CEET

GRINDING CIRCUIT DESIGN AND PRODUCTION FORECASTING

SGS Minerals Services is the industry leader in producing geometallurgically enabled models for major ore bodies. The Comminution Economic Evaluation Tool (CEET®) was introduced to the market in 1999 and since then we’ve completed over 300 comminution benchmarking projects.

CEET® is an internet-based software tool that enables accurate design and forecasting of plant throughputs, operating costs and grind quality. Capital investment and production planning decisions can thus be based on well-defined representative data sets representing the resource model. CEET® links a grinding circuit design model with the mine resource block model to:

• Ensure throughput tonnage targets are consistently achieved
• Determine best circuit design for the ore body and mine plan
• Improve revenue-stream predictions for both budgeting and metal sales
• Optimize the mine plan for throughput and grind quality
• Minimize capital investment & operating costs for desired production rates
• Trade off capital investment with variance in throughput
• Quantify uncertainty arising from throughput predictions

Technical Components of CEET®

The SGS Minerals Services Grinding Philosophy

SGS Minerals Services’ philosophy is that the most important parameters affecting both the semiautogenous / autogenous throughput and product size are:

• Ore hardness and feed distribution
• Feed size relation to ore hardness

It is primarily the hardness variability that determines the month-by-month throughput and subsequent operating costs. Over the last 10-years, we have developed technology that combines existing methods in geostatistics, mine planning and mineral processing to draw accurate and conclusive models of the ore body as a whole. Simply stated, the fundamental philosophy behind CEET® is that an ore body, specifically the ore hardness, cannot be adequately modeled with only a few samples.

CEET® is Comprised of 3 Primary Components:

1. Test-work to derive detailed hardness knowledge of the ore body. Testing consists of:
   1. SPI^TM testing to determine the SAG energy relationship – industry standard
   2. Bond testing to derive the ball mill energy relationship
      
      
2. Development of process models for both the SAG and Ball Mill circuits. The models are tuned via plant sampling and/or the SGS Minerals Services “Benchmark Database”.
   
   
3. Application of the hardness distribution and tuned process models across the mine resource model using CEET®

CEET® accurately predicts both the throughput and grind quality. It can be applied iteratively across mine resource models with consideration for the mine plan to identify the circuit design that optimizes the long-term economic benefits. CEET® is an internet-based software tool jointly developed by SGS Minerals Services and the following leading mining companies: