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COST ANALYSIS AND OPTIMISATION FROM A MINE-TO-MILL PERSPECTIVE

Sarma Kanchibotla and Walter Valery

INTRODUCTION
The core process in any mining operation involves the comminution and separation of the in-situ
ore from the waste rock and its conversion to a final valuable product such as metal or an
intermediate product such as concentrate.
Traditionally the mineral industry has classified the total process into two groups, mining and
milling and these are managed as separate cost centres with distinct cost and production budgets.
Process optimisation is achieved by focussing on achieving and/or maximising the production
(tons) budget with minimum cost. The efficiency of each sub process is considered to be optimum
as long as they meet the production targets at the minimum operating cost. There is little incentive
to understand the impact of one sub-process over other downstream processes and to improve the
profitability of whole business unit.
In this traditional approach, drilling and blasting is viewed as a sub-process in mining and its main
objective is to fracture the in-situ rock mass and prepare it for efficient digging and hauling. Hence,
drill and blast results are often evaluated and optimised based on the needs of its subsequent
mining operations such as loading and hauling while maintaining pit slope stability and safety
standards. Blast results are considered good when they ensure good digging and loading
operations while maintaining the safety and environmental standards. Such an approach is
probably true for operations where the sole objective is the transfer of in-situ material from one
place to another but it may not be the optimum in operations where blast results affect mill
throughput, recovery and price of the final product.
Research and industrial experience in the past decade has shown that drill and blast results (such
as fragmentation, muckpile shape, movement and damage) impact the efficiency of down stream
processes and therefore the overall profitability of the mining operation (Eloranta 1995, Kanchibotla
et al 1998, Simkus and Dance 1998, Scott et al 1999, Kanchibotla et al 1999, Kanchibotla 2000,
Valery et al., 1999, Hart et al., 2000, Valery et al., 2001, Lam et al., 2001, Karageorgos et al.,
2001, Morrell et al., 2001, Hart et al., 2001, Carr et al., 2001, Strohmayr et al., 2001, Renner et al.,
2006, Dance et al., 2006, Tondo et al., 2006, McCaffery et al., 2006, Dance et al 2007). The
Mine-to-Mill or Process Integration and Optimisation approach involves identifying and
understanding the leverage each process has on downstream processes (eg. the impact of drill

and blast results on load and haul, crushing, grinding processes) and then use that leverage to
maximise the overall profitability of the operation rather than just that of the individual processes. A
schematic indicating the main variables and parameters involved in this approach is shown in
Figure 1.
Dispatch
Ore characterisation
Ore movement
Drill data

Blast models

Dilution control
Blast parameters
Predicted fragmentation

ROM SIZE
PRODUCT SIZE

DCS
CSS

Ball addition
Water

FEED SIZE

POWER
FEED RATE
LOAD
SPEED

Water
Feeder ratios
Ball addition
Feed rate
Speed

Mill models

Ore characterisation
Mill data
Feed size

FIGURE 1: MAIN VARIABLES INVOLVED IN THE INTEGARTION AND OPTIMISATION OF A TYPICAL

COMMINUTION PROCESS

IMPACT OF FRAGMENTATION
In most modern metalliferous operations, the ore undergoes at least three stages of breakage or
comminution:
Blasting to prepare the ore for excavation and transport
Crushing to improve its handling characteristics and to prepare the ore for grinding

Grinding which is usually undertaken in two stages (with semi/autogenous milling as the
primary operation)
Table 1 shows the general relationship between energy requirements and cost for the three stages
of comminution while Figure 2 shows the breakdown of operating costs for a typical open pit gold
mine.

TABLE 1: RELATIVE ENERGY AND COST OF COMMINUTION STAGES

Comminution
Stage

Specific Energy

Cost

Energy Factor

Cost Factor

(kWh/t)

($ per tonne ore)

(1 = Blasting)

(1 = Blasting)

0.1 to 0.25

0.1 to 0.25

Crushing

1 to 2

0.5 to 1.0

4 to 20x

2 to 10x

Grinding

10 to 20

2 to 5

40 to 200x

8 to 20x

11.1 to 22.25

2.6 to 6.25

Drill & Blast

Total

$0.10

$0.25

$1.00
$2.20

$1.75
$0.70
$0.40

$3.50

Drilling and blasting

Excavation and Hauling
Crushing
Ore conveying
Grinding
Flotation/concentration
Leach / Absorption
Tailing Disposal

Mining

Milling

FIGURE 2: BREAKDOWN OF OPERATING COST ($ PER TONNE) IN A TYPICAL OPEN PIT GOLD MINE
The energy requirements and operating costs above clearly suggest that drill and blast is the most
inexpensive form of energy to break rock, followed by crushing. In the Process Integration and
Optimisation (PIO) approach, this leverage is exploited and the amount of breakage achieved in
both blasting and crushing is maximised to relieve the mill of as much new breakage as possible.
In essence, the breakage is moved back in the production chain where the energy requirements
are lower and cheaper.

