John Visser - METS Engineering

Midas Engineering Group Pty Ltd

NSW | QLD | VIC | WA

ABN 72 159 772 675

W: www.midasengineering.com.au

E: [email protected]

John Visser

Slide Owner:

BD

Concentrate Transporting Magnetite Concentrate From Mine to Port

Informa Conveyors 2014 September 2014

j ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSING DESIGN & VERIFICATION PRODUCT INNOVATION PROJECT MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS TRAINING SKILLS HIRE

> DISCLAIMER With respect to all the information contained herein, neither Mineral Engineering Technical Services Pty Ltd, nor

any officer, servant, employee, agent or consultant thereof make any representations or give any warranties,

expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the information contained herein, including

but not limited to opinions, information or advice which may be provided to users of the document. No

responsibility is accepted to users of this document for any consequence of relying on the contents hereof.

> COPYRIGHT © Passing of this document to a third party, duplication or re-use of this document, in whole or part, electronically or

otherwise, is not permitted without the expressed written consent of Mineral Engineering Technical Services Pty

Ltd.

> ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This document is a dynamic record of the knowledge and experience of personnel at Mineral Engineering

Technical Services. As such it has been built upon over the years and is a collaborative effort by all those

involved. We are thankful for the material supplied by and referenced from various equipment manufacturers,

vendors, industry research and project partners.


Key Attributes

• Working globally since 1988

• Dynamic and innovative niche consultancy

• Dedicated team providing customised service

• Specialist in Mineral Processing & Engineering Projects

• Unique solution finder

• Part of the Midas Engineering Group

Pragmatic, efficient, complete engineering through

quality, personalised & exceptional service delivery


Agenda

• Do you truck, rail or pump the milled ore?

• Do you crush it and rail, truck or convey it?

• Can you perform a cobbing process?

• Do you concentrate the milled ore before pumping it?

• If you pump concentrates, do you return the water to the mine?

• How remote is the mine?

• How rough is the terrain between the mine and the port?


Agenda

• Test work – Mineralogy

– Materials handling

– Rheology

• Processes – Size of particle

– Dry vs. wet processing

• Water

• Distance between mine and port

• Size of operation

• Capital cost

• Operational cost – Labour

– Power

– Consumables

– Maintenance

• Company balance sheet and income statements


Test Work

• Mineralogy – Liberation size: higher milling costs for smaller size: typically

– Recovery at different grind sizes: cobbing options

– Clays: remove early

• Rheology: may not be worth pumping

• Erosion: Pipelines

• Compressibility: Bulk density

• Adhesion & Wall Friction

• Fluidisation/De-aeration


Erosion

Erosion

• Erosion (Impact abrasion) testing is performed according to

ASTM76 in a small dilute phase pneumatic system. The angle of

the wear plate can be varied between 15° and 90° and it is generally

recommended to perform impact wear comparisons at different angles.

• A sub-sample of the bulk material can be used as the erosive material

in this tester. In order to determine the exact wear properties, the

weight loss of each wear liner plate samples is monitored and quoted

versus the quantity of bulk material spent.

• This test work can be performed on a selection of wall lining materials.

Further, the attrition of the sample due to impact abrasion may also be

determined through a comparison between the wet laser particle size

distribution of the fines portion of the retained sample (impacted with

the wall plate) and the magnetite sample prior to testing.


Bulk Density/Compressibility

Lump Bulk Density/Compressibility

• The density and compressibility (density as a function of head of

consolidation) of a lump material (top size no greater than 37.5mm)

can be measured in a large bulk density tester.

• This test work may be performed at different moisture contents in order

to determine the effects of moisture on the compressibility and bulk

density.


Adhesion

Dynamic Impact Build-up (Adhesion)

• This test work is performed using a drop tube where material is

dropped with zero initial velocity through a tube from a given height

which matches a desired impact velocity of either 5m/s (high speed) or

2m/s (low speed).

• The drop height is tuned based on speed measurements using light

sensors. The material impacts with an inclined wall surface and any

build-up effects on the plate canbe visually observed and measured.

