GREAT MINES Portugal

New projects at Neves

After our overview article on Lundin Minings operations in IM December, Paul Moore looks in detail at the newly expanded Neves Corvo zinc plant, plus future underground mining expansion plans focussed on the Lombador orebody

Aerial view of the Neves Corvo surface operations areas. Longhole ring drilling is planned in the zinc stopes, and drift-and-fill stoping will maintain mining practices as used in the existing operation. Mucking will be via conventional LHDs to stockpiles where front-end loaders will be used to load the material into trucks which will haul the material up the Lombador ramp to the 550 level materials handling system. Lombador will be ventilated using a combination of dedicated surface fresh air and exhaust shafts, and some air from the Neves and Corvo areas via the 550 level haulage. Dewatering will be direct to the surface using dirty water GEHO pumps. Mine services (water, backfill, power, communications etc) will be provided by extension of the existing facilities into Lombador.

he two most recent developments at the Lundin-owned Neves Corvo mine in Portugal are the Lombador Phase 1 mining project and a major expansion of the zinc plant to a 1 Mt/y capacity that has already been completed, with a further expansion to 2.5 Mt/y possible as a result of the Lombador development post 2013. In September 2011, Lundin Mining announced the results of the main feasibility study for the Lombador Phase I project, which is designed to exploit only the upper portions of the Lombador zinc/copper ore bodies. The conclusion was it can be developed as a profitable and value accretive extension to the Neves-Corvo mine. The following is a review of some of the technical aspects of implementing both of these major projects. The new zinc plant is expected to run at its full new capacity of 1 Mt/y in 2013 and 2014, ramping up from 0.5 Mt/y in 2011/2012. The production forecasts assume that the zinc plant will be used exclusively to process zinc ore over the next three years, although the plant has already been proven to have the flexibility to process either zinc or copper ores at the 1 Mt/y throughput rate.

Lombador Phase 1: background

Lombador Phase 1 will utilise the existing shaft and 550 level haulage systems to mine the more readily accessible upper part, above the 260 level, of Lombador South and small areas of Lombador North and East. Extraction of the Phase One reserves will occur from three lifts simultaneously, with average annual incremental zinc ore production of 0.8 Mt/y, and 0.3 Mt/y of copper ore. Production will be

truck hauled up an inclined ramp to the 550 level materials handling system, and then onwards to surface via the Santa Barbara shaft. The basis for the Lombador Phase One expansion from a mining perspective is the extraction of the Lombador South orebody, together with portions of the Lombador East and North orebodies. Maximum use is made of the mines existing extraction facilities and infrastructure. The first zinc ore production from the Lombador Phase One expansion is expected to occur in October 2013 from crosscut development, and full-scale production commences in late 2014. This schedule requires aggressive development of the main Lombador access ramp down to the base of Phase One at the 255 level. Three production panels are proposed commencing at the 260, 360 and 460 levels with mining progressing in an up-dip direction in each panel. The orebodies will be mined using a combination of optimised bench-and-fill (OBF) and drift-and-fill mining methods, with the OBF method being used in the massive sulphide zinc orebodies, and drift-and-fill mining in the stockwork copper ores. The OBF mining method is a bottom-up overhand mining method which involves a primary secondary sequence of extraction, with each stope being paste filled. Primary and secondary stope dimensions are 15 m wide and 20 m high. The mining areas will be accessed via a footwall ramp extending down from the 550 haulage level. Conventional drill and blast development, mucking and hauling, and rock support will be used in all Lombador mining

Deposit and current mining methods

The Lombador massive sulphide lens is the largest of the five currently identified lenses at Neves Corvo. It dips to the northeast at approximately 35 and has a shallow plunge to the northwest. The massive sulphide lens has dimensions of up to 150 m in thickness, approximately 1,100m down dip and at least 1,600 m along strike. Within this huge massive pyrite lens are several zones of higher grade zinc, copper and copper + zinc mineralisation. These are described as the Lombador East (LE) and Lombador South (LS) deposits (with associated copper rich stockwork zones), and the Lombador North (LN) area. The Lombador South and East deposits comprise two high grade zinc copper zones enclosed within the much larger massive sulphide lens. The two

