Comminution is an energy intensive process and consumes up to 60% of a mine’s power supply and up to 11% of the world’s energy, centre director Professor Malcolm Powell said.
“Comminution is integral to mineral processing, however the number of senior researchers in this area is diminishing,” he said.
“In addition to providing solutions for the challenges facing the industry today, the Anglo American Centre for Sustainable Comminution will have an important role in educating the next generation of researchers in this area.”
Improved technologies in this area will increase the amount of energy available for other uses across the globe, he said.
The Centre, launched at UQ’s Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC), will positively affect the transfer of knowledge and technology to operations and projects in the design, commissioning and optimisation of production, according to Anglo American.
Conducting core research projects that investigate novel ways of liberation in order to meet the requirements of future mining technologies will be a focus of the centre, for which Anglo American has committed $10 million over five years.
Anglo American head of geosciences, process and sustainable development: technology development Jeremy Mann said that the centre would help fill a shortfall in communition knowledge.
“We are in a vulnerable situation, as there is a lack of sustainable expertise to conduct the design and operational reviews required in one of the key, most capital intensive, processing areas of mining operations,” he said.
“The establishment of the Centre and the collaboration that drives it will therefore definitively bolster the development in comminution and benefit both industry and academia, by advancing research in key areas, while developing a pipeline of expertise and talent.
“Resultantly, this will be of great benefit to the mining industry globally.”
Anglo American is funding five centres of excellence as a Global Comminution Collaborative (GCC) to be managed and run from JKMRC.
