ABOUT THE PROJECT
This project aims to develop a suite of guidelines that will provide industry guidance for how geometallurgy can be used to add value for greenfield or brownfield project development and within an operating site.
This project is led by the Mineral Processing Working Group.
Problem Statement
This project aims to address the general confusion within geology, mining, and metallurgical functions of how geometallurgy can be used to add value. This includes a lack of:
- Understanding of different phases of the geometallurgy project life cycle
- Clear guidelines for setting up a geometallurgy program to predict a reasonable project outcome
- Guidance regarding metallurgical sampling protocols
- Definition of team make up for successful geometallurgy project
- Understanding about the roles the disciplines play in setting up a geometallurgy strategy for a project
Project Purposes
- Provide roadmap and maturity framework in a way that is accessible to multiple stakeholders.
- Provide a geometallurgy flowsheet and guidance for a roadmap to responsibly maximize the value of a mineral resource.
- Offer guidance for geological, mining, and metallurgical data usage and methodologies for geometallurgical modelling.
- Provide a listing of typical ore characterization tests (grade, comminution, recovery, environmental, materials handling, geotechnical, solids storage, etc) to relate geological, mining and metallurgical performance.
- Provide guidance on team make-up, roles, project definition and value statement for a holistic geometallurgy program.
- Describe techniques to develop orebody models by relating a low volume of metallurgical test results with a high volume of geological characterization results.
Objectives for Project Collaboration
- Facilitate a team of geologists, mining engineers, metallurgists, and other related disciplines to collaborate on developing the guidelines.
- Collect and reference existing geometallurgy best practices (use case and case study examples, as well as references to existing resources).
- Encourage and demonstrate a multi-discipline, holistic approach, rather than approaching geometallurgy as a separate discipline.
GET INVOLVED
As this is a newly launched project, a broad community of mining companies, geologists, mineralogists, metallurgists, mining engineers, and mine/mill operations/managers will be required for effective collaboration on these guidelines. If you have expertise in any of these areas and are interested in participating, contact us here.