Ausenco designs compact plant layouts to optimise footprint and cost. This has resulted in the development of a more compact design than typically used by North American engineering companies, which not only reduces cost but also significantly reduces the carbon footprint of construction.

The dominant requirement of good plant design is personal safety, followed by capital intensity and efficiency. Efficiency improvement is achieved by a mix of reliability, simplicity, maintenance cost, operating materials and labour cost. There is recognition that energy efficiency in comminution is a desirable outcome from a community & environmental perspective. The CEEC (Coalition for Energy Efficient Comminution) initiative demonstrates corporate support from mining houses, designers/engineers, equipment vendors and consumables suppliers for these outcomes. Ausenco has been involved with CEEC initiative as the founding member of energy efficiency processes.

Decreasing head grades combined with a strong & sustained increase in operating costs have forced miners to examine increased project size, increased equipment capacity and efficiency improvements in order to reduce their unit operating costs and improve overall project economics. Comminution energy consumption, safety and capital cost considerations play a critical role in the success of our projects.

Ask us how we provided successful solutions for the Cadia East Project where energy efficiency played a key role in the selection of HPGR technology. #AskAusencoHow

Ausenco offered expansion solutions for the Cadia East project circuit by installing screening and HPGR crushing equipment ahead of the existing SAG mill, converting existing pebble crushers into secondary crushers and adding additional ball milling capacity to the original circuit. This is the only circuit of its type where HPGR technology has been used to increase the capacity of a SAG mill by crushing the feed stream and producing a very fine SAG mill feed.