Product – Vega High Chrome Media
Location – A country in South America
Client – One of the leading copper mines in the world
Result – 40% reduction in wear rate, improvement in recovery by 1.7%
The following case study demonstrates the significant potential of Vega’s High Chrome Grinding Media in creating a strong impact on improving the grinding conditions suitable for high flotation performance
One of the mine treating ore containing chalcopyrite hosted with iron oxide minerals (along with pyrite as the main sulphide gangue mineral) encountered issues with mediocre recovery & concentrate grade specs of Cu.
Vega presented the plant management team with a holistic strategy to optimize both comminution and flotation circuits to address the above-mentioned key pain areas.
Lab scale experimentation with High Chrome grinding media and optimized grinding/pulp chemistry has improved recovery by 1.7% and improved concentrate specs (with higher concentrate grade at higher pyrite rejection).
Change over to High Chrome media also resulted in a 40% reduction in the wear rate and a significant improvement in copper recovery in comparison with conventional alloy in plant scale. Further, the consistency of the cyclone overflow has increased drastically despite of significant changes in mill feed size.
This strong positive outcome has affirmed the necessity of High Chrome and its role in process optimization.