Figures 3 and 4 below illustrate the concept presented in Table 1. In Figure 3, the stages of
comminution are shown from left to right. The first stage of blasting reduces the in-situ block size of
2m (for example) down to the run-of-mine (ROM) fragmentation size of 500mm. This is followed by
crushing down to 150mm, and then grinding down to 100 or 75m. (Fine grinding can take this size
reduction down to as low as a few microns, but the economics of this are not considered here.)
Figure 3 shows that blasting reduces the in-situ block size significantly while crushing and grinding
require increasing amounts of energy (represented here in kWh/t) to produce a finer product. The
result is an exponential increase in the specific energy required to continue the size reduction
process.
original
rock mass

Crushing
(500mm to 150mm)

Grinding
(150mm to 75um)

Fine Grinding
(<75um)

Size Reduction

Blasting
(2m to 500mm)

range of size reduction

vs. energy

Cumulative Specific Energy (kWh/t)

FIGURE 3: SCHEMATIC OF COMMINUTION STAGE SIZE VS. ENERGY CONSUMPTION

original
rock mass

Grinding
(150mm to 75um)

range of cost
vs. energy

Fine Grinding
(<75um)

Cumulative $/tonne

Crushing
(500mm to 150mm)

Size Reduction

Blasting
(2m to 500mm)

range of size reduction

vs. energy

Cumulative Specific Energy (kWh/t)

FIGURE 4: SCHEMATIC OF COMMINUTION STAGE SIZE & COST VS. ENERGY CONSUMPTION
The two lines in Figure 3 represent the range of size reduction/energy relationships that exist and
are dependent on the material properties. Figure 4 includes the increasing cost per tonne
associated with finer comminution stages. The cost per tonne to reduce material down to crusher
feed size by blasting is relatively low, but once again builds exponentially as the particle size
becomes smaller. The cost curves are far more variable due to the combination of fixed and
operating costs.
In order to maximise the benefit of this relatively low-cost, more efficient comminution stage, drill
and blast designs are modified to reduce the top size and increase fines in ROM ore fragmentation
(Figure 5). A reduction in top size will improve the ease of excavation and transport within the
mine, and also allows the primary crusher gap to be reduced, generating material that needs less
breakage in the mill. With a reduced top size, the crusher can be choke fed without the risk of
blockages as this promotes more inter-particle breakage and produces more fines. The increase in
the proportion of fines (defined here as material smaller than the grate size of the mill) should pass
freely through the mill and require no further breakage.

FIGURE 5: CHANGES IN SIZE DISTRIBUTION SOUGHT THROUGH BLASTING

POSSIBLE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF HIGHER ENERGY BLASTING

Impact of Blast Movement
Some movement is inevitable during the blasting process. The direction and the magnitude of the
movement dictates the muckpile shape and its looseness or diggability. The most appropriate
muckpile shape for a particular operation depends on several factors, such as the available
working area, the characteristics of the excavation equipment, and grade control and dilution.
The quality of the muckpile shape depends on how well it suits the available working area,
equipment and operating method employed. For a front-end loader, a shallow and more spread-out
muckpile is more desirable whereas for a rope shovel is the ideal working face should be high
(within the working reach of the bucket) and steep so that material rills readily to the machine when
disturbed by the raking bucket. Hydraulic excavators (particularly diesel powered units) are more
mobile than rope shovels but are most productive when working a steep face of intermediate
height.
During a blast the rock within the blast volume is fractured and moves. The direction and
magnitude of this movement depends on several factors such as: bench geometry, characteristics
of free face/s, initiation pattern, delay timing and energy distribution. Traditional grade control
procedures do not take into account the post-blast induced movements and the ore and waste are

excavated based on pre-blast markings. This can result in significant dilution and ore loss (Figure
6).

Ore
Ore
Waste

Pre - blast

Waste

Post - blast
Figure 6: Dilution and Ore Loss Due to Blast Movement

In order to reduce the risk of dilution and ore loss, many open pit gold mines conduct their
production blasts with low powder factors and choked conditions to reduce any lateral movement
during blasting. Such an approach is believed to reduce the blast-induced movements, but can
have significant impact on fragmentation and muckpile looseness, thus affecting the efficiency of
downstream operations. More importantly, this approach does not address the fundamental cause
of dilution: is it blast movement, or a lack of understanding of blast movement that is the root of
dilution and ore loss?
In the Process Integration and Optimisation approach, the risk of ore loss and dilution is minimised
without compromising the quality of fragmentation. This is achieved by:
measuring the direction and the extent of movements within a blast,
adjusting the post blast ore-waste boundaries based on these measurements, and
understanding the mechanisms of blast movement and modifying the blast designs to
minimise any adverse ore body movements within the blast.
Some open pit mines, especially gold mines where dilution control is critical use poly pipes,
coloured stemming, electronic Blast Movement Markers that are located post blast and marker
bags to track blast movement. Recently some operations have been trialing radio frequency tags to
track blast movement (La Rosa et al, APCOM 2007). Even though some of these techniques have
given a better insight into this complicated problem, they have not been routinely adopted by the
mining industry.
The impact of ore loss and dilution on the overall profitability of a mining operation can be
significant, especially for gold mining operations. Taylor et. al. (1996) reported that dilution levels

