New Major World Mineral Testing Laboratory in Europe

Engineering and environmental consultancy Wardell Armstrong International has become one of only eleven major world mineral testing laboratories – and the first commercial lab in Europe – to install new SAGDesign™ semi-autogenous grinding equipment.

Now installed at the consultancy’s mineral processing centre of excellence in Truro, SAGDesign™ is the most accurate grindability test available according to its manufacturer Starkey & Associates Inc.

Complementing existing JK drop weight test equipment, this latest addition brings to nearly £500,000 the investment made by Wardell Armstrong in mineral testing at its Truro facility over the past two years.

“This new state-of-the-art technology is another important step in expanding our in-house capability,” said Philip King, Technical Director of mineral processing for Wardell Armstrong International. “It makes us unique in being able to carry out under one roof everything that our international clients need for mine development. Our team of mineral processing engineers, mineralogists, chemists and environmental specialists can take care of everything from geological and environmental assessments to mineral processing testing and full feasibility studies.”

The opportunity to contribute to two major new copper and gold projects in Kazakhstan, one of the world’s most active mining countries, provided added impetus for the investment in SAGDesign™. The technology was stipulated by the metallurgical consultant acting for both projects, being developed respectively by KAZ minerals (formerly Kazakhmys) and TOO Dostyk.

With the cost of a new grinding mill and processing plant typically running to as much as $500 million or more, the testing of ore and mineral samples to establish the best way of recovering economic value is a critical requirement.

A new plant needs to be designed to be able to cope with all the variations of ore and hardness of rock that might be encountered.

And with lower quality grades of ore now becoming much more common, more cost-effective
and efficient grinding machinery is necessary to avoid the use of large amounts of steel media.

“This is where SAGDesign™ testing really comes into its own,” said Philip King, “by precisely measuring SAG and ball mill ore hardness using larger pieces and bigger samples, tested in fewer but larger comminution laboratory components, and with fewer composite samples needed”.

SAGDesign™ testing provides SAG pinion energy grindability in kWh/t to within +/- 5% to grind from F80 152 mm to T80 1.7 mm, and Bond Ball Mill Work Index using SAG ground ore, from the SAG test on the same sample.