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Phoenix Mill Expansion
Newmont Mining Corporation | United States | 2011–2012
33,700 to 48,000 tpd
increase in throughput
2x
rougher flotation retention time
Increased
capacity in the existing grinding cyclones
Increased
capacity in the existing deslime cyclones
Challenges
- The mill struggled with ore variability and hardness, producing a copper concentrate with gold and silver credits that decreased throughput, and ultimately reduced metal and concentrate production.
- One of the main challenges of this brownfield operation was installing the circuits within existing process infrastructures without disturbing ongoing operations.
- Integrating the new circuits required a lot of planning to ensure the scheduled shutdown and process commissioning was kept to a minimum.
Solutions
- Provided detailed engineering, procurement assistance, and field support for the project.
- A two-phased expansion of the mill facilitated the increased throughput.
- Phase 1 added a new secondary crushing and screening circuit to decrease feed particle size to the SAG mill.
- Phase 2 expanded the grinding, rougher flotation, and tailings deslime areas, increasing capacity in the existing grinding cyclones and the deslime cyclones, and doubling the rougher flotation retention time.
Highlights
- Increased overall mill throughput from 33,700 to 48,000 tons per day
- Increased capacity in the existing grinding cyclones
- Doubled the rougher flotation retention time and increased the capacity in the existing deslime cyclones
Project numbers
US$8.5 million33,700 to 48,000 tpd increase in overall mill throughput
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