Palme Africaine’s Mine to Mill (PAC M2M) Approach
Mine-to-Mill is a generic term that refers to the holistic approach for the optimization of mining operations. The paradigm seeks to encompass rock fragmentation, crushing, milling, and all associated operations such as haulage, blending, screening so as to reduce the overall operating costs while ensuring high mill throughput and efficient concentration down the value chain. The process improvement therefore covers the whole chain spanning from rock breakage at the mine site through to the milled product from the concentrator.
In this context that Palme Africaine Consulting (PAC) has developed an in-house approach to mine- to-mill commercialised as PAC M2MÔ for the mining industry. The PAC M2MÔ package enables the clients to conduct several key specialised activities to meet their bottom line. Included in the package are the characterisation of orebody, the response of ore types to processing units, and the performance simulation of the blasting, drilling, haulage, loading and comminution (i.e. crushing and milling) operations amongst others. PAC M2MÔ can also be used as a production planning tool; in this case then, the mine value chain is simulated in an integrated manner by linking directly mining and comminution sections and investigating their interrelation from a techno-economic point of view.
Based on feedback and validation work conducted as part of PAC’s after-sales portfolio, we have been able to record productivity gains of the order of 10 – 20 % from the baseline. This means that the adoption of PAC M2MÔ by our previous clients as opposed to traditional approach of mining has enabled them to run their operations cost-effectively. PAC M2MÔ has also offered clients the possibility to better understand their orebody and explore the impacts of the change in ore types on the viability of the project. Appraisal of current and future practices on site can also be queried to further drive productivity.
The unique selling point PAC M2MÔ resides in its flexibility. Indeed, PAC M2MÔ can be customised to various applications ranging from quarries, surface and underground mining operations. Case studies that have been delivered on include the effect of blast fragmentation on crushing and screening performance at a quarry, the selective underground blasting for improved concentration performance, and the increase of autogenous and semi-autogenous mill throughput by means of high-intensity blasting.
Further Research and Development is underway aimed at including parameters relating to mining and processing characteristics within the mine block model. This will expand the scope of PAC M2MÔ to short and long term mine planning and scheduling from a mine-to-mill perspective with all the anticipated benefits.
We are available to present this tool and demonstrate the benefits associated with using this tool that has proven to be effective in various client’s operations. Kindly do not hesitate to contact us on the following details for further discussions.