A First Order Geometallurgical Model for PGEs in a Chromite Ore

In the effort to become more sustainable the mining industry currently faces a number of important challenges. One important direction of change would be to achieve a more holistic use of mineral resources, i.e., by considering the efficient extraction and beneficiation of all possible valuable constituents – rather than only focusing on the major commodity. Thus, geometallurgical models need to be adapted accordingly. Instead of only centring on the efficient extraction and beneficiation of a single (economically most relevant) commodity, future geometallurgical models should be expanded to consider all potential products.
In the present contribution, a generic framework is proposed that can be applied to a large variety of different commodities; it is able to adapt to future data, predicts metallurgical parameters, e.g. the recoverability of an ore as probabilities, and can be extended to include environmental footprint calculations. Most of the parameters are derived from primary ore properties (e.g. rock or particle streams), e.g. modal mineralogy, mineral association, densities, etc., combined with a minimum of conventional test work. The work flow is demonstrated with a case study, in which the beneficiation potential of PGE as a by-product in an existing chromite mine in the Bushveld Complex of South Africa is considered. All available data were incorporated in a geological block model and interpreted to form geometallurgical domains of sufficient size to be considered during mine planning. The resultant predictive, spatially-resolved geometallurgical model displays the PGE processing potential in terms of probabilities and therefore incorporates uncertainty. The viability of the geometallurgical model relates well to the original geological architecture, is cost- and time-effective and highly versatile to form a foundation for further use and development during exploitation.