Chile Copper-Gold Mine Lab Upgrade: Sample Prep & Flotation Line in 32 Days

A copper-gold concentrator in northern Chile rebuilt its assay laboratory with an integrated lab crusher, ball mill, flotation cell and vacuum filter circuit, cutting variability-test turnaround from 11 days to 6 hours and closing a 5.8-point recovery gap on transition ore. The line was commissioned 32 days after purchase order.

• Three ore domains. Sulphide, transition and oxide ore each needed reproducible crushing to 80-200 mesh with no cross-contamination between samples.
• No spare floor space. The room could not accept a conventional crusher-grinder island layout.
• A reagent gap. Transition ore recovery ran 6.4 points below the sulphide baseline; the collector package had to be validated on site, not on paper.

Two decisions protected the schedule. One disc mill crusher per ore domain means the laboratory never cleans between samples, removing the most common source of assay drift in polymetallic work. The circuit was then laid out as a two-bench U-shape within 5.8 m of wall, every unit on castors for campaign reconfiguration. All equipment was run-tested in our Beijing workshop, with video pre-acceptance sent before crating.

Our engineer arrived on day 27 for four days: installation, particle size verification across all three ore domains, and flotation locked-cycle tests to tune reagent dosage. Two technicians were trained on operation, gap setting and weekly maintenance, with Spanish and English documentation handed over.

“We expected equipment. What we received was a working laboratory. The three-crusher arrangement changed how our geologists plan sampling campaigns, because they no longer queue for the machine.” — Plant Geologist, northern Chile

A crushing, grinding, screening and flotation circuit for 15 kg/h of ore fits within about 5.8 m of bench wall when units form a U-shape. Dedicated crushers per ore domain take more machines but less bench length than one shared unit.

Cross-contamination between polymetallic samples is the leading cause of assay drift. Dedicating a laboratory disc mill crusher to each ore type costs one extra unit and eliminates the cleaning step where contamination happens.

Yes. One source means recovery results are diagnosed against a single baseline rather than split between an equipment vendor and a reagent vendor. See our notes on flotation reagent performance testing.

• Laboratory ball mill case: fine grinding for mineral sample preparation
• Laboratory vacuum filter case study: fast solid-liquid separation
• Full range of mineral processing laboratory equipment

Send your ore type, target sample size and available floor space. Our engineers return a layout, equipment list and commissioning timeline within two working days. Y&X Beijing Technology has supplied laboratory equipment and flotation reagents to plants in Chile, Russia, Mongolia, Australia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Nigeria, Indonesia, Thailand and Laos since 2014.