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MINING SERVICES

It’s all in the

metallurgy

eading metallurgical outfit Independ- “This will have a
Lent Metallurgical Operations Pty Ltd positive impact on the
(IMO) felt the impact of the growing inter- final design of the full-
est in specialty metals in 2019 and the scale plant and com-
trend is set to continue in the year ahead. mercial production of
Alex Borger, general manager at IMO, HPA,” Hill said.
expects that continued technological ad- While the pilot plant
vances in smart phones, electric vehicles trial delivered what
and the like around the world will only FYI wanted, manag-
mean greater attention paid to the metals ing timings to suit
shaping the future. market expectations
“There’s been a definite demand in was a challenge,
work in the critical and more specialty Borger said.
metals – scandium, cobalt, high purity “Juniors are ex-
alumina, graphite and lithium – and there pected to complete
is always going to be a constant need to and announce pack-
serve the gold, copper and iron ore sec- ages of work within
tors; they are following the specialty met- six months. The mar-
als at the moment,” Borger told Paydirt. ket doesn’t like see-
“A lot of our work in 2019 was definitely ing a junior take 18 IMO senior metallurgist Alex Borger (right) with FYI managing
geared towards the specialities and was months to two years director Roland Hill at the pilot plant trial facility in Welshpool
at a larger scale across the board com- to produce an out-
pared with the past 12-24 months. Previ- come, so overcoming those expectations and design criteria which improves the
ously clients were coming in with a 30kg whilst still delivering a built-for-purpose level of confidence to construct a suc-
[sample] test but now it is more like 3-30t. pilot plant that generated positive results cessful pilot plant. Additionally, we are
Clients are starting to realise that metal- and specification product was a great also requesting clients to look at potential
lurgy in specialty minerals is key. It can achievement,” Borger said. by-products, be open minded about them
be what makes or breaks the project. Companies, particularly juniors, have and investigate what the potential is.”
Having cobalt, scandium and high purity little margin for error and long gone are Borger said IMO’s clients were heed-
alumina in the ground is one thing, being the days where a plant can be cut and ing such advice, however, the pressure
able to recover and refine them economi- copied from one project to another, a to perform and deliver to market expec-
cally into marketable products is com- more tailored approach to treating dif- tations continued for companies of all
pletely different.” ferent ore types is required. This is es- sizes.
One of the recent accomplishments pecially the case for specialty metals “It’s important that we talk timing and
celebrated by IMO and its client has which usually require the development of budgets before announcing to market
been the successful pilot plant trial for unique process flowsheets. what it is you are doing so that results
FYI Resources Ltd’s flowsheet design Therefore, Borger said, it was critical aren’t expected by the market in unreal-
using feedstock from its Cadoux kaolin to let the resource and metallurgical work istic timeframes,’ Borger said.
project in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt. guide plant designs. Geometallurgy is “Maintaining open communication
“The idea is always to test the process one of the major keys to developing ro- lines with biweekly or even daily updates
and not necessarily generate on-specifi- bust process flowsheets. is crucial so when issues do arise it is not
cation product initially. It often takes the “We have been guiding our clients a surprise. Everyone needs to be on the
second or third trials or more to generate towards pre-work as important; mak- same page, realistic expectations need
product as the initial run is primarily for ing sure batch testing is completely op- to be set so that the market is not guiding
testing the process flowsheet,” Borger timised and ore variability is understood schedules.
said. so you aren’t progressing from batch “Whilst investors want value for money,
The initial pilot plant trial produced out- testing immediately to a pilot plant. This our experience highlights the importance
standing results, with the plant achieving is critical for designing and operating a of ensuring that the project development
above the target grade of 99.99% HPA. closed-circuit test with recycle streams process is advanced properly to give
The optimised pilot plant material han- to be completed and analysed success- the best chance a profitable mine can
dling phase achieved 99.997% HPA. fully,” Borger said. be developed. Ultimately it’s about the
FYI managing director Roland Hill said “There may be certain delays with that long-term gains which require a mindset
the outcomes were a result of the efforts because closed-circuit testing can take change from exploration company mar-
made in planning and design and piloting 2-8 weeks depending on the complexity ket investors.”
itself and improvements and refinements of the process, but the information gener- – Mark Andrews
to the flowsheet. ated goes directly into the mass balance

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT FeBRUaRY 2020 Page 63