Ernest Henry Mining upgrades Vertimill® cyclone pack
The team at Glencore’s Ernest Henry Mining (EHM) recently reconfigured the regrind milling circuit replacing the ageing cyclone pack with a new Vertimill® cyclone pack made up of higher efficiency units.
The installation was completed over three days in November to make the maintenance and operation of the Vertimill® cyclone pack safer, and to enhance copper recovery by increasing machine efficiency. The work included raising the underflow launder, and installing a working platform and access stairs.
At our EHM processing plant mined ore is put through a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill, a ball mill, primary hydrocyclones, and then into the roughers.
The new Vertimill® cyclone pack installed by EHM.
For those unfamiliar with the process, roughers are large flotation cells that help separate copper minerals from the waste rock. Once it reaches this stage, anything that floats in the roughers needs to be re-ground in order to produce a concentrate that is high-grade enough for smelting at the Mount Isa Mines Copper Smelter.
This is where the regrind cyclone pack comes in. The cyclone pack works together with a fine grinding mill called a Vertimill® to efficiently regrind the rougher concentrate.
The cyclone pack acts as a separator, sending product that has been ground fine enough on to further processing, while sending material that is too coarse to the Vertimill® for further grinding. The new cyclone pack design does this important job more safely and with higher efficiency.
The old Vertimill® cyclone pack that has been replaced.
Most of the steel work for this project was pre-fabricated and laser advanced data scan referencing ensured the steel work fitted with minimal modification. Laser scan snapshots provided an exact replica of the unit so the new cyclones could be installed quickly and efficiently while minimising plant downtime.
EHM Concentrator Manager, Shane Morrissey, says the project has made the area safer to work in and take samples from while also improving copper recoveries.
“This project saw significant contributions from the maintenance, engineering, metallurgy and operational teams who collaborated to improve operational efficiencies and most importantly safety,” says Shane.
“The Vertimill® cyclone pack is an important part of our processing plant and helps to improve copper recovery, therefore having a positive impact on the profitability of the operation. It is also energy efficient and requires minimal maintenance.”