HPGRs in Copper Ore Comminution –

A Technology Broke Barriers

E. Burchardt, N. Patzelt, J. Knecht, R. Klymowsky
Polysius AG
Graf-Galen-Straße 17
Beckum, Germany

Keywords: HPGR, grinding, minerals references, minerals applications

Abstract
The growth of High Pressure Grinding Rolls has been steady and relentless since their introduction
into the diamond industry in 1986. The fastest growth was in iron ores, but the breakthrough came
with the first installations of HPGRs in the copper industry at the Freeport’s “Cerro Verde Mine” in
Peru (2006) and “Grasberg Mine” in Indonesia (2007). The recent fall in commodity prices in 2008
has temporarily interrupted this growth, but has not dampened the interest in the technology.
Many of the newest copper and gold deposits are large, low-grade and hard. Large tonnages and
especially hard rock favour HPGRs. Typically HPGRs offer the lowest operating costs. However,
HPGRs are also able to reduce investment cost for very hard ores.
HPGR technology broke barriers in a two fold way. Starting as a newcomer some years ago, it has
established itself as a matured and accepted technology in the precious and base metals industry. In
addition, HPGRs have proven their capability of being the key to make some projects economical
viable at all.
This paper reviews some further projects that have come on-stream since Cerro Verde and Gras-
berg:
Boddington Gold Mines, July 2009, 35 million t/a; Anglo Platinum’s Mogalakwena, March 2008,
600 ktpm; Assmang’s BKM Iron Ore Project, July 2008; Northam Platinum’s UG2 plant, May
2008.
The first commercial HPGR for heap leaching in gold started in Goldfields’ Tarkwa Mine in Ghana,
October 2009.
The paper includes some of the lessons learnt from operating the rolls at various plants and reviews
on-going development programmes that have been initiated to improve wear life of the tyres, reduce
energy consumption and overall operating costs.

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In addition, the paper provides an outlook on how HPGR technology may further advance the
“Concentrator of the Future”.
There are signs of recovery in several commodities. This gives confidence that when the recovery
takes hold, HPGRs will be in a strong position to secure a leading role in mineral comminution.

1 Introduction
In the middle of the 80th, HPGR (High Pressure Grinding Roll) technology was firstly adopted by
the cement industry due to the high potential for energy savings. Energy requirements for grinding
cement clinker, slag and limestone were in the order of 50 % lower than those consumed in conven-
tional ball mills.
Nevertheless, the minerals industry outside of diamonds and iron ore was initially very reluctant to
take over this technology due to concerns about wear and consequently availability.
It took a lot of effort to improve the design of HPGRs to provide acceptable lifetimes of the wear
components for high wear applications and to make these units maintenance friendly enough to
reach availabilities of more than 94 %. These were the preconditions for the final acceptance of
HPGRs in the base and precious metals industry. The wear issue has been successfully resolved,
although there will be a continuous development process in the next couple of years, to further
reduce wear cost. After the first successful installations in copper and other minerals applications,
today’s focus is more on issues like:
Under which conditions are HPGR circuits more economical than conventional circuits?
Are HPGRs able to make low grade and high cost deposits viable from an economical standpoint?
What are the most economical HPGR based flow sheet configurations and plant layouts?
How to match highest grinding circuit energy with lowest investment cost?
What are the optimum interfaces between secondary crushing, high pressure grinding and ball
milling in terms of transfer size and energy distribution?
What has to be done to reduce investment cost of HPGR based flow sheets and obtain a further wear
and energy cost reduction?
Which lessons can be learnt from major installations in terms of future sizing and design criteria,
optimum plant layout, as well as best operating and maintenance practices?
This paper addresses at least some of these issues, providing a basic overview on to the current
status of this technology.

