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Perth-based OreNova Engineering has helped showcase what could become one of Western Australia’s next major gold project developments, providing its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools to help accelerate the study phase at Horizon Gold Limited’s Gum Creek gold project.
The firm is looking to speed up the engineering process associated with building mineral processing plants, leveraging AI to help automate study-phase mechanical design deliverables for said plants. This covers material and equipment selection, through to datasheet development and mechanical equipment lists, capital and operating expenditure calculations, process flow diagrams, 3D modelling and more, delivering, it says, high-quality results in a fraction of the time – and with a fraction of the cost – than it conventionally takes.
The outputs that Brad Skajko, Founder and Director of the company, and his team (AI experts, software engineers, etc) are able to generate come with around 95% accuracy compared, on top of that accelerated speed. “We’re helping engineering firms complete these deliverables in hours instead of weeks, automating up to 2,000 engineering hours in a couple of days,” he claims, adding that the company has eyes on bringing the accuracy level up to 99% next year with the addition of new software modules.
“Not only that; we’re helping them deliver on projects that they wouldn’t be able to meet deadlines on before. This helps solidify their place in the market – mining firms know they can rely on them for timely outputs, at the same time as the engineering firms can bid for work based on these reduced timeframes to complete work.”
A recent example of its work has come with the announcement of the definitive feasibility study (DFS) for Gum Creek, a circa-100,000 oz/y gold development with an upfront capital bill of A$350 million that Horizon Gold has been progressing through the development process.
The DFS, which was undertaken by an integrated Horizon and MineScope Services project delivery team, provides an estimate of production, capital and operating costs and a detailed schedule for the engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and ramp-up of a 2.4 Mt/y gold mining and processing facility at Gum Creek.
It has assessed the technical, financial and environmental viability of the project, which delivers a production target of 25.1 Mt at 1.19 g/t Au for 962,000 oz which is predominantly underpinned by a maiden ore reserve of 18.2 Mt at 1.24 g/t Au for 728,000 oz of contained gold. It is anticipated the project will deliver an average gold production of 88,000 oz/y over an initial 10-year mine life, peaking at 114,000 oz/y in year two, and delivering a total of 880,000 oz of gold recovered over the life of mine (LOM) with an all-in sustaining cost of A$2,995/oz.
OreNova’s involvement was tied to the plant design, Skajko said.
In the DFS, the plant was scoped at 2.4 Mt/y of gold ore from multiple open-pit deposits at a combined LOM gold feed grade of 1.19 g/t Au.
The company was engaged by MineScope Services on behalf of Horizon Gold to undertake a DFS-level process plant design and cost estimate.
OreNova was then engaged to use its models to also design the plant to a PFS level and conduct a gap analysis of the results, referred to as a “bottom-up peer review”. Skajko said OreNova’s PFS, completed in just 13 days, fell within 0.3% and 1.1% of the capital and operational costs within the DFS.
The DFS process design incorporates conventional three-stage crushing, single-stage ball milling, gravity gold recovery, carbon in leach, elution and smelting with the following metrics:
- Total gold recovery: 91.5%
- Gravity gold recovery: 29.8%
- Bond Ball Work Index: 18.3 kWh/t
- Grinding size P80: 75 µm
The plant includes a primary jaw crusher, secondary and tertiary cone crushers, crushed ore screening section, milling, cyclone classifiers, gravity separation and concentration processes, and intensive leaching of gravity concentrate, leaching and adsorption of cyclone overflow, elution circuit and carbon regeneration; and services and reagents.
Future expandability has been incorporated into the plant’s design to allow the crushing circuit to process 3 Mt/y by installing larger model primary and secondary crushers. The milling circuit has also been designed to match this increased rate by reserving the ground footprint for a future second mill, and additional leach and adsorption tanks. A larger hydro cyclone cluster has also been selected with spare outlets for future use.
Skajko said the Gum Creek project is a great example of how OreNova’s offering can help accelerate the development timeline associated with new mining projects.
“It’s great to demonstrate our capabilities publicly on a project of this calibre, and credit to Horizon for backing a new approach,” he said. “What excites us most is that these results came from our current software. Our upcoming releases will more than double the engineering hours we save on a project.”
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