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By Jean-François Dorion

La corrosivité des environnements miniers souterrains est un phénomène peu étudié au Canada. En plus de détériorer les systèmes de soutènement, la corrosion s?attaque aussi à divers installations et équipements souterrains. Cette étude, débutée en janvier 2007, est l?établissement d?une banque de données afin de caractériser les environnements miniers souterrains selon leur potentiel de corrosivité pour les systèmes de support de terrains. Pour ce faire, cinq (5) mines ont été sélectionnées afin de comparer les environnements : Laronde, Géant-Dormant, Niobec, Mouska et Doyon. À chacune des mines, trois (3) endroits ont été étudiés. Les résultats préliminaires démontrent une grande variabilité des conditions d?une mine à l?autre ainsi qu?à l?intérieur même d?une mine. La minéralogie des roches et du gisement influence la composition des eaux souterraines et la présence des sulfures joue un rôle important sur l?agressivité de l?eau et de l?air des mines de l?étude. Afin de déterminer le potentiel de corrosivité, plusieurs paramètres doivent être considérés et la mine doit être zonée selon l?agressivité des endroits.

Feb 1, 2008

By J. Kazakoff

"The success of gold recovery at the Jolu gold mill depends on many variables. The most important ones are the people, the ore body, plant design parameters, equipment selection and cost control. This paper will briefly hiqhlight the above, the main focus, however will be on the gravity gold circuit.The gravity circuit requires judicious operator attention in order to operate properly. In return the circuit gives immediate visual results for mill peopleIntroductionThe development of the Jolu property to the production stage was carried out quickly, efficiently and economically. The property became a gold producer ahead of schedule and under budget.The Jolu property is a joint venture between International Mahogany Corp., a 70% partner, and Corona Corporation, a 30% partner. Corona Corporation operates the Jolu Gold Mine, located 140 kilometers north of LaRonge and 520 kilometers north of Saskatoon."

Jan 1, 1990

By J. T. Furey

"A pilot plant study was conducted to evaluate the performance of column flotation in the recovery of gold from a gold/tellurides bearing sulphide ore, and to compare the performance of column flotation to conventional ""mechanically agitated"" flotation.Tests were conducted in a 60 liter glass column with ground flotation feed split from a concurrently operating conventional pilot plant, thus permitting direct comparison between the two processes. During the test program, the effects of wash water rate, gas holdup, froth depth, residence time and flow bias were examined in detail.The ore had an average ""as tested"" feed grade of about 5 g/t gold and 1 % sulphur, with the gold occurring primarily as inclusions of montbragite (Au2Te3) in pyrite, with minor amounts of native gold. Conventional flotation using 60 minutes residence time across four roughing stages recovered about 97% of the gold into concentrates grading about 50 g/t Au. A single stage of column flotation roughing using 25 minutes residence time matched the conventional circuit recovery of 97%, but produced grades of+ 150 g/t Au. INTRODUCTIONColumn flotation is the most significant innovation that has occurred in the mineral processing industry in recent years and has become an important alternative to mechanical flotation. Column flotation has been most widely accepted and applied in cleaning service where it has frequently proven to be superior to mechanically agitated flotation. Roughing in columns has not been ignored, but early testing indicated that columns may not be capable of achieving adequate recovery and, to date, columns have not been seen as serious competitors for mechanical roughers."

