Key Steps for Siting Your Mineral Processing Plant

Before starting the mineral processing operation, an essential work content is the site of the mineral processing plant, so how should we choose the site? In this article, we will mainly introduce the 10 factors that need to be considered for the site of the mineral processing plant, mainly including the location of the mine, terrain conditions, geological conditions, site selection of the mineral processing plant, water supply conditions, power supply conditions, traffic conditions, tailings dam location, living area location, land saving rules, and environmental protection rules.

01 Mine location

The site should generally be as close to the mine as possible. However, for polymetallic ore dressing plants that process rich ores or high concentrate rates, when the user is very close to the mine, or is limited by water, electricity, fuel supply, etc., it can also be close to the user, or built in the user's plant area, so that the purpose of ore dressing can be achieved.

The concentrate warehouse of the factory is connected to the user's storage bin to save investment. For some precious metal factories, in order to avoid the loss of concentrate during bulk transportation, or the concentrate of some factories must be dried before being transported back to the user. When there is waste heat available, the factory can also be located close to the user, and even the selected concentrate slurry can be directly pumped to the smelter for dehydration. When the mine resources are scattered and the factory needs to be built in a centralized manner, it is advisable to reasonably select the site between the mine and the user to achieve the lowest comprehensive freight cost of the original ore and concentrate.

When building a factory near a mine, ore bodies, magnetic anomalies, collapse boundaries and blasting danger zones should be avoided.

02 Terrain conditions

The site terrain should be as suitable as possible for the needs of the factory process. The topographic conditions of the factory must meet the site area requirements. It is best to make the slurry flow by gravity, followed by semi-gravity flow, and finally pressure conveying. Generally, the natural slope of the suitable terrain for the crushing plant is about 25°, and the main plant is about 15°. Without such ideal terrain conditions, even if the factory is to be built on flat ground, considering the need for factory drainage, the site should still have a natural slope of 4-5%. The terrain slope required for the semi-gravity slurry plant is between the above two.

03 Geological conditions

The site should have good engineering geological conditions. The site should avoid being built below the fault, landslide and flood level, and should avoid unfavorable areas such as karst caves, silt, humus, potholes, ancient wells or cultural relics protection areas. The soil bearing capacity of the plant area is generally required to be greater than 100kN/㎡, and the heavy construction areas such as the crushing plant area, the main ore dressing plant, and the mine warehouse are required to be no less than 200kN/㎡. It is not advisable to build a factory in an earthquake zone. For the area of collapsible loess layer of level 9 or above or level 3 or above, the underground water level of the plant site should not be too high to reduce the complexity of the foundation project and the cost of infrastructure construction.

04 Water supply conditions

The factory consumes a lot of water, and some operations also have requirements for water quality. Therefore, under the premise of ensuring that the water quality and water quantity meet the needs of production and life, the factory should be as close to the water source as possible to avoid large amounts of water from high places; pay special attention not to compete with agriculture for water.

05 Power supply conditions

The power plant should not only have a reliable power supply, but also shorten the transmission line as much as possible. If there are conditions to use the power grid for power supply, it should use the power grid as much as possible to avoid building a power plant by itself and increasing investment and operation and management costs.

06 Traffic conditions

There should be suitable transportation conditions. The raw ore entering the factory, various consumable materials and the output concentrate should all have convenient transportation conditions. Railway transportation should be easy to connect with the national trunk line to reduce the construction of dedicated lines; road transportation should be easy to connect with the national highway trunk line.

07 Tailings dam location

The volume of the tailings pond should be adapted to the service life of the factory area, and a concave valley or depression should be selected to minimize the amount of earthwork and maximize the storage capacity. The tailings pond should be located as close to the factory area as possible to save the cost of tailings transportation and prevent the tailings from causing harm or pollution to the environment, rivers, agricultural and animal husbandry and fishery production and residential areas.

08 Residential area location

The location of the residential area should follow the principles of being conducive to production, convenient life and full cooperation. The residential area should not be too far from the factory area and the transportation should be convenient.

09 Land conservation rules

Implement the principle of land conservation. Whether the factory is built on a hillside or on flat land, it should occupy as little land as possible, especially less or no high-quality land, on the premise of meeting production needs. For tailings ponds, reclamation should be appropriately considered if conditions permit.

10 Environmental Protection Regulations

Pay attention to environmental protection. The site should be selected downwind of towns or residential areas as much as possible to minimize the pollution of dust, smoke and other emissions to the environment.

11 Summary

This article mainly introduces the 10 factors that need to be considered when choosing a factory location. In actual factory construction, some uncommon problems may also be encountered, so specific analysis is also required based on specific problems.