Novel Grinding Technology to Significantly Reduce Energy Consumption in Mining

Lead Proponent

Canada Mining Innovation Council (CMIC)

Project Objectives

CMIC will accelerate a new comminution technology, the conjugate anvil hammer mill (CAHM) from a bench scale to prototype scale, with full testing using ore from Canadian mines. CAHM processes ore more efficiently without grinding media and water, instead using two surfaces that rotate in a conjugate pair.

The project will consist of designing and testing a prototype-scale CAHM comminution circuit that will reduce energy consumption by up to 50%.

Expected Results

Mining consumes 3-6% of the world's electricity. The Canadian mining industry will benefit from a competitive advantage of having access to a grinding technology that is up to 50% more energy efficient than any other available technology. This will reduce a key production cost for Canadian mining operations and significantly impact the design, start up and infrastructure economics of new mining operations in remote areas where power is not readily available. Such significant savings of operating cost have the potential to transition mineral development projects from non-viable to viable. The net result would be new mine projects, jobs and capacity development in Canada's north. In addition, it is estimated that this technology could reduce the complexity and associated capital cost of a new mining project by 20%-30%.

Anticipated Environmental Benefits: GHG emission reduction estimate of 1.4MT CO2e by 2030.