Jan 1, 1990

By Rob Morrison, Peter Cameron

"Many products and technologies have been developed from outcomes of research projects carried out by the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC). When these products and technologies are applied to the design and optimisation of blasting, comminution and separation, improvements in profitability can be realised.In 1970 Alban Lynch promoted two practical ideas to improve plant operations:• Ore and equipment properties can be separated allowing experience with one type of ore or equipment to be transferred to other types of ore and equipment. If this experience was encapsulated in a mathematical model, then these properties could be combined and used to simulate (ie. to design and to optimise) complete mineral processing circuits.• Many problems associated with scale-up from laboratory to industrial equipment could be eliminated by experimental work on full-scale equipment in the plant.Many JKMRC research projects have focussed on the development of models of unit operations in mineral processing and their application to process simulation.Models of comminution and classification developed at the JKMRC have been used since the early 1980's. Ore characterisation techniques developed to support these models are licensed world wide through JKTech. The application of comminution modelling techniques to blasting, which optimises the process feed size distribution is used in Mine-to-Mill® projects. The advances in the understanding and modelling of froth flotation over recent years have provided the opportunity for integrated ore characterisation and process optimisation from resource to product.JKMRC project outcomes often provide proven opportunities for the mineral industry to improve performance and productivity. JKTech was established in 1986 to commercialise and market the most promising outcomes and thus ensure their continuing availability to the mineral industry.They include:• Commercial software (JKSimMet, JKSimBlast and JKMetAccount).• Monographs (Comminution and Blasting).• Technologies (Mine-to-Mill® and flotation optimisation).• Hardware products (JKFrothCam, JKJetLift® and the Mineral Liberation Analyser).This paper summarises these technologies and their benefits."

Jan 1, 2003

By H. A. Steane

"This presentation will cover some crushing and grinding considerations in plant design and operation. There is nothing basically new in the subject matter presented here; however, the viewpoint and interpretation may be novel and some of it controversial.The presentation is based on experience gained in the metallurgical design of plants for Placer Development Limited from 1960 to the present. The plants are listed on SLIDE No. 1.These plants have conventional crushing, followed by rod mill and ball mill grinding. I would like to think that autogenous grinding plants are the answer for eliminating secondary crushing plants and reducing the capital and operating costs; however, the autogenous plants seem to have some problems of their own and I have had no experience with them.Fineness of Grinding RequiredFirst let us consider the fineness of grinding required.The fineness of grind will affect the recovery obtained, and the relationship must be determined. If the grinding is too coarse, some of the valuable mineral, either free or locked in middling grains, will not be floated. However, as grinding is probably the greatest single operating cost, we do not want to grind any finer than is justified economically.Finer grinding should not be carried beyond the point where the net smelter return for the increment saved becomes less than the added operating cost. Even this fineness will be beyond the economic limit because of the additional capital cost for the equipment needed to achieve it. These factors will be discussed in more detail later.The Bond work index is the commonest method of expressing a measure of the effort that has to be expended in grinding. It is the kilowatt-hours required to reduce a ton of rock from an infinite size to 80% passing 100 microns. The formula allows a calculation to be made for other size ranges."

Jan 1, 1976

By Augustine O. Orumwense, Micheline Boisclair

"The use of stirred mill to complement tumbling mills in grinding fine grained minerals is increasingly becoming an attractive processing option. Parameters such as agitation speed, grinding media type and size, feed pulp density, and grinding time were studied in order to elucidate their impact on stirred milling. Test results showed that the parameters have a profound effect on stirred mill efficiency and operating cost. A comparative test with a tumbling ball mill was also made and the specific energies of both mills in fine grinding were analyzed. A difference of over 40% in energy savings particularly when the product size is smaller than 20 µm was obtained with the stirred mill.INTRODUCTIONIn industrial processes where very fine and ultrafine particles are required such as in chemical, ink, food, paint and lacquer, pulp and paper, plastics, pharmaceutical, metallurgical and ceramic industries, the use of stirred mills for grinding is well established. Mineral processing plants are gradually shifting focus to the use of stirred mills for fine grinding and /or regrinding purposes as the target liberation size gets very small. A number of plants processing finely/sparsely disseminated ores are known to have adopted stirred milling technology for their fine grinding needs (Enderle et al., 1997; Harbort et al., 1999; Gao et al., 2000; Davey, 2003 & 2006; Pease et al., 2006).There are different kinds/designs of stirred mills available on the market but, all can be divided into two sub groups namely fluidized and non-fluidized types. The non-fluidized stirred mills consist of Tower mill, Vertimill, Sala agitated mill (SAM), and ANI-Metprotech (SVM). These mills are characterized by their low-speed and the use of fairly coarse grinding media size, 3 – 20 mm. Hence, they are mostly suitable for relatively coarse grinding application. The fluidized type includes the Isamill, Netzsch mill and Stirred mill detritor (SMD). These mills have a characteristic high agitator speed, use fine grinding media size of 0.5 – 5 mm, and are employed in very fine grinding operations. The superior fine grinding capability of stirred mills is attributable to two main process parameters, which are the use of fine grinding media and a high mill speed."