• This test work can be performed at two inclination angles (15° and 30°

measured from the vertical axis) using a selection of wall liner

materials used in item 4. The moisture content of the bulk material

can be varied to investigate the effects of moisture on adhesion

properties.


Full Size Adhesion & Wall Friction

Full Size Adhesion and Wall Friction

• The difficulty associated with the Jenike direct shear wall friction test

included under item 2 is that the lowest pressure that can be obtained is

limited by the weight of the ring and the contained bulk solid plus the

weight of the cover, which prevents to measure adhesion and cohesion in

this tester. An inverted shear tester overcomes this problem.

• This tester has a much larger piston diameter of

300mm, allowing a sample with a top particle size of up to 37.5mm to

be tested. Further, it is also possible to measure wall friction at zero

normal load with this machine and therefore determine the cohesion,

but it is also possible to measure the wall friction into the tensile normal

stress zone to determine the adhesion.

This provides information as to which wall material may exhibit least

cohesion/adhesion, i.e. least hang-up in static conditions such as

reclaimer buckets or truck trays.


Fluidisation/Dearation

Fluidisation/De-Aeration

• When very fine and dry materials are stored in a hopper of bin, a

fluidisation analysis may be required, especially if aeration is

considered as a means of flow promotion.

• This test work includes graphical output of pressure drop per unit

length versus superficial fluidisation velocity and the de-aeration time

for this sample.


Size of particles

• Lump and fines (>1mm) can be moved as

per the usual methods: rail, truck, conveyor

• Magnetite concentrate two products

– Dry cobbing product: rail, truck, conveyor

– Wet concentrates: pump, rail, truck,

conveyor

• Dry cobbing product

– Typically < 3mm

– Dry process which is relatively cheap

– Conveyor head pulley magnetised: Savage

River

• Wet magnetic concentrates

– Typically < 75micron

– Milling required so expensive

– LIMS (low intensity magnetic separation)


Cobbing

• Typically dry magnetic separation process – This removes gangue only, i.e. design for high

recovery

• Reduced volumes: truck, conveyor, rail

• Larger particle sizes for transport: truck,

rail, conveyor

• Smaller particles: all, but dustiness if dry


Water Quality and Availability

• Quality: mine vs. port – High TDS and/or salinity can lead to product rejection

– Treatment is expensive, so where is the best quality?

• Availability: mine vs. port – Crushing and screening

– Dry cobbing

– Transport


FiFo Operation?

• Skills – Typically higher in larger centres

• Infrastructure – power availability

• Access to mine – Cost of delivering consumables

– Cost of transporting staff

• May be better to simply wash clay and then rail/truck/convey the ore

and treat near the port


Distance Between Mine and Port

• Short distances: truck and pump

• Longer distances: Pump, rail, conveyor


Terrain Between Mine and Port

• Access to mine

• Rail requires low profiles

• Road requires moderate

profiles

• Pipeline requires

moderate profiles

• Ropecon conveyors

cover any terrain


Port Facilities and Available Space

• Tailings storage: negative

• Power availability: positive

• Power cost: positive

• Labour availability : positive

• Labour cost : positive


Pipeline equipment


Typical Port Equipment

Pumping

• Filters

• Tanks

• Pumps


Maintenance

• Rail – Typically near the port

• Truck – Port and mine

• Pump

• Conveyor


TML

Transportable Moisture Limit (TML)

• The Transportable Moisture Limit (TML) is determined using the flow

table method described in the International Maritime Organizations,

‘Code of Safe Practice for Bulk Solid Cargoes – 2004’ and AS4974.

• The TML will give an indication of the maximum moisture content

permissible for moving the bulk cargo by sea.


Fines Dust Extinction Moisture

Fines Dust Extinction Moisture (DEM) Testing (-6.3mm)

• The moisture content at which a material is deemed to emit no dust is

determined using a procedure set down in Australian Standard AS-

4156.6-2000.

• This standard was written specifically for coal but has been utilised for

other bulk materials by modifying the quantity of sample placed in the

test rig. The actual weight of the sample is taken into account when

determining the dust number.


