Brisbane, 14th October, 2008
Teck’s huge Red Dog zinc mine in Alaska has purchased two M3000, 1.5 MW IsaMills™.
Red Dog Chief Metallurgist, Brigitte Lacouture said Red Dog needed additional regrinding capacity to treat harder ore from the Aqqaluk deposit. Red Dog was commissioned in late 1989, and produces over 1.0 Mt/y of zinc concentrate and 0.23 Mt/y lead concentrate. Currently the circuit uses up to 10 vertical tower mills for regrinding intermediate flotation streams. Lacouture explained that the new IsaMills™ will allow 7 of these existing tower mills to be shutdown, while improving grinding capacity and zinc recovery. The mills will regrind intermediate flotation streams, one to a product size of 13 microns, the other to 25 microns. The decision was made after extensive on-site comparative testwork by Teck technical and research teams. “While we expect some flotation benefits from inert media, energy efficiency was the prime consideration.” said Lacouture. “The remote Arctic location means that all of our power is diesel generated, and the diesel can only be shipped in during the brief Arctic summer.”
IsaMill™ Technology Manager Greg Anderson said that IsaMills™ achieve high energy efficiency because they use fine ceramic grinding media. This is particularly important for grind sizes below about 70 microns, where grinding energy need increases rapidly. “In practice, operating ball mills and tower mills are limited to about 12 mm ball size, whereas the IsaMills™ are designed to efficiently use 2 mm or 3.5 mm media” he said.
The Red Dog IsaMills™ are expected to be commissioned by the first quarter of 2010.
Ends
Lindsay Clark
General Manager Mineral Processing – Xstrata Technology
Telephone +61 7 3833 8500
Email LClark@xstratatech.com.au
Web www.isamill.com
Note to Editors
Xstrata plc
Xstrata is a global diversified mining group, listed on the London and Swiss Stock Exchanges, with its headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. Xstrata’s businesses maintain a meaningful position in seven major international commodity markets: copper, coking coal, thermal coal, ferrochrome, nickel, vanadium and zinc, with a growing platinum group metals business, additional exposures to gold, cobalt, lead and silver, recycling facilities and a suite of global technology products, many of which are industry leaders. The Group's operations and projects span 18 countries. Xstrata employs approximately 56,000 people, including contractors.
Xstrata Technology
Xstrata Technology develops, markets and supports technologies for the global mining, mineral processing and metals extraction industries. It has offices in Australia, South Africa, Canada and Chile, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Xstrata plc, a major global diversified mining group, listed on the London and Swiss stock exchanges. For further information please visit www.xstrata.com or www.xstratatech.com.