Jan 1, 2008

By L. Telfer

Summary During Palaeozoic time, there were deposited in the Canadian Rockies four beds of phosphate rock, ranging in age from Mississippian to Jurassic. Two of these beds are of probable economic importance if some means of separating the phosphate from the gangue can be devised. All the more important beds of phosphate rock so far discovered are just behind the front ranges of the Rocky mountains, within fifty miles of the prairie lands of Alberta. Mining conditions are favourable, with an abundance of timber and ample power available. The phosphate beds are all of the sedimentary type, and they all occur, apparently, at the same stratigraphic horizons over a wide area. The conditions necessary for deposition evidently occurred at several different periods in geological time, and were widespread. The most important factor appears to have been the condition of the land surface surrounding the basin of de-position. Both oolitic and nodular phosphate were laid down under nearly similar conditions. Introduction Following the discovery of phosphate rock in Idaho and Montana, search was commenced in Canada to determine whether formations of similar age in the Canadian Rockies carried similar beds of phosphate. The most widespread search has been that undertaken by the mines department of the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada. The following paper will discuss some of the results of this exploration.

Jan 1, 1933

By David Weiss

There is significant interest in magnesium alloy castings because of their low density and high strength-to-weight ratio. Lightweight, structural materials are in demand for aerospace components, hand tools, electronics enclosures and have found increased use in automobiles. Increased use of magnesium will depend on the resolution of a number of materials issues and development of more robust and economical casting processes. Most magnesium components are produced via high-pressure die-casting. High levels of porosity generally prevent die-castings from being used for structural applications. Structural castings are usually produced using sand casting, a relatively expensive casting process. Some work has been done on development of lower cost structural casting processes, such as lost foam casting, permanent mold casting or low-pressure casting. New programs are also emphasizing improvements to the die casting process. Research and cost reduction needs are discussed with respect to current programs and future components.

Jan 1, 2006

By T. Yalcin

"This paper describes the development of a mathematical model for determining the liberation of an ore at various grinding sizes, based on the combined results of microscopic counting, grinding tests, and chemical analysis.The method is illustrated with an application to the magnetite ore of Sherman Mine in Temagomi, Ontario. For this ore, a degree of liberation of 98.7% was determined at a grinding size of 90% passing 44 microns, which closely corresponds to the final grinding size employed at the Sherman Mine Concentrator.Introduction Liberation characteristic of ores have direct and significant bearing on overall economics of concentration processes.Target grades and recoveries can be achieved only it minerals are adequately liberated prior to separation. Degree of liberation depends on the extent of size reduction. However, due to the high costs associated with size reduction processes, it is important to keep size reductions within limits of satisfactory liberation. Prevention of excessive size reduction is also necessary because of inefficient mineral separations in very fine sizes. Hence, a study of reduction size — liberation relationship is essential for optimum profit from milling operations.A number of procedures have been developed for liberation studies (1-12), but there is lack of method for universal adoption.A new approach is presented in this paper that might provide a realistic estimate of liberation and give a practical guidance as to the degree of size reduction required for satisfactory liberation."