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deposits are separated by approximately 150 m of barren pyrite. A copper-rich stockwork zone in the footwall to the massive sulphide lens trends across this barren zone to connect the two deposits. Of the currently defined zinc reserves at Neves Corvo over 47% are located in Lombador and they are noticeable for having a significantly higher zinc grade. Lombador contains almost 52% of the contained zinc metal of the total zinc reserves at Neves Corvo. The copper reserves in Lombador, whilst important, only currently represents 17% of the total copper reserve and, with lower than average grades, only 13% of the contained copper metal. Mining at Neves Corvo over its 20 year life has been dominated by two primary mining methods, Drift-and-Fill and Bench-and-Fill, which have proved highly successful in the large but locally complex high grade ores. In the current operations two additional methods are employed; mini bench-and-fill, and sill pillar mining. Drift and fill was the original mining method selected for Neves Corvo. Although the method has relatively low productivity rates and ramp with footwall access drives driven along the orebody strike at 20m vertical intervals. Access crosscuts are driven down into the orebody and a horizontal slice is mined using drifts developed either longitudinally or transversely in sequence. Standard drift dimensions are 5 m x 5 m. Following completion of a drift it is tight backfilled with hydraulic sand fill before the drift alongside is mined. When a complete 5 m high orebody slice is mined and filled, the back of the access drive is slashed down and mining recommences on the level above. Conventional electro-hydraulic development drill rigs and diesel powered loadhaul-dump units, hauling to ore passes in the footwall drives, are employed. Support is generally provided by Swellex friction rock bolts installed on a regular pattern. Drift and fill is generally applied to areas of the mine with a mining thickness of less than 10 m and has become the prevalent mining method at Neves Corvo as the thicker parts of the orebodies that are more suitable for bench and fill mining have become exhausted. The bench and fill mining method has long

The bench and fill mining method has long been used at Neves Corvo in areas where the mineralisation is of sufficient thickness and continuity high unit costs, it was chosen because it is highly flexible and can achieve high recovery rates in high grade orebodies with complex and flat dipping geometry. The initial copper reserves at Neves Corvo, largely in the Graa and Upper Corvo orebodies, averaged in excess of 8% Cu, and it was important to select a method that extracted all of this high grade mineralisation. Drift and fill stopes at Neves Corvo are normally accessed from a footwall

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been used at Neves Corvo in areas where the mineralisation is of sufficient thickness and continuity. The method is significantly more productive and has lower operating costs than drift and fill mining. The method is generally applied in areas of the orebodies greater than 20 m in thickness. Bench and fill stopes are again accessed from a footwall ramp with a footwall drives driven along strike in waste at 20 m vertical intervals. Upper and lower access crosscuts are driven across the orebody to the hanging wall contact. The top access is normally opened up to the full 12 m stope width and appropriate support installed. A slot raise is opened at the hanging wall end of the stope and is then enlarged to a full stope width slot. Vertical rings of large diameter drill holes are then drilled and blasted on retreat to the footwall. Loading of the broken ore takes place from the lower access using remote-controlled LHDs. Bench and fill stopes have been mined up to 120 m long, but are more typically broken in to 30 to 40 m across-dip lengths. The stopes are normally mined in an up-dip primary secondary sequence. Primary stopes are normally filled with cemented paste fill and then tight filled with hydraulic sand fill. Secondary stopes are filled with either waste rock or low cement paste fill and then also tight filled with hydraulic sand fill. Mini bench and fill is a hybrid method providing greater productivity than conventional drift and fill where orebody thicknesses are between 10 and 15 m. Accesses are again developed in the footwall via ramps and footwall drives. In mini bench and fill, drilling and mucking take place on different horizons but on a smaller scale than full bench and fill with crosscuts 5 to 10 m apart vertically. A sill pillar mining method was also developed at Neves Corvo to extract ore remaining in the sill pillars, typically 20 m thick, created between up-dip mining panels. Again, from the footwall access a central crosscut is developed through the orebody to the hanging wall and is heavily supported with cable bolts, pattern rockbolting and shotcrete. A hanging wall access is then driven along the strike of orebody outside the overlying backfill, and from this drive crosscutting drifts were developed to the footwall contact. A final 8m thick slice beneath the overlying backfill is mined in two stages - a normal 5m high drift is developed in advance, and then the final 3 m is blasted down from the back in retreat. Backfilling is undertaken using cemented rock fill placed with a slinger truck to achieve as tight fill as possible. Successive crosscutting drifts are mined back to the central access drive. The method has proven successful in achieving circa 95% extraction of the high grade sill pillars.

