Mr Suman Kalyan Subudhi, Deputy Manager (mining), NMDC – Feb 17th

The respondent is involved in Mineral processing industry for several years and has
bee in charge of the diamond mine of NMDC at Panna, Madhya Pradesh. He also has
prior experiences in Iron Ore industry.

Flow of Sampling/ Sample Preparation and testing Processes in NMDC

Sampling : Most of the sampling equipments in all NMDC mines are automated /
semi-automated nowadays like the vezin sampler etc…
The sampling size and frequency in all the mines are dependent on IS standards or
ASTM standards. Specifications are laid out in the guidelines which indicate the
sampling rate and quantise for different minerals like iron ore/bauxite/copper etc. This
varies from mineral to mineral and based on such rules, the equipments are selected.

IS Standards: Methods of Sampling.

Mineral IS Standard for Sampling

Iron Ore IS 1405 : 1982

Bauxite IS 1999 : 1987
Copper IS 12871:1989
Lead & Zinc IS 10816:1984
Manganese IS 1449 :1976

Coal IS 436

Sample Preparation :

Once the samples are prepared, it is prepared to the required size. Again this depends
on mineral and requirements. Usually the geologist performs the sampling and sample
preparation in any mines. The final size shall vary from 2mm to 40 mm.

Testing at R & D Labs:

Once the samples are prepared they are sent to the R & D lab in Hyderabad. Here
again the prepared ores are further reduced in the level of 100-200 mesh and the
testing takes place. The lab has several number of testing equipments like the
floatation test cells. Various tests are carried out and finally the percentage
composition of the various ingredients is given out to assess the grade of the ore.

Floatation test cells:

These are mainly used in Coal mines to separate the coal from shale ( waste materials
which includes limestone etc).
Testing at 3rd party Inspection agencies:

Before the samples are despatched to the customers, they are again sampled, ground
and tested by third party inspection bodies like SGS, Bueau Veritas group etc to
validate the material composition as agreed by the supplier and buyer.
Equipments Installed at Panna Diamond Mine.

Equipment Specifications / Features No.of Equipments

installed
Jaw Crusher Feed Capacity : 100 T / hr. 1

Input feed size : 150 -300

mm , output size : 80 mm
Cone Crusher Feed Capacity : 60 – 100 2 (one is idle now)
T / hr.

Input feed size : 80 mm,

Output size : 20 mm.

Besides, NMDC has a lot of equipments like …

Suppliers : Kobelko (Singapore), Metso, Elecon etc. Mostly these equipments are
imported sometimes indigenous equipments are also purchased from local suppliers.

Life of the equipment is 10-15 years.

Semi-automated/ Automated sampling equipments are used in most of the mines of

NMDC. Manual sampling is not done.

The discussion is in follow-up as the respondent told will give specific details with
respect to prices and sampling equipments sometime next week.