Jan 1, 1985

By D. M. Doyle

"A study of the various components contributing to energy costs and their relationships to generally trended operating data, such as tonnage, operating costs, etc. over progressively shorter time periods provides information for an energy audit. A study of annual data gives some insight into the importance of various energy components. As the time frame of the study 11rogresses through monthly, daily and finally, into quarter hourly data, the variations become more evident and most important, strategies develop to minimize energy costs. The results of an audit conducted during the summer of 1978 at Wesfrob Mines are reported to illustrate this important phase, prerequisite to a meaningful energy cost avoidance program.The balance of the paper deals with the energy conservation program at Falconbridge Nickel Mines Sudbury Operations, the material and control equipment, the commitment, the new energy accounting practices and lastly, the policies. Examples of successful energy conservation endeavors include automatic peal electrical load control, waste heat recovery from mine air and compressor cooling water, energy reductions resulting from lower building temperatures and curtailmen: of idling loads. The use of pulse meters to measure the flow of gas, steam, compressed air and electrical energy, with their signals interfaced to process computers, allows monthly, daily and if necessary, immediate reporting of energy and energy per unit of production information. The program so reported at Falconbridge’s Sudbury Operations is credited with an annual cost avoidance of .9 million dollars in a 14.0 million dollar annual energy account."

Jan 1, 1979

By Euler De Souza

The authors conducted a study of backfill practices in underground mines across Canada to assess the current state of backfill usage and to overview potential hazards associated with backfill practice, from preparation to transportation to placement. The primary aim of this study was to cover each component of a typical mine backfill system, and to identify potential incidents leading to the disruption of backfilling operations and any associated corrective actions. This paper, Part I of the study, deals with surface operations consisting of backfill material supply and backfill plant preparation. Part II of the study, which deals with underground operations consisting of backfill transportation and backfill placement, is also presented in these proceedings. A review of safety measures associated with current backfill operations and recommendations for procedures of best practice that should be implemented to reduce fill-related hazards in all mine backfill workplace environments are presented. In general it has been found that system failures normally lead only to minor losses to the operations.

May 1, 2009

By Tom Olsen, Tom Ohrling, Peter Taggart, Chris Martin

"North American Palladium commissioned the new concentrator at the Lac des Iles mine in the summer of 2001. The 15,000 tonnes per day mill replaced the existing 2,400 tonnes per day facility, as part of a major mine expansion.At Lac des Iles, the grain size distribution of the platinum group minerals (PGM) is bi-modal. Roughly two-thirds of the PGM are relatively coarse-grained, and often associated with fast floating copper and nickel sulphides. The remainder is ultra-fine, and locked in silicates, which poses a special challenge to the metallurgist. The previous mill typically recovered just the fast-floating mineralisation, but to achieve target recoveries, the new mill has to recover a substantial amount of the ultra-fine PGM. The metallurgical challenges associated with the recovery of fine-grained PGM in the talcous Lac des Iles ores, are described.The paper describes the approach used in circuit optimisation, and how metallurgical and operational optimisation raised palladium recoveries by more than 6% in six months, by tuning the circuit to recover some of the ultra-fine PGM mineralisation.BACKGROUNDThe Lac des Iles mine, owned and operated by North American Palladium Limited, is located about 115 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The mine originally opened in December 1993, and prior to 2001 included a mill capable of handling 2,400 tonnes per day of ore delivered from the nearby Roby pit.Following an intensive exploration programme conducted in 1999, and a detailed feasibility study, conducted in 2000, North American Palladium initiated a mine expansion project, the objective being to expand milling throughput from 2,400 tonnes per day to 15,000 tonnes per day. This required construction of an entirely new mill, which was commissioned in May 2001."

