“Metallurgical Testwork, Interpretation & Process Design” Short Course

The metallurgical testwork program is generally the most important critical path item for process design of a circuit and if it is not implemented in a well-structured and framed way by an experienced subject matter expert it can become the main reason of a mining project fatal flow.
Not two ore bodies are the same. Although development of a suitable process flowsheet to treat an orebody appears to be a relatively straightforward, selecting the optimum process whilst maintaining the maximum recovery and revenue is a complex task.
Aspects of metallurgical test program ranging from initial sample selection and ore characterisation to understand metallurgical response of an ore to complex pilot tests. It is necessary to develop metallurgical testplan that can cater for the variability in the orebody, whilst still providing optimum economics on the majority of the process plant feed. This course will provide the participants with the knowledge to:
• Why and what metallurgical testwork?
• Developing metallurgical testwork
• Identify the testwork requirement
• Definition of the laboratory testwork appropriate for the study type and sampling requirement
• Test results and data interpretation
• Sample variability and pilot tests
• Process circuit design and flowsheet development based on testwork outcome
• Risk and mitigation in testwork