JV “IVS”:

Tikhonov N. O., Head of Subdivision

RIVS Science and Production Association:

Ivanov A. N., Director of Department

E-mail (common): rivs@rivs.ru

Ore pretreatment is the most money-taking stage of mineral processing at a plant. For this reason, enhancement of ore pretreatment processes is one of the allocated targets of the production improvement in mineral dressing industry. Reengineering of ore pretreatment charts using high pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) as an additional stage of fine crushing of ore before feeding to milling cycle is a promising area of activity, which sometimes enables enhanced ore pretreatment efficiency at operating processing plants. Owing to reduced grain size of ore feed for milling, the milling equipment capacity grows by 15–20% depending on characteristics of an ore type and on the current ore pretreatment chart. It is indispensably required to assess expediency of HPGR technology by means of laboratory and pilot-plant testing aimed at characterization of the behavior of ore in work zone of HPGR. The current performance of the available crushing and grinding equipment and its test data provide source information for the JKSimMet simulation applied by RIVS to construction of mathematical model enabling high-reliable prediction of the production data obtained using an ore pretreatment chart depending on changes in the chart and in the equipment parameters. The authors illustrate prospects of the described approach in terms of the technical-and-economic calculation project “Reengineering of ore pretreatment phase I, crushing stage IV” accomplished by RIVS for the processing plant of Erdenet Mining Corporation. Improvement of ore pretreatment processes has always been a priority trend mining and processing modernization since ore preprocessing is the most expensive process stage of beneficiation. One of the promising directions, which in some instances has enabled effectivization of ore pre-processing at operating plants, is redesign of an ore pre-processing circuit by introduction of high pressure grinding rolls as an auxiliary stage of fine crushing of ore before grinding. Reduction of size of the ore grinding feed allows the increase in the milling equipment output by 15–20% depending on features of a specific ore type and on characteristics of the current ore pre-processing chart. In order to estimate material behavior in the work zone of HPGR, laboratory and semi-commercial tests are carried out as a compulsory stage of feasibility study of the technology application under certain conditions. At the present time, RIVS is designing new charts and upgrades the existing schemes of ore pre-processing based on the test data and current process indexes of crushing and grinding equipment on hand using JKSim computer simulation software package. The obtained mathematical model allows high-reliable forecasting of the production data of the ore pre-processing chart at varied parameters of the involved equipment. As an illustration of the described approach, the article presents the technical-and-economic calculation for “Ore Pre-Processing Stage I Technical Upgrading, Crushing Stage IV” accomplished for the processing plant of Erdenet Mining Corporation.

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