Grindin' at the Mill - investigating bottleneck in grinding circuit

Lead Mentor: Brent Sullivan, Senior Metallurgist

Challenge Description

Mt Keith was originally designed as a 6 Mt/a concentrator in 1994. Subsequent expansions and upgrades have taken the nominal throughput to 10.5 Mt/a, however the circuit can rarely maintain a feed rate that matches that. Mill throughput is a key driver for maintaining profitability at Mt Keith because of the low head grade (~0.5% Ni) and inherently low nickel recoveries due to the mineralogical makeup of the ore.