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2 Grinding Circuits Incorporating HPGRs

The first serious approach of HPGR technology to the copper industry was the installation at Cyprus
Sierrita in the Middle of the 90th. At that time, this installation was considered as a failure despite a
lot of positive achievements [1, 2]. The first successful installations of HPGRs in the copper
industry started at the Freeport’s “Cerro Verde Mine” in Peru 2006 [3] and “Grasberg Mine” in
Indonesia 2007 [4].
Major applications for HPGRs in copper and other minerals are
• for pebble crushing in SAG mill circuits of concentrators (greenfield, brownfield) (Figure 1),
• for tertiary crushing in concentrators (greenfield) (Figure 2),
• for quaternary crushing in concentrators (brownfield) (Figure 4),
• for tertiary and / or quaternary crushing in heap leach operations (greenfield, brownfield).
The potential of HPGR for pebble crushing has been studied for a long time. A large variety of pos-
sible flow sheets have been investigated. Figure 1 includes two of these concepts. The most efficient
way to implement HPGRs is to treat the pebbles separately in a secondary crushing (SC) – HPGR
circuit directly feeding the screen undersize product to the ball mills. HPGRs can be retrofitted effi-
ciently into existing SAG/AG mill circuits (brownfield) for capacity increases. First HPGRs for
pebble or SAG oversize crushing were applied in iron ore applications in the 90th. In 2008, a gold
producer [5] decided to build a SAG mill based concentrator with a HPGR for pebble crushing
(Figure 1: “SAG – Option 2”).

Figure 1: HPGR re-grinding crushed pebbles (left); SC/HPGR circuit for pebble crushing (right)
HPGR based circuits for new concentrators (greenfield) would typically use HPGRs in closed
circuit for tertiary crushing, either with wet or dry screening. The HPGR circuit is normally fed with
a full feed in a normal closed circuit (Figure 2 – left hand) or with a truncated feed in a reversed
closed circuit (Figure 2 – right hand). There have been objections in the gold/copper industry

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against the reversed closed circuit mainly due to wear issues although the truncation of the feed is
standard practice in diamonds. Plants in operation like Freeport – Cerro Verde (copper – since
2006), Anglo Platinum – Mogalakwena (platinum – since 2008) and Newmont - Boddington (gold –
since 2009) are based on a normal closed circuit with wet screening (Figure 2 – left hand). So far,
only Anglo Platinum has opted for a dry screening plant [6, 7].

Figure 2: HPGR in tertiary crushing duty – normal closed circuit (left); reversed closed circuit (right)

Figure 3: HPGRs at Cerro Verde (Freeport) – first concentrator in copper fully HPGR based [4]
Other operations to be commissioned in the future, like Vale – Salobo, MolyMines – Spinnefex
Ridge and Gindalbie Metals - Mt. Karara are based on a full feed, wet screening circuit (Figure 2 –
left hand).
A reversed HPGR circuit with wet screening was selected for the BKM Iron Ore Project of
Assmang which went into operation in July 2008. Major reason for this decision was the need to
minimise fines generation which are production losses in this application. Any concerns about

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accelerated wear due the missing fines in the feed have not been confirmed. On-going feed back
from this application may be the basis for a re-thinking of the wide spread objections against feed
truncation in copper/gold or any other hard rock applications - especially in low wear applications.
HPGRs have proven themselves as powerful tools for plant up-grades in existing crushing and
grinding circuits (brownfield). First successful installation as a quaternary crushing stage has been
in the Grasberg Mine of Freeport in Indonesia (gold/copper since 2007) [Figure 4].

Figure 4: HPGR application at Grasberg (Freeport) – first one as a quaternary stage in copper
HPGRs at Grasberg [4] are receiving the product of a 3-stage crushing plant. Re-grinding of this
relative fine feed of minus 15 mm results in a finer ball mill feed. This provides the opportunity to
increase the plant throughput at same flotation fineness and recovery or to keep the throughput at
the same level and increase flotation fineness and consequently recovery. Both cases increase the
production value, often at lower overall operating cost.
Reduction of operating cost by replacing existing tertiary cone crushers or rod mills without any
throughput or recovery increase does not justify a HPGR retrofit typically.
A HPGR in similar application has been operated at Northam Platinum on a UG2 ore since 2008,
re-grinding a fine – bi-modal – feed from a crushing plant. The HPGR application allowed the
installation of an intermediate flash flotation circuit and the conversion of the original rod mill to a
ball mill. The complete re-design project has been reported as an overwhelming success [7].
In October 2009, the first commercial HPGR for a heap leach operation in gold (Goldfields –
Tarkwa Mine, Ghana) has been commissioned. This installation is considered as the first full scale
industrial test in order to prove the general suitability of HPGRs for heap leaching as well as the
achievement of faster and higher recoveries of HPGR treated ores, which have been found in the lab
again and again. Positive results from this operation could also influence the SX/EW heap leach
operations in the copper industry.

