CRUSHING
45
Secondary crushing:
worth the cost?
Ausencos experts discuss the viability of secondary crushing in SAG
mill circuits and provide advice for mines considering such a set-up
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limitations in that the breakage within the
mill is a function of the maximum energy
imparted by collision with a large steel ball,
and the lower the rock-to-ball ratio and the
lower the mill load (required to maximise
throughput), the more damage is done to
the mill liners by ball-on-shell impacts.
AG milling is all about mill charge
management to maximise throughput. AG
mills do not benefit from a universally finer
feed as coarse rock is required as media.
Some mines have used coarse rock and
fine feed (with the mid-size removed) in
order to maximise throughput. As the ball
load increases in SAG milling of competent
rock, the use of finer ROM feed ore, finer
primary and secondary crushing can
substantially increase throughput.
Secondary cruShing returnS
Historical mining projects, such as
Bronzewing , St Ives , Porgera and Granny
Smith, Kidston and KCGM in Australia,
Troilus in Canada and Geita in Africa, have
implemented secondary (and in some
cases tertiary) crushing to manage the
critical size fraction inside an SAG mill and
increase throughput.
More recently, Newcrest Minings
transition from processing ore from the
Cadia open-pit mine to Cadia East
underground ore resulted in Ausenco
designing a retrofit of secondary and
tertiary crushing high-pressure grinding
rolls (HPGRs) at the Cadia concentrator to
increase SAG mill throughput.
In recent years, many projects (eg
Osikos Malartic and Tecks Andacollo) have
used a retrofit of secondary crushing ahead
of SAG milling to optimise throughput
after start-up and to de-bottleneck SAG
mills when treating competent ore.
FlowSheet optionS
Secondary crushing of competent ores in
open circuit is the simplest approach. This
is particularly applicable if the ore is
fines-deficient, as many competent ores
are. Open-circuit secondary crushing will
yield SAG mill F80s as low as 25mm, but
more typically 50-60mm.
Control of the feed to any cone crusher
is important for optimal operation. Poorly
presented feed is the most common issue
with secondary crushing installations, and
Ausenco would typically recommend some
Ausenco
designed
secondary and
tertiary crushers
for Newcrests
Cadia East mine
Many
projects
have used
secondary
crushing
ahead of
SAG milling
to optimise
throughput
and debottleneck
SAG mills
When does secondary crushing make sense?
Secondary crushing makes most sense when the ore
is extremely competent. Without secondary
crushing, the SAG mill-based circuit tends to be
energy-inefficient, with low throughput and a fine
mill product. This is accompanied by large amounts
of energy dissipation as heat.
Ausencos rules of thumb for the addition of
secondary crushing to an existing circuit are that:
reducing the F80 (80% of the feed size) to the
SAG mill by 10mm will result in a 3-6% increase in
SAG mill throughput, with the magnitude
depending on the ore characteristics and the mill
operating conditions;
reducing the F80 will also result in an improvement in overall comminution-circuit energy
efficiency when treating competent ores. Bond
calculations define the efficiency of a fine
stage-crush ball mill circuit as 1.0 to 1.2
depending on ball mill feed size, and some
SABC (SAG/ball mill/pebble crusher) circuits
operating with an efficiency of 1.3-1.4 or higher
on coarse feed. If the coarse feed size is
reduced, the circuit efficiency will approach that
of the stage-crush and ball mill circuit (see
graph).
Impact of HPGR product on energy efficiency
Source: Lane and Siddall, 2002
Circuit power used/Bond
predicted power
ver the past few decades, the
size of mineral processing plants
and equipment has increased to
meet the growing global demand for
resources. During recent boom times,
mining companies have expanded old
processing plants and built new highthroughput plants as quickly as possible.
However, as ore grades decrease and
orebodies become harder and more
competent, the strain on plant throughput
and energy efficiency increases. This affects
the selection of comminution equipment,
and plant capital and operating costs.
In the past 60 years, the use of
semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mills has
developed from the original concept of
autogenous grinding (AG) mills. In the
1950s, AG milling was considered to offer
the potential for lower operating costs
than alternative solutions, better liberation
characteristics and greater energy
efficiency. The concept provided a much
simpler flowsheet compared with
stage-crush, rod and/or ball-mill circuits.
The concept was developed in two
ways, as high-aspect pancake mills in a
two-stage AG and ball-mill circuit in North
America, and as a single-stage run-of-mine
(ROM) low-aspect mill in South Africa.