The OBF approach

The OBF mining method is a bottom-up method utilising transverse stopes accessed from footwall ramps and crosscuts. It involves the initial extraction of primary stopes followed by the extraction of secondary stopes formed between the previously mined and paste filled primary stopes. Primary and secondary stopes will be 15 m wide by 20 m high and will vary in length depending on the width of the orebody. The primary and secondary stope extraction is completed before production starts on the next level above. The first step involves drilling and mucking crosscuts of the primary stopes for the first mining level . Initially the drilling and mucking drifts of the primary stopes will be mined from the footwall to the hanging wall; the crosscuts will be 5 m by 5 m. After the mining of the drilling and mucking drifts, the following sequence applies: Specific diamond drilling will be required from the end of the ore crosscuts to determine the position and nature of the hanging wall shales contact. This is required in order to finalise hanging wall wedge drill and blast designs, and cable bolting Once the design is finalised, the last 8 m of the mucking crosscut next to the hanging wall contact will be enlarged to the full stope width (15 m) and supported

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Schematic showing the concentration of zinc mineralisation in the Lombador orebody

The roof of the enlarged area will be drilled with up holes and blasted, creating the initial void for the blasting of the hanging wall wedge Lastly, inclined holes will be drilled down from the drilling crosscut, and the hanging wall wedge will be blasted sequentially into the void. If difficulties are encountered with opening up, an alternative of pulling a slot through may also be utilised. The 5x5m drilling crosscuts are not enlarged as they are in the bench and fill mining currently used in other parts of Neves Corvo. Following extraction of the hangingwall wedge, the remainder of the stope will be extracted using downhole rings, blasted and mucked in groups of three rings. Primary stopes will be backfilled using paste fill (with 5% cement). Filling will normally be up to the floor of the upper drill drift, but the option is also available to fill this drift partially or fully (and mine back through the fill at a later date), if this would assist in minimising adverse ground behaviour before development of the secondary stopes commences. Following the filling of the primary stopes the drilling and mucking crosscuts for the secondary stopes are mined. Extraction of the secondary stopes then proceeds with hangingwall wedge blasting, using the same drilling layout and sequence as used for the primary stopes. Extraction of the remainder of the secondary stopes then proceeds, as for the primary stopes. A review of the hoisting capacity of the Santa Barbara shaft was completed by Stantec Engineering during the Feasibility Study. The annual hoisting capacity for the existing plant (at baseline) is estimated at 4.5 Mtpa, or 12,900 tonnes per day (tpd), at 350 working days per annum. The PFS considered the use of conveyor and truck haulage options for the transportation of material from Lombador to the 550 level crusher. It is worth noting that despite the overall depth of Phase One (from 700 to 900m below surface) it is only, at its maximum, 300 vertical metres from the existing conveyor extraction facility on the 550 level. This work demonstrated that the

development time necessary for an inclined conveyor would result in a production start-up date posterior to the next forecast high zinc price cycle, hence ramp haulage was the preferred alternative.

alternative locations for end-of-shift parking (in the orebody, or at the crusher). An important consideration as the work evolved became the number of trucks operating simultaneously on the ramp at any point in time, as a consequence of possible ventilation restrictions, and results were in part evaluated to minimise this. The simulation demonstrated that a truck haulage system in the Lombador ramp can meet the required production capacity under a variety of conditions. It also allowed the potential benefit of different management and control systems to be evaluated.

Truck haulage considerations

The feasibility study also sought to further the understanding of two issues regarding Lombador truck haulage. AMEC were engaged to determine the production potential of the truck haulage system using a discrete event simulation model. Rockwell Automation's Arena simulation software was used with input and output interfaces developed in Excel. The modelling was split into three stages, progressively expanding the components explicitly modelled from the Lombador ramp only, to include the 550 level in detail, and then to extend the whole model to the surface stockpiles. The model simulated haulage of ROM material from the loading bays on each Lombador production level to the 550 crusher. Front-end loaders (FELs) were assigned to loading points according to production ratios of each location. It was assumed that the loading bay was filled to its maximum capacity when the loader arrived and that only one FEL could operate at a loading bay. Haul trucks were dispatched to the active loading bays until all the material had been hauled to the crusher. When the loading bay was emptied, the FEL moved to another loading bay. While in transit, the FEL was unavailable, in that haul trucks were not sent to the FELs' destination location. Traffic congestion on the Lombador Ramp from haul trucks and auxiliary vehicles was also included. Since the ramp is a single access, vehicles travelling in opposing directions used passing bays and sublevel take-offs for passing. A complex series of factors were considered in the analyses, including spacings of passing bays, allowing tailgating of traffic, different shift rosters, the number of other (non-truck) vehicles, the impact of increased copper production from Lombador North, whether a traffic management system assisted, priority to loaded trucks, the number of FELs, and