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3 Industrial Operating Experience

Basic design data of recent copper and minerals installations are summarised in Figure 5. Operating
experience gathered from those installations have provided a large basis for design modifications
and improvements, wear life improvements, verification of scale-up and sizing criteria as well as for
the evolution of best operating and maintenance practices. New projects as well as projects coming
on stream in the near future will be able to benefit from the experience continuously collected.

Figure 5: Basic design & operating data from recent applications on copper and other mineral ores
Major findings from these installations are summarised in the following.
In general, sizing of the early minerals HPGRs in terms of throughput, required circulating loads
and energy input in closed circuit operation as well as the lifetime predictions have been quite con-
servative initially due to a lack of industrial references in similar applications.
Typically, lifetimes of industrial HPGRs rolls have been higher than the conservatively provided
figures for warranties. HPGR wear testing (“ATWAL abrasion index”) gave a realistic basis for
lifetime projections. Maximum achieved lifetime has been more than 20,000 hours in a copper in-
stallation on finer feed. There has been only one case where the predicted lifetime (6000 hours) was
significantly lower than the lifetime initially reached (3000 hours). This difference was mainly at-
tributable to changes of ore properties (higher ATWAL abrasion index) compared to the design
phase and in addition to instantaneously higher than design capacities. An optimisation program on
the wear protection tyres, improving stud design and grade, resulted in an increase of the lifetime to
recently more than 5000 hours with a potential to finally exceed 6000 hours with the next design
change. Other high wear operations will benefit from these developments.

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The major driver for abrasion on HPGR rolls is the mineralogy of the ore to be treated. Typically the
mineralogy has a higher influence on the wear rate than the feed size, grinding pressure and mois-
ture content. The second dominant factor for the wear rate is the feed size or “feed size to gap ratio”
respectively. A feed size, significantly smaller than the gap, reduces the wear rate. The hardness or
competency of an ore has only a minor impact on the wear rate according to ATWAL abrasion test-
ing and subsequent industrial experience.
Top feed size control to HPGR circuits is essential for long roll life since this is a precondition to
minimise the risk of stud breakage. Competent ores have a higher inherent risk of breaking studs.
Excessive oversize resulted in severe stud breakage and finally resulted in surface damage in one
application. A reduction or limitation of the feed size to the HPGRS treating very competent ore
would increase tyre lifetime and is a precondition to apply stud grades with improved wear resis-
tance on those ores in the future
Roll unit change outs were conducted within less than 36 hours after establishing optimised working
procedures.
Initial problems with roll skewing in some applications were successfully resolved. In general, roll
skewing is caused by insufficient feed rates and/or segregation in the feed. In some applications, roll
skewing was mainly caused by insufficient feed rates during feed material start-ups as well as in
continuous operation resulting in feeding only to the roll centre and preventing the build up of
choke feed conditions. Non choke feed conditions could be overcome by adjusting the roll speed to
the actual available feed quantities in normal operation and a ramp up of the roll speed during feed
material start-ups.
The specific throughput rates of industrial HPGRs have been usually higher than those obtained in
batch type pilot test units, which were the basis for initial sizing. Consequently the achieved
throughput capacities of industrial units often exceeded the conservative design figures.
Circulating loads in closed circuit operation with screens were found to be on the levels as predicted
by the supplier. Initial concerns especially of engineers and consultants about supplier predicted
circulating loads seem to vanish and the tendency to oversize HPGR circuits may be brought down
to reasonable levels. A common understanding of the supplier, engineer and consultant about realis-
tic circulating loads in HPGR circuits as well as of the achievable throughput rates would provide
an opportunity to reduce investment cost.
Oversizing of HPGRs due to underestimating actually achievable capacities and overestimating re-
quired capacities created sometimes operational problems due to a lack of feed material - especially
in case of fixed speed drives. Variable speed HPGR drives should be installed for proper process
control and for the handling of any fluctuations in required throughput.
Variation of the grinding pressure turned out to be a powerful approach to either optimise a HPGR
circuit in terms of maximum throughput at lower circulating loads or maximum energy efficiency at
higher circulating loads.

