Philsaga Mining Corporation (Philsaga) had three main aims in converting their lining system from steel to metal cap. They wanted to increase mill availability, minimise localised high wear and optimise particle breakage to deliver increased efficiency within the milling circuit. Combining Discrete Element Method (DEM) modelling and empirical interpretation of liner wear resulted in a rigorous approach to understanding the impact of mill liners on overall mill performance. This new understanding was subsequently used to not only derive a new lining design to optimise performance and thereby improve overall plant economics, but also to guide further lining development.In this work, detailed DEM modelling, developed from actual plant data, together with optimising liner design for wear paved the way towards the installation of a Metal Cap lining system at Philsaga's 6100 mm SAG Mill. The results were a reported increase in SAG mill throughput of 16 - 20 per cent due to improved breakage through more efficient use of installed power, a reduction in localised high liner wear with overall increase in liner life and reduction in liner replacement time. Site also reported an increased gold recovery of 2 per cent which the improved breakage might have contributed to. This paper will present the design challenges and compare the Metal Cap lining systems performance against Steel lining system.
CITATION:Weerasekara, N S, Lessing, E, Town, S and De Torres, J A, 2018. Metal cap versus steel lining system at Philsaga Mining Corporation's 6100 mm SAG mill, in Proceedings 14th AusIMM Mill Operators' Conference 2018, pp 653-664 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).