:: Turnkey On-stream Analysis System to Deliver High Efficiencies for Perilya Broken Hill

One of the world’s most advanced on-stream slurry analysers is to be installed by Outokumpu Technology at Perilya Ltd’s Broken Hill lead, zinc and silver mine.

The Courier^® 6 SL elemental analyser system is part of a turnkey package of analysis, automation and sampling technology designed to optimise recoveries and concentrate quality. It will also save costs, time and valuable labour at the mine, which is one of the country’s largest lead, zinc and silver operations.

Benefits will include improved process control and assay efficiency and also greater reliability compared with existing older systems, which require continual maintenance to ensure operability, explains Outokumpu Technology’s Service Centre Manager in Australia, Jason King.

Perilya currently produces about two million tonnes of ore a year at the historic Broken Hill orebody, which was one of the foundations of the Australian Mining industry and which has produced more than 200 million tonnes of ore over the 121 years since mining commenced in 1885. Since acquiring the mine three years ago, Perilya Ltd has made significant improvements in the operations, including underground equipment replacement and optimisation of its concentrator.

The state-of-the-art Courier^® 6 SL system - which includes metallurgical and primary samplers, sample drying system, sample pumps, piping, platforms and electrical and mechanical installations - will replace the existing and increasingly ageing analyser system at Perilya.

The Courier^® 6 SL analyser system is the highest performance model in a new generation of real time on-stream elemental slurry analysers. They enable quick and accurate analysis and maximise process efficiency. Based on the same high performance wavelength dispersive XRF technology as used in laboratories, the Courier^® 6 SL offers the best sensitivity and short cycle time for process management, monitoring and control.

Sampling, analysis and sample return are fully automatic, do not require operator attendance and are automatically done in the same consistent way around the clock. This creates savings in assaying costs and metallurgical sampling. Concentrate recoveries are also better, as process upsets are detected and solved rapidly. Plant operation is optimized with less circulating loads, resulting in higher throughput.