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Cake formation in the HPGR discharge material was found to be less critical than initially feared.
Current cake stability testing provides a good assessment of cake competency. Screen efficiency
was higher in wet than in dry screening. Moisture control of the wet screen oversize could be man-
aged even for screening at 5 to 6 mm. Efficient pulping of the screen feed ahead of the screens,
proper material distribution along the screen width as well as sufficient screening area are precondi-
tions to limit the moisture content in the screen oversize (S/O) to reasonable levels. Typically, the
moisture content of a plus 6 mm S/O is less than 4 % under proper operating conditions. These low
moisture levels may give room to a further reduction of the cut size between HPGR and ball mill
circuit.
Under good operating conditions, specific energy input for producing < 6 mm copper ore product
was lower than 3 kWh/t referred to circuit product.
HPGR performance was found to be quite insensitive against changes in feed material properties.
Even treating a variable ore body, specific throughput, circulating load, power absorption and spe-
cific energy input did not vary significantly. Ball mill feed size distribution was very consistent and
mainly determined by the mesh size of the wet screens rather than influenced by material properties
like competency. This feature allows a smooth ball mill operation at nearly constant throughput and
product fineness and subsequently a controlled operation of the flotation circuit. Throughput varia-
tions required due to operational requirements or caused by minor feed characteristic changes were
easily managed by roll speed adjustments.
SAG mill circuit performance is far more feed material dependent. Feed size distribution and ore
competency has a much larger impact on SAG mill throughput and the transfer size between the
SAG and ball mill circuit. In summary, a consistent circuit balance is much easier to achieve be-
tween a HPGR and a ball mill circuit

4 HPGR vs. SAG Mill Circuits

HPGR based circuits usually compete with traditional SAG mill circuits, although there seem to be
some recent signs of a revival of conventional 3-stage crushing circuits – especially on competent
ores at smaller scale operations.
Large scale concentrators with a capacity of 100,000 tpd would require 5 to 6 secondary crushers
and about 10 to 15 tertiary crushers depending on the ore competency and targeted product fineness.
Lifetime of secondary crusher liners can be less than 30 days in high wear applications with an even
shorter lifetime to be expected in tertiary duty. This maintenance intensity besides the high capital
and operating cost usually avoids that conventional crushing circuits are considered for world class
projects.
Trade off studies on larger scale operations compare SAG and HPGR concepts in most cases. The
economical differences between a conventional SABC circuit and a HPGR based circuit are mainly

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determined by the behaviour of the applicable ore(s) in a SAG mill. Originally, SAG mill circuits
were sized on the basis of the Bond Theory using the Bond work index from test work. However,
the Bond Theory frequently failed on SAG mills in the past.
In recent years, SAG mills have been sized on either on the drop weight (DWI) test or the SPI test.
Outcome of the drop weight test is the so-called “A*b” parameter or the DWI of an ore.
Newmont (Veilette & Parker, 2005) [8] published a diagram covering the relation between the re-
quired SAG mill energy input and the ore competency expressed by the A*b parameter for a number
of their operating plants and projects [Figure 6]. The conclusion from this diagram is that the energy
requirements in a SAG mill may range from something like 4 kWh/t (for A*B = 80) to 16 kWh/t
(for A*b = 25) or in other words, the behaviour of individual ores could differ dramatically in SAG
mills – even in one deposit.

Figure 6: Newmont database of SAG power as a function of ore competency – A* b parameter [8]
A significant relation between the “A*b” parameter of an ore and the Bond work index (propor-
tional to the ball mill energy requirements) or breakage characteristic in a HPGR could not be
found.
Figure 7 includes a diagram (left hand side), showing the fineness vs. grinding force relation in a
pilot scale HPGR for ores with “A*b” parameters between 18 and 36. In fact, no significant differ-
ence in product fineness was found. This result suggests that the circulating load in a HPGR circuit
would not vary significantly even for ores within a wide range of “A*b” parameters or competency
respectively.
The correlation between the Bond work index and the “A*b” parameter of more than 30 ores is
shown in a second diagram (right hand side) included in Figure 7.

