Geometallurgy

Geometallurgy relates to the practice of combining geological understanding with metallurgical test work and / or real time processing plant data (for extractive metallurgy), to create a geological based three-dimensional predictive model of mineral processing response. It is used in the hard rock mining industry for risk management and mitigation during mineral processing plant design. It is also used for production mine planning to optimize the ore feed to the processing plant.

There are four important components or steps to developing a geometallurgical program,:

  • the geologically informed selection of a number of ore samples
  • laboratory-scale test work to determine the ore's response to mineral processing unit operations
  • the distribution of these parameters throughout the orebody using an accepted geostatistical technique
  • the application of a mining sequence plan and mineral processing models to generate a prediction of the process plant behavior
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