August 12, 2020
Introduction Scoping studies are a valuable tool in project evaluation but over the past 5 years the publication of their results has […]
July 23, 2020
When I started MinAssist over 15 years ago it was to focus on making process mineralogy more accessible in mineral processing. We […]
July 17, 2020
Taking a successful exploration project to the next step in evaluating its potential for development is a long and complex process. It […]
September 6, 2017
In last week’s article we spent some time evaluating particle statistics using SEM-EDS data to demonstrate the importance of the […]
August 29, 2017
In our last article I re-introduced the concept of using statistics to determine if enough particle sections have been measured to produce a […]
March 2, 2015
As revenues from mining and mineral processing operations become largely volatile and under increased commodity price pressure, businesses and operators are re-thinking […]
October 14, 2013
Friday 11th October saw the Cornish Institute of Engineers celebrate 100 years of promoting engineering excellence in Cornwall with a day-conference […]
April 5, 2013
The Hillside Cu-Au Project, located within striking distance of Adelaide in South Australia was discovered in 2008-2009 and since then a Resource of 330Mt @ 0.8% Cu(eq) has been defined and 120Mt @0.77% Cu(eq) converted into Reserves. Rex Minerals completed a pre-feasibility study in October 2012 and are progressing with development of a 15Mtpa processing facility to produce a proposed 70,000 tonnes of Cu and 50,000oz of gold, along with a sweetener of 1.2Mtpa of magnetite. This will all be done for a C1 cash operating cost of US$1.2/lb Cu (Eq), which is very impressive.
February 19, 2013
Last week I attended a very interesting presentation by AMC Consultants chairman and past AusIMM president, Peter McCarthy on "Why feasibility studies fail!" (Link). Peter has been involved in running studies for over 40 years and has seen many different reasons for projects not achieving the targets set out in the original feasibility study.
Some of the key points of project failure were around the very human desire to see projects be developed, even when objectively they may be doomed to failure. A lack of communication between study teams, construction teams and eventually operations teams also led to plans from feasibility not being implemented on the proposed schedule and leading to difficulties later in the project cycle.
