126 XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3
Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in life and as
such the ability for the World to meet the targets set, can-
not be assumed. On this basis, energy efficiency and the
effectiveness of the energy input in providing enhanced lev-
els of recovery and lower cost, are still exceptionally impor-
tant aspects and highly deserving of our best efforts.
Alongside energy, water and our ability to change, are
arguably of greater concern in supporting the demand for
commodities as part of the energy transition and in this
regard, one factor impeding us, is the inherent technology
lag, that is part of the mining and processing landscape. The
lag is induced by a number of factors, including, amongst
others, mine life, capital investment, available infrastruc-
ture, embedded leadership attitudes and investor expecta-
tions. The industry does not build a mine and processing
plant every day and when we do, it is in place for many
years.
Another non-technical aspect, that can delay the indus-
try response is excessive protection of ideas and methods. In
the case of equipment vendors and researchers, protection
is critical to be competitive, but for mining companies, the
advantage comes from their particular orebodies.
Overzealous pursuit of protection in relation to energy
and water, seems heavily at odds with commitments from
a majority of mining companies to decarbonize, reduce the
overall footprint of mining and apply the highest levels of
stewardship to the natural world.
Such commitments are moral and ethical matters and
they should not be diminished for the sake of perceived
commercial advantage, which can often end up as a zero
sum game.
Rather, energy, water and related matters need to fall
into the greater-good category, i.e., it is a collective respon-
sibility of the whole industry and should therefore be
regarded as non-competitive and fertile areas for inter-com-
pany collaboration. In front-end mining, energy and decar-
bonization is a matter of joint work, i.e., BluVein (2024),
The Electric Mine Consortium (2024). At present, similar
projects are not as prevalent in mineral processing around
energy and water, except in Tailings Storage Facilities, but
we need to learn from the actions of our mining counter-
parts and support initiatives as they emerge.
The challenge inherent in the title of this paper is actu-
ally multi-faceted. In terms of energy and carbon, we are
operating in an evolving context, as described above, but
the facet of water is not as clear-cut. Water is obviously
key to comminution and this situation will persist. We
are already seeing issues over water availability and access
impacting a range of mining operations, still it is unclear
how we respond to this part of the challenge and how, at a
fundamental level, we value water.
Finally, do we have the human resources and skills to
support a drastic change in approach and deployment of
the required changes?, particularly, when to implement
step-change, it will require acceptance of a higher level of
testing, design and operational complexity.
Delivering the degree of change required in comminu-
tion circuits must be primarily driven by mining companies
and mine operators. At the same time, the firms retained
for the engineering can only design innovative circuits, if
equipment vendors can provide the evidence to support the
application. As we advance our thinking, we also need to
be cognizant of reporting progress against accepted met-
rics and standard formats. Key considerations such as how
emissions and water are quoted within a mining context,
i.e., ICA (2022), ICMM (2021) and industry agnostic
platforms for GHG (WRI &wbcsd, 2024) and Avoided
Emissions (wbcsd, 2023). Such common formats and met-
rics are essential, if we are to be demonstrably transparent
to the outside world, including our detractors.
History has shown that through human ingenuity
very few matters in engineering are truly insurmountable.
However, there is a significant effort required to transi-
tion to a new-look comminution world and support the
demand for commodities inherent in the energy transition.
In a setting of severe water and resourcing challenges, this
is going to be a real challenge.
To give ourselves the best chance, we need to work
together, develop some of the themes raised in this paper
and significantly increase collaboration and co-develop-
ment. In this way, we give ourselves the best chance of man-
aging the speed-humps and smoothing the journey.
REFERENCES
Aramendia E., Brockway P.E., Taylor P.G. and Norman J.
2023, Global energy consumption of the mineral min-
ing industry: Exploring the historical perspective and
future pathways to 2060,.
Global Environmental Change, Volume 83, 2023,
102745, ISSN 0959-3780, doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha
.2023.102745.
Batchelor A.R., Buttress A.J., Jones D.A., Katrib J., Way
D., Chenje T., Stoll D., Dodds C. and Kingman S.W.
2017. Towards large scale microwave treatment of ores:
Part 2 – Metallurgical testing, Minerals Engineering,
111, 5–24, ISSN 0892-6875, doi: 10.1016/j.mineng
.2017.05.003.
Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in life and as
such the ability for the World to meet the targets set, can-
not be assumed. On this basis, energy efficiency and the
effectiveness of the energy input in providing enhanced lev-
els of recovery and lower cost, are still exceptionally impor-
tant aspects and highly deserving of our best efforts.
Alongside energy, water and our ability to change, are
arguably of greater concern in supporting the demand for
commodities as part of the energy transition and in this
regard, one factor impeding us, is the inherent technology
lag, that is part of the mining and processing landscape. The
lag is induced by a number of factors, including, amongst
others, mine life, capital investment, available infrastruc-
ture, embedded leadership attitudes and investor expecta-
tions. The industry does not build a mine and processing
plant every day and when we do, it is in place for many
years.
Another non-technical aspect, that can delay the indus-
try response is excessive protection of ideas and methods. In
the case of equipment vendors and researchers, protection
is critical to be competitive, but for mining companies, the
advantage comes from their particular orebodies.
Overzealous pursuit of protection in relation to energy
and water, seems heavily at odds with commitments from
a majority of mining companies to decarbonize, reduce the
overall footprint of mining and apply the highest levels of
stewardship to the natural world.
Such commitments are moral and ethical matters and
they should not be diminished for the sake of perceived
commercial advantage, which can often end up as a zero
sum game.
Rather, energy, water and related matters need to fall
into the greater-good category, i.e., it is a collective respon-
sibility of the whole industry and should therefore be
regarded as non-competitive and fertile areas for inter-com-
pany collaboration. In front-end mining, energy and decar-
bonization is a matter of joint work, i.e., BluVein (2024),
The Electric Mine Consortium (2024). At present, similar
projects are not as prevalent in mineral processing around
energy and water, except in Tailings Storage Facilities, but
we need to learn from the actions of our mining counter-
parts and support initiatives as they emerge.
The challenge inherent in the title of this paper is actu-
ally multi-faceted. In terms of energy and carbon, we are
operating in an evolving context, as described above, but
the facet of water is not as clear-cut. Water is obviously
key to comminution and this situation will persist. We
are already seeing issues over water availability and access
impacting a range of mining operations, still it is unclear
how we respond to this part of the challenge and how, at a
fundamental level, we value water.
Finally, do we have the human resources and skills to
support a drastic change in approach and deployment of
the required changes?, particularly, when to implement
step-change, it will require acceptance of a higher level of
testing, design and operational complexity.
Delivering the degree of change required in comminu-
tion circuits must be primarily driven by mining companies
and mine operators. At the same time, the firms retained
for the engineering can only design innovative circuits, if
equipment vendors can provide the evidence to support the
application. As we advance our thinking, we also need to
be cognizant of reporting progress against accepted met-
rics and standard formats. Key considerations such as how
emissions and water are quoted within a mining context,
i.e., ICA (2022), ICMM (2021) and industry agnostic
platforms for GHG (WRI &wbcsd, 2024) and Avoided
Emissions (wbcsd, 2023). Such common formats and met-
rics are essential, if we are to be demonstrably transparent
to the outside world, including our detractors.
History has shown that through human ingenuity
very few matters in engineering are truly insurmountable.
However, there is a significant effort required to transi-
tion to a new-look comminution world and support the
demand for commodities inherent in the energy transition.
In a setting of severe water and resourcing challenges, this
is going to be a real challenge.
To give ourselves the best chance, we need to work
together, develop some of the themes raised in this paper
and significantly increase collaboration and co-develop-
ment. In this way, we give ourselves the best chance of man-
aging the speed-humps and smoothing the journey.
REFERENCES
Aramendia E., Brockway P.E., Taylor P.G. and Norman J.
2023, Global energy consumption of the mineral min-
ing industry: Exploring the historical perspective and
future pathways to 2060,.
Global Environmental Change, Volume 83, 2023,
102745, ISSN 0959-3780, doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha
.2023.102745.
Batchelor A.R., Buttress A.J., Jones D.A., Katrib J., Way
D., Chenje T., Stoll D., Dodds C. and Kingman S.W.
2017. Towards large scale microwave treatment of ores:
Part 2 – Metallurgical testing, Minerals Engineering,
111, 5–24, ISSN 0892-6875, doi: 10.1016/j.mineng
.2017.05.003.