Jan 1, 2003

By A. J. Monhemius

"This paper reviews the history of modern iron-control processes in hydrometallurgy. Attention is paid to processes developed in the electrolytic zinc industry for removal of iron from zinc sulfate leach liquors and the problems faced by the industry in the safe disposal of the iron residues produced by these processes. Past lessons learned are projected onto current efforts to develop hydrometallurgical processes for treatment of copper sulfide concentrates. It is argued that any attempt to create a “hydrometallurgical copper smelter” will fail, unless methods are developed that can recover iron in a form that can be directly used by the steel or pigment industries.RÉSUMÉ Cet article passe en revue l’histoire des procédés modernes de contrôle du fer en hydrométallurgie. Il accordera une attention particulière aux procédés développés dans l’industrie du zinc électrolytique pour l’élimination du fer dans les liqueurs lixiviantes de sulfate de zinc anhydre, ainsi qu’aux problèmes rencontrés par l’industrie en termes d’élimination sans danger des résidus ferreux générés par ces procédés. En projetant les leçons tirées du passé sur les efforts actuels, on pourra développer des procédés hydrométallurgiques pour le traitement de concentrés de sulfure de cuivre. Beaucoup prétendent que toute tentative de créer une « fonderie de cuivre hydrométallurgique » échouera à moins de développer des méthodes permettant de récupérer le fer sous une forme pouvant directement être utilisée par les industries sidérurgique ou des pigmentsINTRODUCTIONThis paper resulted from an invitation to the author from the CIM’s Historical Metallurgy Committee to give a presentation on the early developments of iron control in hydrometallurgy. This was to take the form of a plenary lecture at the 4th Symposium on Iron Control in Hydrometallurgy, which formed part of the 28th International Mineral Processing Congress, held in Quebec City in September 2016.I was naturally flattered that the invitation was to give the lecture at an IMPC, the prestigious conference series that has been held since the 1950s. That this particular IMPC was to include the 4th Symposium on Iron Control in Hydrometallurgy, a conference series held only every 10 years, made the invitation even more appealing and appropriate. This was because I had been co-chairman of the First Symposium on Iron Control, together with my erstwhile colleague, John Dutrizac, which was held 30 years ago in Toronto."

Jan 1, 2017

By R. W. Lawrence

"In the past year, BioteQ Environmental Technologies Inc. have initiated design and construction of new plants to add to an existing list of plants that utilize the BioSulphide® and ChemSulphide™ process technologies for metal recovery and water treatment. In these plants, low cost biogenic sulfide or, in some cases, chemical sulfide reagent is used to selectively remove metals from contaminated water. The process produces high grade, marketable, metal sulfide products even from low grade feed solutions. The revenues generated from the sale of products can allow for water treatment at a profit in some cases, offset treatment costs in others, and generally reduce sludge disposal and management costs. The effluents produced from the process can meet stringent environmental standards. Current plants in operation and under construction range in sulphide demand from 50 kg/day to 3.7 tonnes/day, with the feasibility of larger plants with sulfide demands ranging from 6 to 43 tonnes/day under review.Biogenic sulfide reagent can also be considered for other applications in hydrometallurgy and mineral processing. Uses under consideration by a number of mining companies include: (1) replacement of sodium hydrosulphide in the SART process for cyanide regeneration and copper recovery in the processing of gold-copper ores, and (2) replacement of sodium hydrosulphide for use in the separation of copper and molybdenum in flotation. Biogenic sulphide, produced on demand at site, offers significant cost savings and provides the additional benefit of improved safety due to the elimination of the transportation, handling and storage required for chemical sulphide reagents.This paper reviews the applications of the BioSulphide® and ChemSulphide™ technologies for water treatment and metal recovery, and introduces projects where biogenic sulfide can be applied in hydrometallurgy and mineral processing."