could be reduced significantly with proper blasting procedures as well as by accounting for blastinduced movements when implementing ore control.

Impact of Blast Damage

Some damage to the rock mass is inevitable during the blasting process but the incentive to limit
this damage is significant. Often the back break caused by the blast loosens and partially dislodges
in situ blocks. When the explosive in this region detonates, these pre-conditioned blocks form
oversize blocks. In such cases, blasts should be designed to minimise back break.
Conventional thinking is to expect a more intense, energetic blast to cause greater damage than a
conventional blast. In the Process Integration and Optimisation approach, wall damage risk is
managed without compromising the quality of ROM fragmentation. This requires an understanding
of the damage mechanisms appropriate to the design and materials involved, and an appropriate
criterion for limiting damage at the boundaries of the blast. For example, it is possible to design a
blast that contains an energetic core within a softer boundary zone around the blast. This softer
boundary zone is similar to designing a dynamic limit blast at the edge of the production blast
(Scott et al 1999).

IMPACT OF FINER FRAGMENTATION ON CRUSHING & GRINDING

Crushing and grinding equipment are typically set-up and operated in expectation for the worst (i.e.
coarsest) feed possible and there is considerable inefficiency built into operating in this manner.
For example, a primary crusher will operate with a relatively large gap or closed-side-setting in
anticipation of the largest boulder that may be dumped out of a truck. Grinding circuits routinely
operate with larger grinding media sizes than they should just in case coarse material enters the
circuit. Unfortunately this results incrushing or grinding the bulk of the material less less efficiently
than it should be.
There are considerable advantages to operating a crushing and grinding circuit with a finer and
more consistent feed. Adjustments can be made to the operating conditions to focus on finer
material and at the same specific energy (kWh/t), to achieve a higher throughput or lower power
draw (or both) see Figure 7. When crushers and mills are fed a wide range of feed sizes, the task
required of them becomes considerably more complicated and challenging. Ultimately,
comminution equipment operate best when faced with a narrow range of feed.

2400

11

10

2200

8
2000
7

Specific Power (kWh/t)

Throughput (tph)

6
1800

Throughput
Specific Power Consumption

1600
60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

SAG Feed Size F80 (mm)

FIGURE 7: EXAMPLE OF EFFECT OF SAG FEED SIZE F80 ON THROUGHPUT AND SPECIFIC POWER

EXAMPLE OF PROCESS INTEGRATION AND OPTIMISATION: GOLD MINE OPERATION

This example is taken from an open pit gold mine where the ore is subjected to blasting, crushing
and grinding, flotation and leaching (Grundstrom et al 2001). The strategy in this example was to
increase the SAG mill throughput, identified as a bottleneck, by modifying the ROM fragmentation
with as many fines (<10mm) as possible, along with a reduction in top size. The blast design was
modified by reducing the hole burden and spacing and increasing the energy level. A comparison
of blast designs, fragmentation and mil throughput is shown in Table 2.
The high-energy blast increased mill throughput by 14% compared to the current practice. The
main reasons for this increase in mill throughput are:
additional fines (-10mm) in the ROM generated by the new designs and
reduced closed-side-setting and choke feeding of the primary crusher.

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TABLE 2: COMPARISON OF BLAST DESIGNS AND RESULTING MILL THROUGHPUT

Current

Mine-to-Mill Design % Change

Hole Diameter, mm

200

229

Bench Height, m

10

10

Burden, m

5.3

4.5

Spacing, m

6.3

5.5

Hole Depth, m

10.6

10.5

Column Height, m

5.3

5.3

Stemming Height, m

5.3

5.2

Subdrill, m

0.6

0.5

Powder Factor, kg/tonne

0.24

0.4

65%

D&B Cost, $/tonne

0.18

0.29

61%

Top Size, m

1.5

% Oversize (+600mm)

6%

1%

% Fines (-10mm)

9%

15%

Mill Throughput, tph

673

767

Fragmentation

14%

In order to demonstrate the economic incentives not clearly shown in Table 2, costs were applied
to each of the processes involved and a number of scenarios were compared in terms of their
effect on operating profit or the bottom line. Before discussing the simulation results, a few
definitions should be described:
Profit per tonne of broken ore is the difference between the price it commands and the costs to
produce it and can be estimated as:
Profit = Revenue Operating Cost Fixed Cost
Where:
Revenue = Unit Value x Throughput
Unit value = (Grade x Recovery x Unit Price) / (1 + Dilution)
Operating Cost = Unit Operating Cost x Throughput
Unit Operating Cost = Unit Cost of (Drilling + Blasting + Loading + Hauling + Crushing +
Grinding + Liberation)
Fixed Cost = Cost of Capital and Overheads

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The financial simulations are summarised in Table 3 below and used indicative costs with the
following assumptions:

The grinding circuit was the bottleneck in this operation.

