Metallurgical Testwork:

Development, Interpretation
and Process Design
Majid Davoodi, PhD, P.Eng.
OreVenture Training & Technical Services

Prospecting to Production
Simplified Main Steps

What is Metallurgical Testwork?

Studies the mineralogical relationships within an ore
Why Testwork is necessary? To find best upgrading process.
How should testwork be done and what are the important inputs and

outcomes?
How should testwork results be interpreted? and
How does this impact on process design (flowsheet) and equipment
selection?

Why Testwork is Necessary?

Characterize the ores to be processed
Understand the metallurgical deportment of desired metal(s)
Develop Process Flowsheet

Develop Process Design Criteria

Develop Capital and Operating costs
Basis of scoping, feasibility studies, detailed design
Indication of the recovery and concentrate quality
And more.

How Much Metallurgical

Testwork Costs?

Project Stage Development vs.

Testwork

What Metallurgical Testwork

Phase?
Composite Testwork

Lithology/Alteration Testwork

Variability Testwork

Pilot Plant

What Testwork?
Comminution Testworks
Gravity Separation Testworks

Leaching Testworks
Flotation Testworks

Thickening / Filteration Testworks

Solvent Extraction Testworks
Magnetic and Electrostatic Testworks
And many more

What Testwork for What Ore?

Gold Metallurgical Testwork (Free Milling, Refractory & Preg-robbing)
PGM Metallurgical Testwork (Platinum Group Metals)

Base Metals Metallurgical Testwork (Nickel, Copper, etc.)

Iron Ore Metallurgical Testwork (Magnetite, Hematite, Itabirite, etc.)
Uranium Ore Metallurgical Testwork
REEs Metallurgical Testwork
Bauxite Metallurgical Testwork
And more

What is Testplan?
Example of Copper Ore Testwork Program (very simplified and shortened):

Testwork Results Interpretation?

Most important part of the process
Requires skill, knowledge & experience in the art

Input to Process Design Criteria (wrong interpretation wrong design)

Flowsheet Development
We will never get it 100% right- risk factors

Metallurgical Testwork Flowsheet Development

Example of Polymetallic:

Final Word
Think about the issues & risks when developing a mine Metallurgical
Testworks, Testplans and the right interpretation of results are most
important factors that caused many mining projects fail due to not following

the first principle rules.

fail to plan; you plan to fail

Consult with others
Let us know if we can help:

Oreventure@yahoo.com
www.oreventure.com

Oreventure Training & Technical Services

Express of interest for running this course in Tehran: Please mail to oreventure@yahoo.com
Course Title: Metallurgical Testwork: Development, Interpretation & Process Design
Course Language: Farsi
Lead Instructor: Majid Davoodi, oreventure@yahoo.com
About Instructor: Dr Majid Davoodi is a qualified process engineer / metallurgist with more than 20
years technical and project engineering experience in mining and mineral processing in various
professional engineering appointments in diverse locations such as Middle East, Australia, Canada and
South East Asia in metallurgical research, operations, commissioning and process design for commodities
such as Copper, Gold, Iron Ore, REEs, Uranium, Nickel, Alumina & Bauxite, Aluminium and other base
metals. He has been involved in the different mining and mineral industry cycles: Due diligence, scoping
studies, feasibility studies, detail designs, constructions, commissioning, processes optimization & debottlenecking.
He has run many training courses for mining and mineral industry and has developed training and
operators manuals for many operations.

Course Length: A full-day (8 hours).

Objectives: This course provides an understanding of metallurgical testwork requirement on ore samples
in order to develop a simple process flowsheet that will result in minimum capital expenditure, maximise
recovery and minimise operating cost. Ability to design a testplan and interpret the results helps design
engineers, process engineers and metallurgists to develop process design criteria for mineral processing
plants.

Description: Not two ore bodies are the same. The development of a suitable process to treat an orebody
appears to be a relatively straightforward. However selecting the optimum process whilst maintaining the
overall project schedule and cost is a complex task. The key to a successful process plant design is the
implementation of a well-structured, comprehensive testwork program to ensure that a circuit and
reagent scheme is developed that can cater for the variability in the orebody, whilst still providing
optimum economics on the majority of the process plant feed.
It is necessary to develop metallurgical testplan to undertake the comminution, bench scale and variability
testwork. The development of testplans requires skill, knowledge and an understanding of the results. A
budget and schedule are essential at the beginning of the testwork. A metallurgical summary report is
required to interpret the results upon completion of the programme. The course will provide the
participants with the knowledge to:

Developing metallurgical testwork

Identify the testwork requirement
Definition of the laboratory testworks appropriate for the study type and sampling requirement
Test results interpretation
1

Oreventure Training & Technical Services

Process design and flowsheet development based on testwork outcome

Course Outline:
1.0

Introduction

2.0

Metallurgical Testplan and Sample Selection

3.0

Feasibility Study and Process Design

4.0

Comminution Testwork (Type, definition and sample requirements)

5.0

Gravity Concentration Testwork

6.0

Leaching Testwork

7.0

Flotation Testwork

8.0

Thickening and Filtration Testwork

9.0

Solvent Extraction Testwork

10.0

Magnetic Separation Testwork

11.0

Typical Base Metal and Gold Metallurgical Testwork

12.0

Typical Iron ore Testwork

13.0

Variability Testwork

14.0

Pilot Testing

15.0

Process Flowsheet Development

16.0

Mineral Processing Plant Design

Products/Course Materials: Softcopy of course Powerpoint presentation (pdf format).

Audio-Visual: Only projector for the presentation.
Cost Estimate: To be advised.