Jan 1, 2007

By D. L. Putnam

Snap Lake Mine ?? Complex dyke ore body ?? Underground operation ?? 1.1 million tonnes per annum ?? 1.2 carats per tonne ?? On-site diesel power generation ?? Supply by ice road and air ?? Milestones ? Construction commenced in 2005 ? Commissioning 2007 ? First diamonds August 2007

May 1, 2008

By E. R. Packer

"The mill of Anaconda Britannia Mines is located on the eastern shore of Howe Sound, approximately 32 miles north of Vancouver, British Columbia. The mill has a daily capacity of 3400 to 3500 tons and at the present is treating chalcopyrite-pyrite ore from which only the copper mineral is concentrated. For a clear conception of concentrate filtering and shipping practice at Britannia perhaps a bit of past history should be related.For many years the mill concentrated copper and zinc minerals and intermittently a pyrite concentrate was produced. It was general practice to ship copper concentrate by towed barge down Howe Sound, across Juan de Fuca Strait and thence down Puget Sound to Asarco's smelter at Tacoma, Washington. Zinc concentrate was loaded in hopper bottom rail gondolas spotted on rail barges and towed to rail heads in Vancouver, thence by rail to Anaconda Reduction Works in Great Falls, Montana. Most of the pyrite produced was shipped by ocean freighters to Japan and Taiwan with an occasional barge load of 2000 to 4000 tons to nearby customers in Vancouver and the state of Washington.In recent years, because of smelter shut-downs for one reason or another, mostly strikes, a considerable amount of copper concentrates has been shipped by ocean freight to Japan and in 1971 several lots were loaded in gondola cars and shipped by rail to the Anaconda smelter in Anaconda, Montana, because Asarco's smelter was forced by municipal and state anti-pollution laws to limit the amount of S02 emission from the smelter stacks. Zinc concentrate production was halted in the early part of 1Y70 because of zinc depletion in the ores and pyrite production was stopped in May, 1971, because of a lack of markets.Filter equipment in the Britannia mill consists of conventional disc vacuum filters and reciprocating vacuum pumps. The copper concentrate filter was installed in 1923 as a 6 x 8'6"" American disc type manufactured by United Filter Corporation, The zinc concentrate filter, now converted as a spare for copper concentrates, is also a 6 x 8'611 American disc manufactured by Traylor Engineering and Manufacturing Company and was installed the same year. Formerly, there were, in addition, two 4 x 6' disc filters for pyrite and two 6 x 6' disc filters to de-water bulk flotation concentrates ahead of the regrind mills. Installed vacuum pumps were two Ingersoll Rand 22"" x 811 and one 22"" x 9"". One of the smaller machines has since been scrapped.At the time of the writer's transfer to Britannia in 1965, the entire filter system was operating as a unit using two vacuum pumps and a common filtrate tank with a 2"" SRL filtrate pump for five operating filters. The regrind and pyrite filters were in continuous operation and the co11p('r concentrate filter alternated with the zinc concentrate filter because both copper and zinc concentrates were transp0rted to storage by the same conveyor belt."

Jan 1, 1972

By L. J. Vincze

The high cost of constructing mineral processing plants in remote locations warrants a close examination of the alternatives available for reducing the amount of on-site construction work. Among the alternatives are portable process plants, modular design and barge mounted plants. Each alternative has certain advantages as well as limitations depending upon specific conditions. On the basis of practical experience and engineering analysis, the paper examines the potential benefits to be realized by these techniques and summarizes the conditions required to obtain them. The potential savings indicated by such studies should encourage consideration of innovative design features for new plants located in remote areas.

