the Côté Lake deposit indicates that the majority of the material is very competent and resistant to SAG milling. A typical SAG mill configuration, even with high ball loads, would not enable processing of this material in an energy-efficient manner. Testwork conducted at COREM using HPGR technology confirmed that this option provided metallurgical and economic advantages over SAG milling in a traditional flowsheet. In addition to lower operational costs, the use of HPGR technology induced micro-cracking of the samples tested which enhanced cyanidation leach kinetics. Therefore, HPGR was selected over SAG milling in the comminution flowsheet. This paper summarizes the results from the comminution and cyanidation testwork program that led to the selection of HPGR technology.

Keywords

HPGR, cyanidation, gold ore, micro-cracking