Company Finances

• Capex: pump and conveyor options – Higher capital cost increases debt > can be negative for smaller operators

– Usually rail and truck can be off balance sheet

– Savage River Pipeline Bridge

Savage River, Tasmania, Australia

413 feet high / 129 meters high

1,440 foot span / 439 meter span

1967

• Opex: NPV analysis required for all options – Rough terrain

• Longer distances: truck and rail

• Steeper profiles: higher power costs conveyor and pump


Various projects

Company CITIC Pacific Mining Gindalbie Metals Grange Resources Asia Iron Holdings Australian Resources

Project Sino Karara Southdown Extension Hill Balmoral South

Development Stage Construction/Production Production Definitive Feasibility Study Construction Feasibilty Study

Resources/ Reserves ~2000 Mt Resource 1853 Mt Resource

522 Mt Reserve

654 Mt Resource

388 Mt Reserve

245 Mt Resource 1600 Mt Resource

859 Mt Reserve

Planned Production Date August – December 2012 Q4 2012 - October late 2015 2014 Q2-Q3 2013

Production Mining Rate

Concentrate Rate

80 Mtpa feed rate

22Mtpa

20 Mtpa, up to 75

8 Mtpa initial, up to 30

Mtpa in stages

22 Mtpa

6.6 Mtpa initial, with plans

up to 10 Mtpa

5 Mtpa initial, up to 10 & 20

Mtpa in stages

5 Mtpa concentrate

7 Mtpa BF pellets

Product Type Concentrate and pellets Concentrate Concentrate Concentrate Concentrate and pellets

Product Grade 67.5% Fe, 5.5% SiO2 68.2% Fe, 4.8% SiO2,

0.1% Al2O3, 0.01% P

67.7% Fe, 3.0% SiO2,

1.5% Al2O3, 0.01% P,

0.43% S

68.7% Fe, 4.5% SiO2,

0.1% Al2O3, 0.01% P

69.0% Fe, 3.9% SiO2,

0.1% S, 0.01% P

Total power required (MW) 6 lines each 44 = 264 120 180

Power requirement (kWh/t) 28

Product Grind Size (P80

micron)

25 25 38 38 32

Distance to Port ~25 km from port ~200 km E of port ~90 km NE of port ~300 km E of Geraldton ~30 km from port

Port Cape Preston Geraldton/ Oakajee Albany Geraldton/ Oakajee Cape Preston

Potential Product Market Citic Ansteel Jiangsu Shagang Asia Iron Shougang Corporation

Transport method to port Pipeline: 25km Rail Buried slurry pipeline:

110km

Slurry pipeline Slurry pipeline


Various project cont’d

Company Iron Road Centrex Metals Atlas Iron Atlas Iron Sinosteel Midwest

Project Central Eyre Bungalow Yerecoin Ridley Koolanooka

Development Stage PFS (completed) Scoping (pending)? PFS (pending) PFS (complete) Feasibility Study

Resources/ Reserves 328 Mt Resource

-

127 to 417 Mt

Exploration Target

187 Mt Resource

-

2010 Mt Resource

970 Mt Reserve

430 Mt Resource

-

Planned Production Date -TBA -TBA -TBA -TBA Started

productionApril 2010

Production Rate 10 Mtpa -TBA 2.5 Mtpa 15 Mtpa 20 Mtpa

Product Type Concentrate Concentrate Concentrate Concentrate -

Product Grade 68.5 % Fe, 2.4% SiO2 70.1% Fe, 2.8% SiO2 70.1% Fe, 2.1% SiO2,

0.4% Al2O3, 0.004% P

68.3% Fe, 4.3% SiO2,

0.03% Al2O3, 0.01% P,

0.01% S

-

Product Grind Size (P80

micron)

106-125 µ m 32 75 29 -

Distance to Port ~160 km NW of port ~90 km N of port ~120 NNE of port ~75 km from port ~190 km E of Geraldton

Port Sheep Hill Sheep Hill Kwinana Port Hedland Oakajee

Potential Product Market Baoutou Iron & Steel - - Sinosteel

Transport method to port Rail or slurry pipeline -

TBA

TBA TBA Slurry pipeline TBA


THANK YOU

www.metsengineering.com


www.midasengineering.com

THANK YOU

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Engineering

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