First application of a Vertical-Roller-Mill in a sulphide Copper-Gold ore project

摘要

As a lot of high grade ore deposits are located in Turkey, low grade deposits have not yet been in the focus of the Turkish mining industry. But now the Turkish Mining company Santral Madencilik A.S. is the first company executing a primary low grade sulphide copper-gold project in the North-east of Turkey. The deposit is characterized by significant variations in the mineralogy, the particle size for a sufficient degree of mineral liberation and the grindability. Hence the beneficiation process and especially the comminution process must be flexible. To identify the best process route conventional and new technologies were investigated. Dry and wet grinding technologies were compared in terms of grinding performance and product quality. Improved flotation performances of dry grinding products led to the design of a new beneficiation process. The paper describes the design of the process and explains why a Loesche Vertical-Roller-Mill (VRM) has been chosen over alternative technologies for the comminution process.