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The Bond index varied only between 16 ± 2 kWh/t even though the A*b parameters were in the
range of between 18 and 75 indicating SAG mill energy requirements between about 5 kWh/t and
more than 16 kWh/t.

Figure 7: HPGR fineness vs. grinding force (left), Bond Index vs. „A*b“ ore competency (right)
The conclusions from these findings are that
• variation of ore competency is mainly an issue in SAG mills,
• ore competency is not a critical issue once ore particles are smaller than the feed size (< 3.15 mm)
in Bond testing, and
• HPGRs are able to efficiently equalize variations in ore competency (“The Big Equalizer”).
The implications of ore competency on the specific circuit energy as well as on required equipment
sizes and numbers are summarised in Figure 8. This comparison - on a very general desktop level -
compares three different ores with 4, 10 and 16 kWh/t energy input in a SAG mill and an equivalent
HPGR circuit producing a minus 6 mm ball mill feed. Any variation of the HPGR performance
treating these different ores is ignored due to the minor influence on the results. The ball mill energy
is mainly a function of the feed and required product fineness which may significantly vary for
different ore bodies and was therefore ignored for simplification. Ball mill energy may be typically
up to 10 % higher in the HPGR case depending on the required ball mill fineness. Nevertheless,
such a correction will not change the general conclusions from Figure 8.

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Figure 8: Desktop study – SAG energy for ores of different competency vs. HPGR circuit energy
The conclusions from the desktop study are that a 100,000 tpd plant
• can be built with only one large SAG mill – provided the ore is low competent,
• would require at least 2 SAG mills for medium competent ores and up to 4 SAG mills for highly
competent ores,
• would require most typically 4 HPGRs independent of the ore competency,
• could be built with 3 HPGRs in case of applying the largest POLYCOM models available and/or
considering a coarser transfer size to the ball mills than 6 mm as often used,
• need to compare the installation cost of 2 to 3 SAG mills against the cost for 4 HPGR circuits in
case of medium competent ores for capital expenditure comparison,
• need to compare the installation cost of 4 SAG mills (38”) against the cost for 4 HPGR circuits
in case of extremely competent ores for capital expenditure comparison.
In general, it is concluded that hard and competent ores at large scale definitely favour HPGR based
circuits.
Wear cost, which are a major fraction of the operating cost, will be a function of the required energy
in the SAG and ball mill and will be dependent on the abrasiveness of the ore itself. Wear cost in
HPGRs are very much ore dependent. Wear cost for a SAG vs. HPGR comparison need to be evalu-
ated on a case by case basis.

5 Future Trends for HPGRs in Copper and for Other Minerals

A need for further reduction of total operating cost and in particular of the energy consumption in
tomorrow’s comminution circuits is obvious. This is a result of lower grade and harder ore bodies to
be treated in the future. Restriction of CO2 emissions to avoid global warming has become an im-