The finer ROM from the mine to mill blast was expected to improve the diggability,
excavator maintenance and reduce the loading and hauling costs by 2% (ie. from current
$0.85/tonne to $0.83/tonne)

No additional capital expenditure or overheads was required for the additional throughput

The ratio of fixed plus overhead cost to variable operating costs was assumed as 50:50

The head grade was 3g/t and the price of gold was $US600 per ounce

Annual figures were estimated based on 85% mill availability

Current dilution was 10%

Financial simulations were conducted for three different scenarios:

1. Mine-to-Mill style blasts with no change the dilution level

2. Without additional grade control procedures, modified designs increased dilution by
20% (ie. from 10% to 12%)

3. Additional grade control procedures doubled the grade control costs but reduced
dilution by 10% from the current levels (ie. from 10% to 9%)
The financial simulations illustrate that the simple cost minimisation approach to minimise the cost
of each sub process may not result in an optimal solution for the total operation. The profitability of
an operation can be improved by doing more breakage during blasting and crushing but the simple
Mine-to-Mill approach of increasing blasting intensity may not improve the profitability. For
example, higher blast energies will increase the mill throughput but the benefits are lost if the blast
energy is not controlled and results in increased dilution levels and wall damage. However, with a
better understanding, proper measurements and controls, even if these impose additional costs,
the profitability can be further increased. Therefore, the Process Integration and Optimisation
approach requires a thorough understanding of all the sub-processes and their interactions with
each other, in order to optimise the entire process.
The traditional optimisation approach does not offer incentives for any sub-process to increase its
cost in order to improve the overall profitability. A holistic approach is necessary, wherein each
sub-process is optimised by carefully understanding its impact on all downstream process and the
overall profitability.

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Table 3: Illustration of Process Integration Approach on Overall Profitability

Current
Design
Item

Drilling and Blasting ($/t)

Excavation and Hauling ($/t)
Grade Control ($/t)
Total Mining
Crushing ($/t)
Ore Conveying ($/t)
Grinding ($/t)
Total Crushing and Grinding
Throughput (tph)
% Increase
Total operating ($/t)
Fixed + overheads ($/t)
Total Overall
Dilution
Average Grade (g/t)
Recovery (%)
Gold recovered (g/t)
Total cost ($/g)
Unit Price ($/g (@$600/oz)
Revenue ($/t of ore)
Profitability ($/t of ore)
Added Profit ($ per annum)

$0.18
$0.85
$0.20
$1.23
$0.20
$0.40
$2.20
$2.80
673
$4.03
$4.03
$8.06
10%
3.0
80%
2.18
$3.69
$19.29
$42.09
$34.03

Mine-to-Mill Design
No Change in
Dilution

Increase in
Dilution

Additional Grade
Control & Reduced
Dilution

$0.29
$0.83
$0.20
$1.32
$0.18
$0.40
$1.93
$2.51
767
14%
$3.83
3.54
7.36
10%
3.0
80%
2.18
$3.37
19.29
42.09
34.73
$3,979,761

$0.29
$0.83
$0.20
$1.32
$0.18
$0.40
$1.93
$2.51
767
14%
$3.83
3.54
7.36
12%
3.0
80%
2.14
$3.44
19.29
41.34
33.98
$314,261

$0.29
$0.83
$0.40
$1.52
$0.18
$0.40
$1.93
$2.51
767
14%
$4.03
3.54
7.56
9%
3.0
80%
2.20
$3.44
19.29
42.48
34.92
$5,043,321

CONCLUSIONS
Over the past decade, successful Integration and Optimisation of mining operations around the
world have demonstrated the value inherent in mine and concentrator personnel working together
and utilising proper methodology to reduce the overall cost and improve performance to achieve
higher profitability. By considering the downstream effects of product quality, such as ROM
fragmentation, it is possible to improve overall efficiency without any increase in capital or overall
operating costs.
These benefits are derived from better understanding of the inputs to the process, the relationships
between each operation and their impact on overall costs and performance.
An increasing number of operations have realised significant benefits by working more
cooperatively with a common goal of improving overall operational efficiency.

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