Communicating and integrating geometallurgical data along the mining value chain

Geometallurgy aids the understanding of ore body variability but has the most value if the data is easily available along the entire mining value chain. This requires cross-discipline communication and collaboration across traditional silos, and an organizational culture that encourages that to flourish. Data that are collected by the numerous groups (i.e. mining, geology, milling, processing, refining, smelting, marketing, environmental etc.) involved in the mining process may have relevance to other stakeholders; mineralogical and textural data for example has value to all these groups. Data required for modeling comminution or identifying acid potential from waste rock may already exist, however it needs to be made available to all the relevant stakeholders in the right format at the right time. As part of the GeM (AMIRA P843 & P843A) project the opportunity has been taken during the sponsor meetings, short courses, case studies etc. to ask the question: ‚What information do you want from further up the chain?? For example, to metallurgists ‚What information would you like from the geology group before the ore enters the mill?? The geology group may already have information important to mineral processing but not know it is of interest. This could, for example, be in the form of a geometallurgical drill core log that contains quantitative measured values. This paper focuses on the interaction between the mining, geology, mineral processing and environmental groups, using ore properties resulting from geological alteration to identify potential impacts throughout the mining process and discusses how a cross discipline approach can benefit all.