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portant issue on the world wide political agenda and may result in a limitation of available energy
(CO2 certificates) or at least in higher energy cost than today. Only highly efficient comminution
concepts may make in particular “low grade/hard ore“ projects feasible at all, keeping capital
(capex) and operating (opex) expenditures at economical levels. Finally, availability of water is be-
coming more and more of an issue.
The introduction of HPGRs as the tertiary crushing stage in hard rock applications was a first mile-
stone to achieve energy and wear cost reductions for energy intensive ore bodies. Nevertheless,
there is the demand to utilise the potential of HPGRs to a greater extent than today.
There are three major focus areas for optimisation of HPGR – Ball Mill plants are:
• to reduce the investment cost of secondary crushing - HPGR – ball milling plants (SC-HPGR-BM)
which are percepted to be generally higher than those of traditional SAG – Pebble Crushing - Ball
Milling (SABC) circuits,
• to shift more energy from the ball mills and secondary crushers to the more efficient HPGRs in
order to improve the overall energy efficiency of comminution circuits,
• to further reduce the wear cost in the crushing, HPGR and milling sections.
Trade off studies often resulted in operating cost advantages of HPGR based circuits at higher capi-
tal expenditure as compared to traditional SABC circuits. In fact, this perception is not valid in gen-
eral. The economical differences of both concepts are mainly determined by the energy require-
ments of an ore in SAG mills. The required number of SAG mills – as already shown above – may
range from one to four “20 MW” mills for a 100,000 tpd plant whereas the number of HPGRs
would be four for the majority of ores. An investment cost disadvantage of HPGR circuits is ques-
tionable in case that four large SAG mills would be required. Mayor cost driver in HPGR based
circuits is the material handling equipment and, in particular, today’s practice to operate the secon-
dary crushers and HPGRs in closed circuit with screens.
Open circuit secondary crushing and multiple pass, open circuit grinding in HPGRs is sometimes
viewed as a potential approach for investment cost reductions due to expected plant simplifications
and – hopefully also – operating cost reductions.
On the paper, open circuit secondary crushing might be a viable option if ideal operating conditions
could be permanently guaranteed on the crushers. However, open circuit operation would not pro-
vide any protection against oversize ore entering the HPGRs circuit. Such oversize material could
pass the crushers under certain conditions, especially after gap releases in overload situations. Per-
manent as well as temporary oversize feed would reduce the lifetime of the HPGR wear protection.
For a long time there was or even still is the perception that HPGRs should be fed as coarse as pos-
sible to release the secondary crushers and ensure highest circuit efficiency. Although the lifetime of
secondary crusher’s wear parts may be quite short in some applications, the wear cost for the secon-
dary crushing duty is still relatively low. Wear cost typically increases disproportional in each com-

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minution step towards the final product. From this point of view it should be more economical to
install additional secondary crushing capability rather than to tantalize the tertiary HPGRs with a
large or even oversized feed.
HPGRs would definitely benefit from a finer feed size. Firstly, the lifetime of the HPGR wear pro-
tection is significantly longer with finer feed and thus reducing wear cost. Secondly, a finer feed
could become the precondition to apply the next generation of “stud grades”. Those stud grates are
more wear resistant (longer lifetime) but also more brittle at the same time (higher risk of stud
breakage). Earlier recommendations with regard to the “top feed size to gap” ratio have to be re-
defined taking into account particularly the hardness or better ductility of the ore. The risk of stud
breakage has to be mitigated by matching ore abrasiveness, ore hardness, top feed size and applica-
ble stud grades. A comprehensive understanding of these interactions is the precondition to optimise
the interface between secondary crushing and HPGRs in order to ensure the application of the best
suited wear protection design for a particular application and to minimise wear cost.
Furthermore, a frequently discussed issue is: “How to shift more energy from the ball mills to the
HPGRs while simplifying the plant at the same time?” A distinction is to be made between two
principal approaches despite the fact that there is wide variety of possible flow sheet configurations
which may also combine the two said principles. The first option considered for efficiency im-
provements is to produce a finer HPGR circuit product by fine screening and accepting higher circu-
lating loads. Such an approach would not change the current plant design and layout significantly.
The second option is to use HPGRs in multiple pass, open circuit mode without intermediate classi-
fication. Supporters of this concept additionally hope to achieve a simplification of the plant result-
ing in lower investment cost. Further engineering studies are required to prove this expectation.
Four typical flow sheets deviating from the “standard flow” sheet are shown in Figure 9.

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Figure 9: Alternative HPGR based circuits

Extensive testwork has been conducted using pilot scale HPGRs and lab scale ball mills to
investigate the difference of various flow sheet configurations in terms of overall energy efficiency
including the subsequent ball mill stage.

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The general conclusions from this testwork were that

