XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3 1007
and a large recycle to compensate. Another opportunity to
replace the diesel generators with solar is identified as having
potential to reduce electrical emissions. A techno-economic
assessment is performed which determines the proposed
solar solution to be too capital intensive and withheld from
further progression. Adjusting agitation is approved due to
its low costs and ability to free up capacity in the circuit,
lower reagent consumption, and reduce pumping costs.
The plant now has a decision to make on the operation of
the circuit: does the debottlenecked circuit focus on mini-
mized costs and emissions OR does it maximize through-
put and capacity? Another techno-economic assessment is
performed which showed a significant increase in NPV by
maximizing throughput. The decision is made to repriori-
tize the targets and maximize throughput instead of costs
and emissions. Figure 6 covers the decision approach to this
example optimization case.
An actual optimization study is significantly more com-
plex than the example provided above but the approach to
finding the value, assessing limitations, and deciding upon
changes remains relatively similar. In many cases there is a
fine balance between economics and ESG (Chandramohan
et al., 2023). Both targets may lead to an optimized plant
but take varying implementation pathways resulting in
Source: Chandramohan 2021
Figure 4. The optimization pathway matrix. Starting from the green unoptimized state (top, back left), a plant has a variety of
pathways that it can take to achieve its goals of reaching the ideal state in yellow (bottom, front right). Each pathway will add
different value to the process, but all will result in an optimized state
Figure 5. Simple leaching circuit with recycle, leaching tank, and pump. Electricity to equipment
is provided by a diesel generator
and a large recycle to compensate. Another opportunity to
replace the diesel generators with solar is identified as having
potential to reduce electrical emissions. A techno-economic
assessment is performed which determines the proposed
solar solution to be too capital intensive and withheld from
further progression. Adjusting agitation is approved due to
its low costs and ability to free up capacity in the circuit,
lower reagent consumption, and reduce pumping costs.
The plant now has a decision to make on the operation of
the circuit: does the debottlenecked circuit focus on mini-
mized costs and emissions OR does it maximize through-
put and capacity? Another techno-economic assessment is
performed which showed a significant increase in NPV by
maximizing throughput. The decision is made to repriori-
tize the targets and maximize throughput instead of costs
and emissions. Figure 6 covers the decision approach to this
example optimization case.
An actual optimization study is significantly more com-
plex than the example provided above but the approach to
finding the value, assessing limitations, and deciding upon
changes remains relatively similar. In many cases there is a
fine balance between economics and ESG (Chandramohan
et al., 2023). Both targets may lead to an optimized plant
but take varying implementation pathways resulting in
Source: Chandramohan 2021
Figure 4. The optimization pathway matrix. Starting from the green unoptimized state (top, back left), a plant has a variety of
pathways that it can take to achieve its goals of reaching the ideal state in yellow (bottom, front right). Each pathway will add
different value to the process, but all will result in an optimized state
Figure 5. Simple leaching circuit with recycle, leaching tank, and pump. Electricity to equipment
is provided by a diesel generator
