Figure 19 – NovaCell™ pilot plant at Mantos Blancos mine The feed to the plant was a bleed stream from the rougher tailings material. Originally, the feed was planned to be the combined plant tailings (rougher and cleaner scavenger tails); however, practical constraints prevented sampling of the combined stream. A purpose-built sampling system transferred the slurry at a controlled rate through a trash screen to the NovaCell™ pilot plant. The NovaCell™ generated four exit streams: froth concentrate, screen concentrate, fine tails, and coarse tails, which were routinely sampled and analyzed by an independent laboratory. The results were reconciled using mass balance techniques. The test program was divided into three phases. Phases A and B focused on commissioning and identifying the optimal operating conditions to maximize metallurgical performance. Phase C represented the validation phase, during which the plant was operated under consistent parameters for an extended period. During this phase, 16 tests (Tests 55–70) were conducted to evaluate the performance, repeatability, and operational stability of the NovaCell™ technology. The Phase C results for the copper recovery, enrichment ratio and product mass pull are presented in Figure 20,Figure 21 and Figure 22,respectively. In each figure, the red line represents the target value, while the green line rindicates the results achieved during the validation phase. Capstone’s performance criteria were met with copper recovery and enrichment ratios exceeding target values (Figure 20 and Figure 21), and product mass pull remaining below the specified limit (Figure 22).
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