Increasing production at Polyus Gold Blagodatnoye with holistic optimization from mine-to-plant

Polyus Gold has implemented various optimization and modernization initiatives within their operations and the current focus is to increase throughput at their Blagodatnoye operation. Polyus initiated a Mine-to-Plant optimization project with Hatch; the aim was to increase throughput, metal recovery, and overall efficiency while minimizing costs. A structured methodology supported by extensive auditing, surveys and historical, benchmarking and operating data analysis was used to gain an understanding of how each stage (blasting, comminution, gravity, flotation) behaves for different ore characteristics. Detailed knowledge of the relevant ore characteristics and their distribution throughout the orebody was used to define ore domains that would behave similarly through mining and processing. Site-specific models were developed for each stage and simulations were conducted to evaluate different blast designs for each ore domain considering the subsequent impact on downstream processes. Blasting guidelines were specified according to ore domain to provide optimized Run-of-Mine (ROM) fragmentation considering the costs and productivity of the overall operation: mining and processing. Simulations and operating data analysis were also used to optimize the downstream comminution and separation processes and adjust them for the changed conditions. Hatch is assisting Blagodatnoye to implement the recommended changes to blasting, comminution, gravity and flotation which should increase throughput by 10 – 14 % (an increase of about 0.8 to 1.1 Mtpa) and gold recovery by 2 – 5 %. The combined effect of higher throughput and increased flotation recovery would result in 11 to 17 % more mass of gold in the concentrate