Equipment selection
Consultants AMC were engaged in the feasibility study to undertake a comprehensive equipment selection process, and develop an equipment replacement schedule. This included capital and operating cost estimates to a feasibility standard. Annual productivities for the primary mining equipment were calculated from first principles. Annual productivity rates for cablebolt drilling and insertion equipment and charging platforms were taken from the PFS in preference to a first principles approach. The Lombador life-of-mine stope mining schedule and other assumptions were used to determine the equipment requirements specifically for Lombador below the 550 level. A total site LOM was used to determine the total site equipment requirements for the life of the operation. Based on the mining equipment replacement strategy, the model determined a purchase schedule for additional and replacement equipment for the life of the operation. It was recognised that some mining equipment from the existing Neves Corvo mining areas could be transferred to Lombador as the former mining areas gradually become depleted. The OBF mining method is not currently practiced in Neves Corvo and its success is highly dependent on accurate and productive longhole drilling. Production blast holes, up to 21 m in length, must be fan and tilt drilled in the primary and secondary zinc stopes using uphole and downhole drilling techniques. Current longhole drills at Neves Corvo are not capable of this type of drilling to the accuracy required for the OBF stopes. The production up-holes drilled into the hanging wall wedge of the OBF stopes will require some consideration with respect to explosive charging. Currently all blast holes are charged with pre-sensitised emulsion that does not have the viscosity to remain in vertical and near vertical up-holes. A number of blast

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3 and 4 of the HW wedge, the central zone and the FW wedge zone. The upper and lower access drives are not initially widened to the full width of the stope, hence parallel drilling is not possible and fan drilling is required. Currently on site there are three production drill rigs an Atlas Copco Simba H157, Atlas Copco Boomer 281 and Tamrock Solo 07-7F (now sold as the Sandvik DL420-7). All of these drills use a top hammer drill module. The Tamrock Solo 07-7F has a foot type attachment, while the two Atlas Copco rigs have boom type attachments. For the Lombador project a Simba M6C that has a foot type attachment is recommended for the ring drilled downholes and a Simba M7C with the boom for the upholes. The use of automated drill rig control systems to improve hole positioning and in hole deviation along with automated rod handling to improve productivity is also recommended. Boom type rigs have the flexibility to of also being able to drill cable bolt holes. As a result, no separate cable bolt drilling equipment is required. The existing LHD fleet consists of fourteen machines, five of which have achieved over 25,000 engine hours. The fleet primarily consists of Sandvik Toro 0010 and LH514 LHDs. However, the Caterpillar R2900G was selected as the preferred machine for bench and fill and stope loading of Lombador Phase 1. The machines will be equipped with line of sight remote control for in stope loading. All ore and waste material will be loaded into trucks by front end loaders at the stockpiles located on each sub-level. Generally waste will be dumped into secondary stopes below the working level and all ore will be hauled to the 550 level crusher, where it will either be directly tipped into the crusher or into a stockpile to be re-handled into the crusher by a LHD or FEL. Due to commonality between the currently

Rockbolting in a main development drive

designs have been developed for the HW wedge to minimise the number of up-holes required. Charging of these up-holes would be with packaged emulsion explosives. Different explosive loading vehicles are preferred for the large OBF stopes and the smaller and somewhat physically constrained copper drift and fill stopes. It is highly preferable that additional undergound haulage trucks purchased for Lombador are able to travel unhindered up and down the Castro ramp that leads from the surface to the 550 level. Each truck will need to traverse to the surface for major maintenance during its life in the operation and the removal of any large items to allow the truck to travel to the surface or any other mining areas is highly undesirable. Given the long up-hill loaded travel by trucks from the Lombador mining areas to the 550 level crusher, the selection process for trucks aimed to maximise haulage productivity through increased payload, increased speed or both. The proposed equipment selection has been based on the following criteria: technical functionality, including requisite technology; equipment productivity; equipment performance, actual or perceived; make and model currently on site; and make and model recently purchased for site. The following summarises the selections that were made. All operational development and drift and fill drilling at Lombador will require conventional twin boom Jumbo drill rigs. The existing twinboom Jumbo drill rig fleet consists of eleven machines, predominantly Atlas Copco Boomer 282S rigs with three Sandvik Minimatic H205D rigs. The last two drill rigs purchased were Atlas

