Development and Validation of Ore Characterisation Test and its Use in Variability Campaigns of Comminution Circuits

Development and Validation of Ore Characterisation Test and its Use in Variability Campaigns of Comminution Circuits Impact testing was developed by assessing the fragmentation characteristics of ore samples after controlled impact. Standard methods are, however, limited to relatively large and coarse samples, which thus precludes their use in early stages of projects, as well as where only drill cores are available. The method described in this paper is based on the same concepts of controlled ore breakage, but using relatively smaller samples. It is particularly useful in assessing the variability of ore characteristics in early stages of greenfield projects, as well as in predicting the performance of existing grinding circuits. A validation program was carried out in which a good adherence to the original test results was obtained. The results were used for (a) simulation of a copper comminution circuit as a function of the ore characteristics, and (b) evaluation of sampling protocols used for assessing fragmentation characteristics.