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TiTan Metallurgical Services (TTMS): Consulting to the titanium (mineral sands), tin, tantalum and tungsten mineral processing industries since 2004

 

The following is a brief summary of the projects that TTMS has been involved with since inception:

 

    Australian Mineral Sands: for GR Engineering commissioning and performance test on KLPL modified Doral dry mill at Picton near Bunbury WA (November / December 2015)

  1. This involved putting HMC from the Keysbrook minesite through a new section of the existing dry mill, utilising vibrating screens, CoronaStat HTs and rare earth magnetic rolls, in addition to utilising sections of the Doral circuit. The plant was commissioned and the performance test was successful.

    New Zealand Iron Sands (September to November 2014

  1. TTMS spent a total of six weeks in New Zealand on site at the NZ Steel Taharoa iron sands mine expansion in two separate stints. The first stint involved reviewing test work and assisting in the commissioning of a new modular spiral plant. The second stint involved assisting in a low grade feed plant trial of the original wet plant. This is one of the few wet plants remaining that still uses Reichert cones.
         

    Brazilian scheelite (for Largo Resources  February 2013)

  1. Site visit to Largo Resources Currais Novos, Brazil, scheelite tailings reprocessing operations, regarding flow sheet changes to identify opportunities to optimise plant performance and maximise recoveries of scheelite concentrate. This involved on site discussions with Largo management and others and resulted in an action plan consisting of modifying the existing circuit, trialling the modifications, and depending on the results and further tests, adding cyclone sizing and spirals stages to create coarse and fine circuits. Assistance was given to extensive Falcon C4000 test work while on site.
         

    • Australian silica sands (for Cape Flattery Silica Sands October 2012 to March 2013)
    • Review of new processing plant flow sheets and P & IDs for CFSM silica sands mine, Yorke Peninsula, QLD, followed by four weeks on site for commissioning of the new gravity separation and dewatering plants. This became extended due to numerous issues, including water supply and distribution, bucket wheel dewatering etc.

         

  1. Australian wolframite (for Wolfram Camp Mine September 2012)
  2. Site visit to WCM wolframite mine, near Dimbulah, QLD to review and discuss the flow sheet with management, in particular additional dry processing steps to improve product quality. Subsequently this involved sourcing an HTR within Australia.

    Further assistance in Feb 2013 involved a review of past documentation to determine possible upgrading and processing of the feed to enhance production.

         

  1. New Zealand silics sands (for Tapora  Sands  September 2012)
  2. Site visit to silica sand mine and processing plant north of Auckland, New Zealand, to advise on ways to improve the product quality to enable a glass sand product to be made. This involved numerous recommendations including a more suitable deposit, screening changes, additional spiral stages, sampling and analysis. 

         

  1. Senegalese mineral sands plant design (for CPG-MT  Feb-May 2012)
  2. Lead process engineer involved in process flow sheet design of the Grande Cote minerals sands project in Senegal, at the CPG engineering office on the Gold Coast, QLD. This involved checking process mass flow and process and instrumentation diagrams, writing control and operating philosophy documents for the wet concentration plant and mineral separation plant (wet and dry circuits) and attending meetings including HAZOP.

         

  1. Australian Coal Handling and Preparation Plant commissioning (for CPG Oct – Dec 2011)

    TTMS spent ten weeks in the latter part of the year on shift on behalf of Downer EDI assisting in the commissioning of a new CHPP at the Wesfarmers Curragh coal mine near Blackwater in Central Queensland’s Bowen Basin. This involved a fly in / out roster. The plant included vibrating screens, dense media and dewatering cyclones, Jameson flotation cells, spirals, magnetic separators, centrifuges, horizontal belt filters and thickeners.

         

  1. Spanish scheelite (for Heemskirk Resources Jan-Mar 2011)
  2. On site metallurgical consultant Heemskirk Resources (Dayton Mining) Los Santos scheelite mine in Spain. This involved setting up improved metallurgical accounting procedures (database, laboratory, automatic sampling), improving plant operating procedures and flow sheet changes in the concentrator to lift recovery and concentrate grade, and instigate investigations into new methods of recovering fine scheelite using enhanced gravity separators.

         

  1. Australian silica sands (for Fraser & Osborne Dec 2010)
  2. Metallurgical consultant to F& O for a new concentrator at Cape Flattery  Silica Mines, QLD. This included an on-site stint to evaluate the existing plant operations and procedures, and make recommendations for the proposed new plant.

         

  1. Australian mineral sands (forAMEC  Minprok May 2010)
  2. The metallurgical component of a team that carried out an audit of Iluka Resources recently commissioned Murray Basin mineral sands projects (Jacinth Ambrosia and Kulwin mines and Narngulu and Hamilton MSPs) to confirm the validity of their respective production forecasts for 2010.

         

  1. Mozambique mineral sands (for Kenmare Resources Ltd Nov 2009 – Apr 2010)
  2. Two stints of six weeks and four weeks focussing on process development and improvement issues in the MSP (particularly the rutile circuit), plus day to day problem shooting, also sampling and other issues in the WCP, at the Moma mineral sands project, Mozambique.
         