Copco Boomer 282S rigs commissioned in October 2006 and January 2008 and the purchase of additional machines of this type has been recommended for the Lombador project. The existing rockbolting drill rig fleet consists of eight machines, almost entirely Sandvik Robolt drill rigs. The last two drill rigs purchased were DS410-C rigs that were commissioned in May 2009. However, an Atlas Copco Boltec 235 was selected as the preferred choice for the installation of Swellex bolts, to standardise with existing on site equipment and the preferred supplier of other drilling equipment. The OBF mining method requires tilted and fan drilling of production blast holes in the Lombador zinc stopes. Both uphole drilling and downhole drilling are required. These drilling methods are not currently practiced in the Neves Corvo mining areas. Up-hole drilling is required for the second stage of the HW wedge and down-hole drilling from the top drive for stages

Proposed Equipment Lombador Phase 1

Equipment Type Jumbos Longhole Rig Rockbolting rig Cablebolting/ production rig LHD FEL Trucks D&F charging Stope Charging Scaler Grader Pickup Make Atlas Copco Atlas Copco Atlas Copco Atlas Copco Caterpillar Caterpillar Sandvik Normet Normet Normet Caterpillar Toyota Model Boomer 282s Simba M6C Boltec 235 Simba M7C Primary Selection Reason

Standardisation Required for accurate fan and tilt drilling Standardisation Required for cablebolt and production drilling R2900G Standardisation with recent purchase and performance / acceptance 966H Standardisation TH550 Higher productivity and parts commonality with existing 40t trucks Charmec 1610B Standardisation Utilift 6405B Standardisation Scamec 2000S Standardisation 12M Grader Standardise supplier Hilux Standardisation

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operated TH540 and the higher productivity TH550, combined with the familiarity of the mine maintenance with the Sandvik equipment, the TH550 is the preferred truck for the Lombador operation. The existing Neves Corvo mining fleet is large, diverse and somewhat aged. Based on the site replacement strategy there are a number of machines that need to be replaced over the short to medium term. The replacement program needs to reflect the equipment required for the Lombador expansion. Some mining equipment from the existing Neves Corvo mining areas can be transferred to Lombador as the former mining areas are depleted over time. Cablebolting equipment is also required in 2011 and 2012 to provide support in development drives mined by contractors. The screen will operate with a 20 mm screen opening. The crushing section of the zinc plant is capable of crushing zinc ore to -11 mm. The plant consists of a 750 x 500 mm jaw crusher which is in open circuit followed by two stages of cone crushing. Secondary crushing takes place in a standard H400 cone crusher, which is in open circuit, followed by a tertiary crushing stage using a H400 shorthead cone crusher, which is in closed circuit with a screen. The tertiary screen will be increased from 11 mm to 20 mm to increase capacity and provide a sizing more suitable for a new rod mill. The plant is designed for low tonnage. To minimise spillage of ore, all conveyor speeds are to be doubled. Crushed ore from underground is stockpiled in heap of up to 150,000 t capacity. The ore is reclaimed via a front end loader. A belt magnet is provided on the main overland conveyor. Also a fixed magnet is installed on the secondary crusher feed belt. Dust vacuum collection systems are used as the main method to control dust emission and spillage in and around the concentrator crusher complex.

