Material handling - mitigating handling issues with clay index

摘要

Yandi iron ore mine, located 135 km north of Newman in the Pilbara region of Western Australia (Figure 2) is a channel iron deposit (CID) within the Marillana palaeochannel network. The CID ore is broadly classified as upper CID (UCID) and lower CID (LCID), based on their stratigraphic position in the channel (Figure 3). The UCID - characterised by hematite-goethite granules, is hard, competent and contains less moisture; contrasted with LCID - characterised by goethite-limonite, is soft and friable in nature.Increased LCID feed to plants, due to depleting UCID sources, presents the risk of material handling problems and reduced productivity due to high clay and moisture content.