    Mozambique mineral sands (for RocheMT, August to December 2008)

    Roche Mining carried out the metallurgical test work and supplied most of the separation equipment used in this major mineral sands project at Moma in northern Mozambique. The project was constructed by a JV of Multiplex and Bateman for Kenmare Resources and was commissioned last year.

    TTMS was asked to assist with carrying out a “Test after Completion” on the wet concentrator.

    This involved ensuring that plant was set up for the test to proceed, and then eventually monitor the metallurgical performance over a seven day period.

         

  1. Indonesian cassiterite (for Micromine Ltd, April 2008)

    Micromine carried out a resource audit on behalf of PT Timah, a long established company and one of the largest tin producers in world, who operate and purchase cassiterite from a number of offshore and onshore operations, mostly on Bangka Island, Indonesia.

    TTMS was part of a team of specialists, and provided metallurgical input to the audit, by assessing the recoveries of the mineral processing facilities and the laboratory assaying techniques involved.

         

  1. Indonesian ironsands (for Indomines Ltd, November 2007 to May 2008)

    Indomines are in a JV to develop this potentially major project based on a coastal titano-magnetite deposit on the south coast of Java, Indonesia for the production of pig iron.

    TTMS was involved in assisting commissioning and operating a 10tph pilot plant and associated quality control facilities, consisting of a ball mill, drum magnets, and laboratory XRF respectively, in order to produce a 50tonne bulk concentrate sample for pyro-metallurgical tests in Europe.

         

  1. Indian mineral sands (for RocheMT, November 2006 to July 2007)

    RocheMT asked TTMS to assist in the commissioning and optimisation of new and upgraded wet concentration and wet and dry mineral separation circuits at Indian Rare Earth’s (IRE) Chavara, Kerala, India operations. The various sections of this long established plant was expanded and modernised, by installation of new screens and spirals, a drum magnet and hydrosizer, wet high intensity magnet separators (WHIMS), fluid bed dryers (FBDs), Cararra HT separators, retrofitted HTRs, plate separators, and 1800 Kelsey jig and screening module.

         

  1. Australian mineral sands (for Roche MT, March to May 2006)

    RocheMT asked TTMS to assist in optimising the performance of the wet concentrator at Bemax Resources Ginkgo mine site in Western NSW ahead of a performance test. This involved sampling, process control, and flow sheet development test work, which led to improvements in recovery and concentrate grade. TTMS subsequently returned to Ginkgo in September 2006 on behalf of Bemax Resources to assist with screening and cycloning issues.

         

  1. Australian mineral sands (for Matilda Minerals Ltd, February 2007)

    Matilda Minerals asked TTMS to inspect and audit their concentrator and laboratory on the Tiwi islands in the NT. A number of recommendations were made related to sampling procedures, metallurgical accounting and laboratory analysis.

         

  1. Bolivian cassiterite (for AITCOBOL Ltd, October 2005 to February 2006)

    AITCOBOL asked TTMS to carry out pilot plant metallurgical test work to develop a gravity circuit to recover cassiterite from tailings from an old dump located at Catavi, Bolivia. This involved compositing and then processing borehole samples through various types of gravity separators at a metallurgical laboratory in Oruro, Bolivia. Spirals and shaking tables were initially tested, but because of the extremely fine particle size, enhanced gravity separation devices were subsequently trialled, including a Falcon separator (in Oruro), Knelson concentrator (in Vancouver), J200 Kelsey jig, Moseley MGS, Falcon C type concentrator (all at Minsur Peru)

         

  1. Australian cassiterite (for Bluestone Tin Ltd, November 2004 to March 2005)

    Bluestone Tin asked TTMS to assist with the re-commissioning of the Renison Bell tin concentrator on the west coast of Tasmania. This old and complex concentrator had been refurbished and modified since standing idle for some time. TTMS assisted with commissioning and optimising the various circuit stages including rod and ball mills, banana screens, sulphide flotation, shaking tables, spirals, Moseley cyclones, Moseley gravity separators, Kelsey jigs, cassiterite flotation.

         

  1. Australian magnetite (for IMO, August to October 2004)

    Independent Metallurgical Operations asked TTMS to operate and develop an on site pilot plant at Ernest Henry mine, near Cloncurry, Qld (part of the Xstrata Group) for the recovery of magnetite from their flotation plant tailings. This involved expanding the initial pilot plant setup to include a second drum magnet, a hydrosizer and a spiral. A bulk concentrate of magnetite was produced for further test work in China, together with a flow sheet for recovery of residual copper and gold values.

         

  1. Egyptian tantalite (for Gippsland Ltd, July 2004 to September 2007)

    Gippsland is developing a large tantalite / cassiterite deposit at Abu Dabbab near the Red Sea in Egypt. Involvement with this project began with a previous employer (pilot plant metallurgical test work), and led to a continuation with TTMS. This included several trips to Roche Mining metallurgical laboratory on the Gold Coast for electrostatic and magnetic separation tests, a trip to Germany to the major potential customer (HC Starck) to discuss metallurgical issues, and a trip to South Africa to carry out comparative spiral test work at Mintek in Johannesburg. For most of this time TTMS was kept on a retainer basis.