The main mine ramp portal at Neves Corvo level and 550 level which are fed ore and waste by the underground fleet of 40 t Sandvik Toro trucks. The 700 level crusher station is equipped with a Boliden Allis 1,050 x 800 mm crusher of 600 t/h capacity that currently crushes ore and waste from the Upper Corvo, Neves and Graa orebodies, and Zambujal and Corvo Southeast. The crusher feeds into four 1,500 t capacity storage bins ahead of the Santa Barbara shaft loading pocket. The 550 level crusher is equipped with a Svedala Arbra 1,500 x 1,200 mm crusher of 400 t/h capacity that crushes ore from the Lower Corvo orebody and other lower sections of the mine. The crusher feeds into two storage bins of 600 and 400 t capacity. Material is crushed to <250 mm and fed onto conveyor TP12 which is a 742 m long inclined conveyor on 25% gradient which delivers the crushed material to the 700 level bins. The conveyor is suspended from the roof of a 4 x 4 m conveyor gallery. It runs at a speed of 3.2 m/s, and has an installed capacity of 400 t/h. It is powered by two 225 kW motors. Rock hoisting utilises a conventional ground mounted 2.4 MW double drum winder, hoisting opposed 17.5 t capacity bottom dump skips each travelling on four 38 mm rope guides. The hoisting speed is 12.5 m/s and the cycle time is 82 seconds. After hoisting the crushed ore is fed to an overland conveying and stacker system. The ore is then dumped directly from the mine stacker conveyor into a run-of-mine park. The capacity of the stockpile area is around 150,000 t. The ore is reclaimed via a front end loader and fed into a chute for conveying to the existing jaw crusher. A new pre-screen equal to the existing copper pre-screen will be installed to compliment the existing zinc crushing operation.

New zinc plant

Processing of zinc rich polymetallic sulphide ores commenced in 2006 with the conversion of the original tin plant at Neves Corvo. The zinc plant uses the conventional processes of crushing, grinding and flotation to produce a zinc concentrate of around 50% zinc grade. This facility had a design capacity of 365,000 t/y and was debottlenecked to achieva a rate of 500,000 t/y, which has now been increased to 1Mt/y. The plant throughput rate has increased since commissioning from 45 t/h to 60 t/h via improvements in the grinding mill configuration and up-sizing of pumps and piping across various areas of the circuits. However, the circuit was constrained in a number of areas from further increases due to a lack of crushing capacity, insufficient available grinding power and insufficient flotation capacity. Additionally, whilst the dewatering circuits could operate at a slightly greater rate they could not accommodate doubling of the throughput rate as envisaged under the 1 Mt/y expanded project case. The final zinc concentrate quality is relatively stable despite the large variation seen in the plant ore feed on a daily and monthly basis. However, this ore feed variation does impact the overall metallurgical performance of the operation. It can be seen that the zinc recovery is largely a function of the ore feed grade with lower grade ore giving slightly lower zinc recovery to concentrate.

Milling improvements
ROM ore is dumped from the mine stacker to the ore park. The ore is then fed to a pre-screen for screening at 20 mm. The oversize reports to the primary jaw crusher, while the undersize reports directly to the fine ore bin. The crushed coarse ore is conveyed to the secondary cone crusher. The conveyor system has a rated capacity of 200 t/h. The secondary crusher product is conveyed to the tertiary crusher screen with the oversize (+20 m) reporting to the tertiary cone crusher and the undersize reporting to the fine ore bin. The crushed ore is reclaimed from the 1,500 t fine ore bin via a single feeder and fed to the rod mill feed conveyor. The grinding circuit consists of a single line comprised of a 3.81 m diameter by 4.877 m long rod mill and two 3 m diameter by 4.1 m long (450 kW) primary ball mills and a single stirred mill (930 kW). The rod mill product is pumped to the ball mill circuit via two feed distributors (one operating and one standby), for distribution to two primary ball mill sumps. The rod mill discharge together with the ball mill discharge, is pumped to cyclone clusters for classification. The cyclone clusters operate in closed circuit with the ball mills. The cyclone overflow, at a P80 product size of 200 microns, is fed to the secondary grinding mill circuit. The cyclone underflow returns to the ball mills. The new rod mill is powered by a single 900 kW single ring gear pinion drive with a

Crushing considerations
Zinc ores are first crushed underground before being hoisted to surface. The mine has two underground primary crushers located at 700

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This article discusses the zinc plant expansion to a 1 Mt/y capacity but in the future it is planned to up this to 2.5 Mt/y

