Modelling to Prepare for and Mitigate the Impact of Increasing Ore Hardness at Lihir
Author(s) L. Pyle, A. Rice, P. Griffin, B. Seaman, W. Valery, K. Duffy, A. Jankovic
Presented at the Mill Operator's Conference 2024 – 21-23 October 2024 - Perth, Australia – AusIMM.
Abstract
Lihir, located on Niolam Island, 900km from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, is one of the world’s largest producing gold mines. Future changes in feed blend (less argillic ores and an increased proportion of porphyry and epithermal ores) will increase ore hardness and thus impact comminution circuit throughput. This paper describes the data analysis, modelling, simulation and the resulting recommendations to maximize production for future ores.