P29 Technology • Case Study

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Applications: Grind Circuit Rougher

Unlock 50% of your Grind Circuit Capacity by Recovering Coarse Minerals from the Circulating Load

CiDRA’s novel technology rapidly recovers minerals at high recoveries with a high degree of selectivity on particles up to 3mm with low mass recovery with zero feed preparation requirements, in contrast to traditional rougher froth flotation operating at a grind size P80 between 100-200µm. P29 technology reduces energy required for grinding by the removal of coarse particles from the circulating load while maintaining benchmark recoveries. The released grind energy can then be used to increase throughput or reduce the overall grind size for flotation while using the same grind equipment. Testing and modelling has shown that for every one tonne of feed going to the P29 plant two tonnes of fresh plant feed can be processed through the same grind circuit, with some supporting equipment modifications and other de-bottlenecking activities.

P29 Technology

Step Change Increase in Selectivity and Recovery of Minerals

CiDRA’s proprietary technology is a novel mineral separation process that uses chemistry and engineered collection media to recover minerals of up to 3mm with a high upgrade ratio and low mass yield. The P29 technology leverages current froth flotation chemistry and replaces the air bubble with an engineered tunable hydrophobic polymer matrix to recover minerals. Replacing the air bubble in froth flotation with an engineered matrix allows for the independent optimization of mineral collection, transport and release delivering recovery of very low exposed minerals at very coarse sizes. The development pathway of the proprietary technology unlocks novel chemistries for mineral recovery that are not achievable in traditional aqueous froth flotation systems today with the potential of economic mineral recovery of ore bodies that are currently uneconomic.

Net Metal Production

Enabling Mine Sites to Deliver a New Optimum in Production

CiDRA’s novel technology rapidly recovers minerals at high recoveries with a high degree of selectivity on particles up to 3mm with low mass recovery with zero feed preparation requirements. This step change in selective mineral recovery provides mines with a new set of operating and financial parameters that significantly increases the productivity of the existing processing assets by over 40%.

The Path to Net Zero

Decreasing the Energy and Water Needs of Mineral Resources

CiDRA’s novel technology enables mine operators to have a significant impact on the 1.3% of the global energy that is consumed by grinding circuits, a reduction in grind specific energy (kWh/t metal) of 50% is achievable. Application of CiDRA’s novel technology to coarse particle recovery unlocks the mines ability to increase total water recovery of up to 80%. These step change improvements in energy and water efficiencies supports mines in not only delivering their ESG goals but also enables the industry to deliver the unprecedented supply of minerals that are required for the delivery of low-carbon and renewable energy technologies needed to achieve the goal of ‘net zero’.

Resource Optimization

Bridging the Critical Supply Deficit in Copper

CiDRA’s novel technology gives a mine a new set of financial and production levers that unlocks throughput and recovery performance with their existing installed plant assets, delivering a new operating point and increasing the value of the mineral resource. This technology provides a low cost solution to ‘turbo-charge’ the performance of the existing plant delivering a boost in productivity for existing resources that enables the industry to meet the copper supply deficit.

The presence of unwanted coarse material in flotation feed streams negatively impacts both recovery and throughput of concentrator plants. The detection of this coarse material is a long-standing problem in mineral processing that has been poorly addressed by existing instrumentation systems. This problem has been overcome by the development of two new systems that detect in real-time the presence of coarse material in the overflow stream of individual hydrocyclones. They both use sensors mounted to the overflow pipe of the hydrocyclone and provide a robust and maintenance-free system measurement that enables corrective actions through operator intervention or automatic control strategies. One system is non-invasive and detects very coarse material 6mm or greater in size. The other system uses a wetted sensor and detects coarse material down to a lower size limit of approximately 100 um. Both systems have been commercially deployed. The systems will be described in detail. Validation data and typical plant data will be shown.

<h1>Process optimization at Rio Tinto Kennecott using real-time measurement of coarse material in individual hydrocyclone overflow streams</h1>

The presence of unwanted coarse material in flotation feed streams negatively impacts both recovery and throughput of concentrator plants. The detection of this coarse material is a long-standing problem in mineral processing that has been poorly addressed by existing instrumentation systems.
This problem has been overcome by the development of two new systems that detect in real-time the presence of coarse material in the overflow stream of individual hydrocyclones. They both use sensors mounted to the overflow pipe of the hydrocyclone and provide a robust and maintenance-free system measurement that enables corrective actions through operator intervention or automatic control strategies.
One system is non-invasive and detects very coarse material 6mm or greater in size. The other system uses a wetted sensor and detects coarse material down to a lower size limit of approximately 100 um. Both systems have been commercially deployed. The systems will be described in detail. Validation data and typical plant data will be shown.

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Categories: Technical Paper

Tags: English