Jan 1, 1980

By Bjarne Ekberg

"The most economical way of dewatering mineral concentrates is to reduce the moisture content in the material mechanically using thickeners and filtration avoiding thermal drying whenever possible. In addition to this, the dewatering process should produce low moisture cake, high quality liquid, consume little energy. As a part of the dewatering process The CERAMEC® capillary filter has been proven to meet these requirements in over 150 installations. The filtration is done by using ceramic filter plates with small pore size. The capillary action in the filter medium secures gas free filtration at good vacuum, and due to the small pore size, filtrate is crystal clean and particle free. The energy consumption is minimal. This paper will discuss results from filters installed at Pyhäsalmi Mine Oy in Finland where the technology was has been used since the late eighties. Results from more recent installations like Los Pelambres in Chile and LKAB in Sweden will also be discussed.INTRODUCTIONThe idea of using capillary action to make dewatering more efficient was invented two decades ago. Ten years later whole filter plants utilizing the new method were delivered to mine concentrators for dewatering of mineral concentrates. Further development of ceramic membrane plates made it possible to meet the requirements in iron ore dewatering. In addition to low cake moisture, high capacity and low energy consumption, there are a lot of environmental advantages in using capillary filtration. One of them is clear filtrate.CAPILLARY FILTRATIONA micro-porous filter material behaves like a large number of narrow capillaries forming a network. When a pressure difference ?P is applied over the wetted, hydrophilic pore with the radius r, the force striving to push the water out of the pore will be ?Ppr2. The force striving to hold the water in the pore will be the vector force 2pr? cosa of the surface tension ? and the cosine contact angle a. Equalling those forces and solving the equation for ?P we get"

Jan 1, 2003

By Yum Xiaoquan, Turgut Yalcin

"A laboratory study was carried out to determine the potential role and effect of ultrasonic irradiation in the flotation of a Sudbury copper-nickel sulphide ore. The use of ultrasound was tested separately at the pulp preconditioning, collector conditioning and flotation stages. While no significant benefits were evident in the latter two cases, ultrasonic preconditioning of pulp improved the grade-recovery performance and had the prospect of reducing reagent consumption rates. Tests were conducted on both the normal and oxidized ore samples, and several variables were investigated, including ultrasound frequency (25 kHz and 45 kHz), ultrasonic power (up to 1.6 W/cm2), duration of ultrasonic treatment (up to 60 minutes), and the intensity of pulp agitation employed during the application of ultrasound. Ultrasound frequency of 25 kHz and duration of 15 minutes yielded satisfactory results. Changes were found to occur in the temperature, pH and Eh of the pulp during ultrasonic processing. The favorable effects of ultrasound observed in this study were attributed primarily to its surface cleaning capability.INTRODUCTIONThe use of ultrasound for the surface cleaning of objects is well known. Ore flotation is based essentially on the surface properties of minerals, and hence stands to benefit from ultrasonic treatment which may help restore mineral surface characteristics that might have been lost or modified through oxidation, etc. Expected outcomes of this method of treatment include improved flotation kinetics, higher recovery, better selectivity, and savings in reagent consumption, as has been demonstrated by various researchers (Aldrich and Feng 1999, Celik 1989, Ozkan 2002, Letmathe et al. 2002, Nicol et al. 1986)."

Jan 1, 2005

By Doug Smith, Ross MacFarlane

"The Star Lake Mill was commissioned by Cameco (formerly Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation) in 1986 to process a small high grade gold deposit in a remote location of Northern Saskatchewan. The lean approach to the 200 t. p. d. CIP mill to minimize capital and operating costs employs a number of unique features which are described along with highlights from the initial two years of operation.1.0 INTRODUCTIONThe Star Lake Mine is located 520 kilometers north of the City of Saskatoon (Fig. l) with the nearest population centre in La Ronge 130 km to the south. Gold showings were first discovered in the area in the 1940's with the Star Lake ""21 Zone"" ore body discovered in 1983. The Star Lake Mine started operations in 1986 becoming the first primary gold producer in Saskatchewan in over 40 years. The mine is operated by Cameco (formerly SMOC) with 50\ ownership in a joint venture with starrex Mining Corporation (35\) and Uranerz Exploration and Mining (15%).The limited reserves coupled with the remote location and the price of gold ($300-$350 u.s./oz) at the time the project feasibility was being assessed required a lean approach to make the short term operation successful. This paper describes the approach taken in the design and construction of the Star Lake Mill and describes the mill operation with highlights of the initial two years of operation."

Jan 1, 1989