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FLOWSHEET DEVELOPMENT:

PATFIO consultants excel in selecting the ideal flowsheet for your project. By thoroughly analyzing the ore body, mining schedule, and processing needs, they model and evaluate all viable flowsheet alternatives, ultimately offering recommendations for the most effective circuit configuration. These evaluations typically focus on efficiency, as well as capital and operating expenses. Utilizing in-house modeling techniques developed for design, PATFIO employs test work from drill core or whole rock samples to size circuits, enabling a comparison of options to identify the best path forward. An engineering design brief is crafted, detailing the circuit description, process flow diagrams, mass balance, and key equipment selections that form the foundation of the chosen flowsheet. PATFIO brings extensive experience in process design across a diverse array of commodities, including gold, nickel, copper, cobalt, lead, zinc, rare earth elements, platinum group metals, iron ore, uranium, phosphates, and mineral sands.

METSIM PROCESS MODELING SERVICES:

PATFIO is renowned for its expertise in crafting sophisticated process models utilizing METSIM software (www.metsim.com). Our team can swiftly design a bespoke process model tailored to your requirements, delivering the native file to ensure you receive an exceptional interactive model—eliminating the necessity for your team to become proficient in METSIM or the APL programming language. Furthermore, we can develop custom APL subroutines and functions specifically aligned with your modeling objectives, while effortlessly integrating dynamic links to external aqueous chemical equilibrium calculators. With our extensive experience in both steady-state and dynamic modeling, we are poised to transform your process from its initial concept to a thorough characterization through a METSIM process model. Additionally, PATFIO provides on-site training for your personnel to effectively manage and update the model, or we can facilitate training remotely.

HEAP LEACHING DYNAMIC MODELING: 

The art of heap leaching for the extraction of precious metals such as gold, silver, or copper is a sophisticated endeavor, characterized by a multitude of reactions, inventories, and recycling streams. PATFIO Consulting has honed its expertise in developing heap leach models through the advanced METSIM simulation software. These meticulously crafted models seamlessly integrate the mine block model while taking into account the heap’s geometry, leaching cycles, leach curves, reagent consumption, pregnant solution collection, and the intricate processes of metal recovery (CIC, SX/EW). This dynamic modeling environment offers daily mass balances for the entire operation, ensuring precision and efficiency. Models can be customized for new heap leach initiatives, expansions, or existing operations. In the early stages of a project, laboratory column leach test modeling proves invaluable, enabling an initial evaluation of leach kinetics, quantifying reagent consumption, and facilitating the extrapolation of potential metal recoveries. Data derived from column tests can be seamlessly integrated into a model for the comprehensive heap leach operation.

Why model a heap leach?

  • Develop accurate forecasts for metal production as a function of time (monthly, quarterly, annually)
  • Conduct “What If?” analysis with mine plan, leach curves, ultimate extractions, lift heights, number of lifts, interlift liners, etc.
  • Estimate the build-up of impurities in leach solution (e.g., copper build-up in a gold/silver heap leach)
  • Estimate metal and reagent inventories within heap pore solution
  • Estimate reagent and fresh water consumptions over the project life
  • Dynamic models consider solution recirculation and the “sponge” effect of multiple lifts
  • Couple models with aqueous chemistry calculators to evaluate:
  • Metal-cyanide equilibrium
  • Ferrous/ferric distribution
  • Gypsum saturation
  • Solubility of minor constituents