Workshops

Workshop 1 – Heap Leaching Workshop
Sunday 17 August 2008, 9.00 am – 5.00 pm approx

Workshop Leader: Graeme Miller, Hydrometallurgy Process Consulting
Cost: A$990 (incl. GST)
Graeme has extensive experience designing, building, commissioning and improving heap leach operations in Australia, South America, Asia, South Africa and the Middle East. He will be assisted by other experts in this one-day workshop. Register via the conference registration form.

Workshop 2 – Advances in Flotation Technologies
Tuesday 19 August 2008, 5.00 pm – 9.30 pm approx

Workshop Leader: Chris Greet, Magotteaux Australia Pty Ltd
Cost: A$850 (incl. GST)
This workshop will follow the closing of the final conference session. Chris has considerable experience in flotation operations and R&D. He is editing a Monograph for AusIMM on Flotation which incorporates chapters by a wide range of industry and engineering practitioners. Register via the conference registration form.

Workshop 3 – The Draft Metal Accounting Code
Wednesday 20 August 2008, 9.00 am – 5.00 pm approx

Workshop Leader: Peter Gaylard, University of Cape Town and Rob Morrison, JKMRC
Cost: A$1,100 (incl. GST)
The workshop will consider application of the Code to a typical minesite. Register via the conference registration form.

Following the successful “Geometallurgy” and “Advances in Comminution Technologies” workshops associated with MetPlant 2006, these MetPlant 2008 workshops are designed to help industry practitioners (metallurgists, process and design engineers, equipment suppliers) to gain a better understanding of these subjects, the design and operational problems, and work in progress to develop improved design and operations. Forum sessions will allow detailed discussions between presenters and delegates.

These will be very interactive peer to peer workshops. If you have information to present on either or both of these subjects please contact the convenors.

Further details will be published on this website as planning develops.

Workshop Convenors:
Geoff Dunlop +61 8 8379 7198
David Pollard +61 8 8362 5545
Email: metplant@internode.on.net

 

Short Course – Comparative Statistics and Experimental Design

Wednesday 20 August – Friday 22 August 2008
Presented by: Professor Tim Napier-Munn
Cost: A$3,630 (incl. GST) per person, A$330 discount for AusIMM members.

Course outline:

Minerals engineers are often required to do experiments and to analyse the results from those experiments. They may range from simple laboratory tests to major plant trials lasting several weeks and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Examples include:

  • Laboratory trials of a new flocculant
  • Laboratory grinding and flotation tests of new ores
  • Pilot plant tests for flow sheet design
  • Plant trials of a new flotation reagent
  • Plant trials of a new circuit configuration or item of equipment

In each case, data are collected to allow some decision(s) to be made. It is important to arrive at the right decision, in the shortest possible time and at the lowest possible cost. This is often difficult to achieve because mineral processing data are usually imprecise and, especially in the case of plant data, subject to uncontrolled trends, cycles and variations, which make comparisons difficult. The figure below shows the daily gold recovery from a copper-gold concentrator. An improvement of 1% in recovery would be well worthwhile, but very difficult to detect against a daily variation of over 20%.

This course introduces the minerals engineer to simple statistical methods which allow wise decisions to be made in the face of this kind of uncertainty. Topics covered include:

  • The nature of error
  • Precision and accuracy
  • Confidence limits
  • Comparing samples
  • The t-test and the F-test
  • Sample size
  • The chi-squared test and contingency tables
  • The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
  • Sampling schemes in chemical analysis
  • Modelling with regression
  • Comparison of two regression lines
  • Design of experiments
  • The randomised block design
  • Factorial experiments
  • Conducting and analysing plant trials
  • Selecting the best method

A full set of notes is provided (completely revised Feb 2007), plus Excel spreadsheets on disk for many of the methods discussed.  The notes and lectures include full instructions on using Excel’s statistical toolbox. A wide range of numerical examples taken from real mineral processing case studies is used to illustrate the methods described. Tutorials allow course attendees to develop their analytical skills; questions and answers provide a library of additional case studies for future reference.

For registration and further information, please contact
Sarah Schwarz

Manager - Training Courses & Flotation Specialist
Ph:  (+61 7) 3365 5879
E-mail: s.schwarz@jktech.com.au

 

 

 

 

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