In the course of the last two decades, Western Australian iron ore mining business experienced an exponential manufacturing growth arising from elevated world demand for tool steel. The upturn within the iron ore price and significantly lower production value inspired intensive mining and consequently high-grade ore reserves were steadily depleted. Despite the energy-intensive nature of mining, high profitability motivated the mining companies to extract marginal-grade deposits with further processing necessities, seamless steel tube which increased vitality consumption and finally elevated the cost of iron ore manufacturing. This thesis sought to identify the vitality efficiencies of open-reduce iron ore mining operations, in terms of scale of operation in addition to within individual mining processes, in order that vitality consumption might be reduced, and sustainability enhanced.
Efficiency indices had been used to determine vitality efficiency across different scales of operation. Overall power consumption (per unit of processed ore) was directly related to the size of operation, the place giant-scale mining operations are extra vitality efficient in comparison with medium and small scales requiring the lowest quantity of vitality to course of a unit of ore. This suggests that an economy of scale primarily based on vitality effectivity might be observed in iron ore mining operations. Small-scale mining operations recorded the best vitality consumption to course of a unit of ore, indicating the bottom energy efficiency among the many three different scales of operation. However, the composite energy indicator indicated that the vitality effectivity of a specific mining operation can be influenced by the geological and mechanical steel bodily parameters of particular person elements including the waste-ore ratio, grade of ore, average haulage distance and manufacturing capacity. The outcomes of the regression analysis confirmed that it is the combined impact of all of the aforementioned parameters that has a pronounced impact on the quantity of vitality consumed to process a unit of ore.
Energy consumption per unit of processed ore at different course of stages revealed that the loading and hauling part is the most energy intensive course of stage in an iron ore mining operation no matter the scale at which it’s operating. If you have any kind of questions relating to where and exactly how to use seamless steel tube supply, you could contact us at our own website. The milling and stockpiling part was the second highest power consuming process stage, whereas the drilling and blasting phase was the following vitality demanding course of stage in iron ore mining operations. Small-scale operations recorded the next power consumption in loading and hauling than the medium-scale operations, suggesting that the gear with high load capacities and power environment friendly applied sciences reminiscent of overland conveyor belts, and advanced technologies together with autonomous haulage trucks resulted decrease energy consumption in medium scale mining operations. However, the energy consumed to mill and stockpile a unit of ore in medium-scale operations was excessive in comparison with the small-scale operations, suggesting that the vitality consumption in milling and stockpiling is primarily influenced by the properties of the mill feed, resembling moisture content material. Further, the amount of processing wanted to realize sufficient remaining product quality can also affect vitality consumption.
Findings from this study assist the concept an economic system of scale will be observed across iron ore mining operations in Western Australia based mostly on vitality effectivity. The study also provided essential baseline info for future studies on the variations in vitality effectivity throughout completely different iron ore mining operational scales in Western Australia.