The addition of balls to the AG mill to
form a SAG mill, and the use of pebble
crushing, was introduced to enable
management of the critical size within the
SAG mill, and improve operability and
throughput.
In parallel, the South Africans developed
methods to control the AG mill charge by
managing feed-size distribution, and the
Scandinavians developed a similar
approach to two-stage AG milling that has
culminated in some of the largest mills in
the world being installed at Bolidens Aitik
copper mine in northern Sweden.
Typical SAG mill ball charge has
increased from around 3-8% in the early
1990s to 20% and above. This has occurred
either because the ore was fine and soft,
such as that found at PT Freeports
Grasberg copper-gold complex in
Indonesia, or to optimise SAG mill
throughput by maximising mill power draw
when treating competent ore, such as at
Antofagasta Minerals Esperanza
copper-gold mine in Chile.
However, this approach has its
Percentage HPGR product in feed
Hence, if the JKDropWeight test Axb parameters
(a measure of rock competency) are less than about
40, then secondary crushing is worth considering.
Secondary or pre-crushing ahead of SAG milling
is finding increasing acceptance, often as a
de-bottlenecking device, either where SAG milling
capacity is below design due to inadequate
allowance for the behaviour of highly competent
ores, or where a successful SAG milling application
becomes constrained as the mining operation moves
into deeper, more competent ores.
Retrofitting secondary crushing increases ball-mill
energy needs. This is a key consideration, and other
options such as adding a tertiary ball mill may be
needed to maintain the final products grind size.
December 2012
22/11/2012 16:33
46
CRUSHING
The Ridgeway
Deeps
development
project at Cadia
type of surge capacity ahead of the crusher
to allow good control of crusher feed.
The introduction of a screen to close
circuit the crusher complicates the
flowsheet and increases maintenance, but
will increase throughput.
Due to the difference in availability of
the SAG mill and secondary crusher, the
latter may be linked to the primary crusher
and must then match availability at a higher
throughput, or the secondary crusher can
be in direct line with the SAG mill and
bypassing the crusher is required when
maintenance is conducted. This crusher
outage will result in markedly reduced
throughput (say 30%) that may justify the
installation of a redundant crusher.
The need to screen secondary crusher
feed in open-circuit applications depends
on the fines content of the primary crusher
product, which is often a function of the
competency of the ore. Highly competent
Greenfield projects
Secondary crushing of SAG feed has been included
Secondary crushing in greenfield applications, as
from the outset in some projects, to reduce SAG
at Detour Gold Corps Detour Lake mine in Canada,
energy use and mill size. However, there are
can be driven by many factors, including ore
disadvantages to this: the circuit is more complex
competency, but can also be used as risk mitigation.
than a standard SAG circuit; and the only major
For example, keeping the mill small enough to use
de-bottlenecking device applicable to SAG-based
geared drives might pay for the increased cost and
designs is no longer available if the mill is found to
complexity of secondary crushing.
be too small, or if ore becomes more competent.
Applying secondary crushing in a greenfield
If secondary crushing is indicated from the outset
design cuts opportunities for future expansion and
to provide a viable design, it could be that SAG
de-bottlenecking. In many cases, the best option is a
milling is not the most appropriate technology for
SABC circuit with space left to add secondary
the application, with stage-crushing, either
crushing later. There is always a complex trade-off
conventional or HPGR-based, possibly more suitable. between capital cost and operating cost for the
Nevertheless, secondary crushing of SAG feed can
addition of secondary crushing, and each project
Mining
World
1.2 pg
2012 on
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be a legitimate
approach
depending
the project. 15:21
shouldPage
be examined
in a trade-off study.
ores produce fewer fines in the primary
crusher product, and screening ahead of
secondary crushing can often be avoided
in these cases. In contrast, less competent
ores generally produce products that are
rich in fines, and screening is necessary to
ensure the secondary crusher feed is
properly prepared; excessive fines,
particularly if the ore is moist, can cause
packing in the crusher chamber leading to
ring bounce and ultimately mechanical
damage of the crusher.
Manufacturers tend to use rules of
thumb to de-rate crusher capacities for the
treatment of highly competent ores that
display high Bond crushing work indices
(CWi). One such rule is the following:
de-rate = (16/CWi)^0.5
However, care is required when using
this rule as CWi test methods vary and
simplistic approaches do not address all of
the relevant issues.
Summary
Secondary crushing prior to SAG milling
adds complexity and, in some regards, is a
return to the stage-crush type approach.
However, it does have valid applications
with very competent ores, as do other
technologies such as HPGR. In a greenfield
context, a study is required to examine
project-specific issues.
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