• screening at finer than current industrial screen sizes of 5 to 10 mm would improve the circuit
efficiency as long as the moisture content of the wet screen oversize could be maintained at
reasonable levels,
• fines removal between subsequent HPGR stages is essential for highest efficiency,
• any multiple pressing without prior fines removal resulted in reduced circuit efficiencies.
These findings are in line with industrial practise outside of minerals applications. Today, the Ce-
ment Industry still has the widest experience with regard to the most efficient utilisation of HPGRs.
Two important lessons can be learnt from the various cement applications. Firstly, HPGRs are 40 to
60 % more energy efficient than normal ball mills and secondly, high efficiency separation is the
key to actually obtain these potential energy savings. Any multiple pressing without intermediate
classification reduced the efficiency of the overall grinding circuits in cement. Based on these ex-
periences is obvious that highest energy savings in minerals would also be achievable if HPGRs
could eliminate the ball mills at all – as several applications on cement clinker, blast furnace slag
and limestones have proven in the past.
So far, the largest HPGR finish grinding applications in limestone are currently operated in an In-
dian cement plant. Two grinding plants, each incorporating one POLYCOM 21/16, are treating a
limestone with a Bond work index in the range of from 15 to 16 kWh/t. Each grinding plant pro-
duces between 320 and 370 tph of product at a P80 of 65 to 90 µm. The energy consumption for the
HPGR, fan, separator and bucket elevators is between 10.7 and 11.5 kWh/t depending on the prod-
uct fineness.
A Bond work index of 15 to 16 kWh/t is not unusual for typical copper ores. Assuming an identical
HPGR size and same grinding and classification efficiencies, the said Indian plant would have the
potential to grind in the order of 450 tph of copper ore to flotation fineness of 150 µm and up to
650 tph with a larger POLYCOM 24/18. Finish grinding with a HPGR could reduce the energy re-
quirements by in the order of 40 % compared to HPGR/wet ball mill circuits as applied today.
Definitely, there are questions and challenges around such a dry finish grinding system for mineral
applications, like moisture, wear, maintenance, etc. Nevertheless, this would be the ultimate ap-
proach to minimise energy requirements for grinding ferrous and non ferrous ores.
The evolution to expand efficient HPGR utilisation in today’s crushing and milling circuits will be
an on-going development in the near future. A revolution would be to apply HPGRs for finish
grinding.

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6 Summary
HPGRs have established themselves as an accepted and well matured technology which is able to
significantly reduce the operating cost of copper concentrators and other minerals applications.
The barrier “I do not want to be the first using a new technology” has been broken successfully by
installations such as Cerro Verde, Grasberg, Boddington and Mogalakwena. Feasibility studies of
further world class projects in Chile and Pakistan are solely based on HPGR technology.
HPGRs broke the barrier for some recent and current projects to become viable at all from an eco-
nomical standpoint, especially in the case of competent, low grade ore bodies which would require
high energy inputs in conventional SAG mills.
Nevertheless, HPGRs are a relatively young technology compared to well known conventional
crushing and grinding circuits which have been operated for decades. There is a focus on opportuni-
ties to optimise the first generation of HPGR circuits in terms of operating and capital cost. This
will be an ongoing process in the next couple of years.
Application of HPGRs in heap leach installations as well as for finish grinding to flotation fineness
could be the next milestones in the copper industry.

References
[1] Patzelt N., J. Knecht, E. Burchardt, and R. Klymowsky: “Challenges for High Pressure Grind-
ing in the New Millenium”; 7th Mill Operators Conference 2000, Kalgoorlie, WA. 47-55.
[2] Patzelt N., R. Klymowsky, E. Burchardt, and J. Knecht: “High Pressure Grinding Rolls in
AG/SAG Mill Circuits. Proceedings”; SAG 2001, Vol. III. 107-123.
[3] J.L. Vanderbeek, T.B. Linde, W.S. Brack, and J.O. Marsden: “HPGR Implementation at Cerro
Verde”; SAG 2006, IV 45 – 61
[4] M. Mular, John Mosher: ”A Pre-production Review of PT Freeport Indonesia’s High Pressure
Grinding Roll Project”; SAG 2006, IV 62 - 79
[5] S. Dixon, B. Olson, E. Wipf: “Squeezing an extra 30% of a typical SABC circuit for 4.8 kWh/t”;
SME 2010
[6] C. Rule: “Development of a Process Flow Sheet for the New Anglo Platinum Concentrator In-
corporating HPGR Technolgy”; SAG 2006, IV 94 – 109
[7] C. Rule, D. Minnaar, G. Sauermann: ”HPGR – Revolution in Platinum”; Third International
Platinum Conference, The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 2008.
[8] B. Parker, G. Veillette: “Boddington Expansion Project”; Randol Conference, Perth, 2005

2636 Proceedings of Copper 2010