GRADE ENGINEERING
CRC ORE
“ One of the exciting things about Grade Engineering is that when people hear about it , they think that it ’ s what we can do with the mine that we have . But we ’ re also thinking outside the box by applying the techniques to very low-grade material to offset mine closure costs in advance with ‘ Waste Engineering ’. It gives you much more opportunity to think about other applications to Grade Engineering besides what it was originally intended for ”
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— Dave King , Operations Director , Sumitomo
to water is at a premium . Dr Adair highlights that Sumitomo has coupled its energy efforts with a substantial reduction in water consumption from external sources — from 30 % five years ago , down to just 19 % today . “ They ’ re now pushing towards a 90 % plus level in water recycling ” he says , “ all of it done by integrating existing technology , albeit in a novel and sophisticated way . Surely there is a message here for what can be achieved for the sector — the outcome of which is a more sustainable operation that actually makes more money !”
GRADE ENGINEERING
The Australian-born ingenuity of CRC ORE has been put to the test by Sumitomo during a successful fullscale production trial of Grade Engineering techniques at MSC . “ Sumitomo asked us a fundamental question ,” notes Adair . “ Is there any way to reduce the amount of barren material that you send into a process plant in the first place ?”
CRC ORE ’ s Grade Engineering solutions deploys a range of waste rejection technologies that integrate with a suite of separation technologies relevant to ore specific characteristics . This leads to a deeper understanding of the orebody , supporting the ability to exploit inherent ore deposit heterogeneity and variability . Describing
SUMMER / AUTUMN 2020