Metallurgical testing and flowsheet development capabilities

With the acquisition of Dawson Metallurgical Laboratories (DML) in July 2008, FLSmidth has increased its testing and in-plant consultation services to the minerals industries across the globe.

Dawson Laboratory continues to offer a wide range of capabilities in

• customized ore testing and analytical testing
• in-plant consultations
• process development
• rationalization of the flowsheet and
• process design criteria

to the ferrous and non-ferrous metals, precious metals, and industrial minerals markets. Why is this important to our business?

Ore characterization involves collecting multiple samples from the site and sending them to our facilities in Salt Lake City. This is a carefully planned task at the mine and involves multi-discipline engineering such as geology, mining and metallurgy. To the untrained eye, these samples will just look like rocks you would pickup in the wilderness. Many times the ore concentration is only a small particle that cannot be seen or is very slight on the surface of the rocks. When broken down to a fine size, these small particles are more easily removed from the rest of the surrounding gangue or waste material. This allows concentration of the valuable mineral into a smaller but rich mass.

Flowsheet development
FLSmidth’s business is focused on flowsheet development for new projects as well as process enhancements of existing projects. This allows us to define the best technology and equipment choice for the application. Our portfolio includes processing of minerals and metals such as gold, copper, silver, lead, zinc, iron, coal, phosphates, potash etc. We can also assist in handling what is left over from the processing (tailings) and look at ways of minimizing the environmental impact.

Testing includes crushing, grinding (including ultra-fine grinding capabilities), gravity concentration, flotation, leaching (ambient and autoclave technology), column leaching, magnetic separation and carbon in leach/carbon in pulp technology.

Optimising plant efficiency
Unit process equipment tests are also an integral part of FLSmidth’s testing programs. And FLSmidth can supplement detailed ore characterization with pilot plant validations of the customer’s entire process flowsheet.

Whether looking for a more efficient way to process the ore, or seeing what improvements should be made to decrease the unit process costs (such as reducing the amount of water or reducing the electricity consumed in the process) we are continually looking for ways to improve and offer our clients the best flowsheet possible.

Once testing is finished, the results are reported back to the client with recommendations for the most efficient way of capturing the minerals. This is a cooperative effort between our laboratory and our clients and also brings in opportunities for our sales people to follow-up on which types of equipment can be used within the proposed system.

FLSmidth provides customized service in both the laboratory and within the plant through a series of site consultation sessions. Our metallurgical testing and services have increased the efficiencies and reliability of a growing portfolio of installations throughout the world.

Testing services include

• Crushing and grinding
• Classification
• Gravity concentration
• Magnetic separation
• Froth flotation
• Gold processing
• Hydrometallurgy
• Analytical including fire assay
• Consultation services
• Hydrometallurgical testing

Contact Philip Thompson.
For more on Dawson Metallurgical Laboratories.