frequency convertor driven squirrel cage induction motor. Grinding media are steel rods. Media addition is performed manually with a rod loading device directly in front of the mill. The mill motor power draw and mill load is allowed to vary in response to changes in ore grindability. Process water is added in ratio to the solids feed rate to give a mill discharge density of approximately 70% solids by weight. The ground pulp discharges to a sump and pumps deliver the slurry to the primary ball mill cyclone clusters. The cyclone feed pump capacity exceeds 120 m3/h. The two existing ball mills treat approximately 65 t/h each to give a product size of around 80% passing 200 microns. The ball mills operate as overflow discharge mills at ball loadings of up to 35%. Balls are fed manually into the mill based on power draw. The primary cyclone overflow reports to the secondary grinding circuit. The secondary mill is a Metso vertical stirred mill VTM1250 fitted with a 930 kW motor. The mill operates with 20 mm steel balls which are feed via a ball loading hopper. A final product of 45m is achieved. The primary cyclone overflow together with the secondary grinding mill discharge is pumped to a cyclone cluster. The cyclone overflow, at a P80 product size of 45m, is fed to the flotation circuit. The cyclone underflow returns to the secondary stirred mill. The flotation circuit consists of a row of new rougher machines (20 m3) to complete the aeration, copper roughing, lead roughing duties. Zinc roughing and primary cleaning is carried out in three banks of new 40 m3 tank cells. Subsequent cleaning of the various rougher

concentrates occurs in existing conventional flotation cells. The product from the grinding line reports to a conditioner tank prior to being pumped to the aeration cell. The copper rougher concentrate, combined with the copper cleaner tail is reground in a 2.4 m diameter by 3 m long (200 kW) ball mill. The ground copper rougher and copper cleaner block tail is pumped and cleaned in the copper recleaner flotation machines. The copper recleaner concentrate is pumped to the copper first cleaner. The copper first cleaner concentrate is then pumped to the copper second cleaner. The copper first cleaner tail then returns to the regrinding circuit. The copper second cleaner concentrate is the final copper concentrate and is pumped to the copper plant thickener feed tank. The copper second cleaner tail returns to the copper first cleaner. The copper rougher tailing, together with the copper recleaner tailing, both report to the lead circuit conditioner tank. All copper cleaning duties are carried out in existing 8 m3 Denver flotation cells. The reject products from the copper circuit report to a lead conditioner tank prior to gravitating to the lead rougher cells. The lead rougher concentrate, combined with the lead cleaner tail are reground in a 3 m diameter by 4.1 m long (450 kW) ball mill. The ground lead rougher and lead cleaner block tail are pumped and cleaned in the lead recleaner flotation machines. The lead recleaner concentrate is pumped to the lead first cleaner. The lead first cleaner concentrate is cleaned in the lead second cleaner cells. The lead second cleaner concentrate is the final lead

concentrate which is pumped to final tailings. The lead second cleaner tailing is returned to the lead first cleaner flotation cells. The lead rougher tailings, together with the lead recleaner tailings, report to the zinc circuit conditioner tank. All lead cleaning duties are also carried out in existing 8 m3 Denver flotation cells. The reject products from the lead circuit report to two zinc conditioner tanks prior to being pumped to the zinc rougher flotation cells. The zinc rougher concentrate, combined with the zinc cleaner block tail, are reground in a Metso VTM1250 Vertimill to a product size of 15 microns. The ground zinc rougher and zinc cleaner block tail are pumped and cleaned in the zinc recleaner flotation machines. The zinc recleaner concentrate is pumped to the zinc first cleaner. The zinc recleaner tail returns to the zinc rougher. The zinc first cleaner concentrate is pumped to the zinc second cleaner with the zinc first cleaner tail returning to the regrinding circuit. The zinc second cleaner concentrate is then pumped to the zinc third cleaner. The zinc second cleaner tail returns to the zinc first cleaner feed. The zinc third cleaner concentrate is the final zinc concentrate and is pumped to the zinc thickener feed tank. The zinc third cleaner tail returns to the zinc second cleaner. The zinc rougher tailing, together with the zinc recleaner tailing, report to the final tailing collection tanks for pumping to the copper plant tail discharge system. Final copper concentrate is pumped to the existing copper plant thickener. Final lead concentrate is discarded while final zinc concentrate is thickened in a 20 m diameter thickener. The thickened concentrate is pumped to a concentrate storage tank. The thickened slurry is filtered via two Metso VPM 1530-40 filter presses. The discharge from the filters is conveyed to the zinc concentrate storage building. Water recovered from the concentrate thickening is combined with the water recovered from the filters and reclaimed. Flotation tailings are pumped to the existing discharge system. Water reclaimed from the tailing pond is returned to the industrial water tank for recycling to the plant. Water from the zinc concentrate thickener is collected in the thickener overflow tanks and used in the zinc flotation circuit and filtration. Reclaim water from the tailings pond is also used as make-up in the thickener overflow tanks. Fresh water is provided as makeup water to the process water reservoir. IM

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