RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:BGM is holding BGM down, not the market You're right, cobalthead, milling changes ARE no biggie. It's a constant "tweak" frankly. The goal of course is Precise Control of the Process. And it helps emensely when "MURPHY" stays out of the way, as he's always on the prowl looking for opportunites to "express himself." LOL
The goal is precise control in 3 main areas of the processing circuit:
--homogeneity of the concentrates, (where Hammer161 was hung up)
--the feed itself, and of course,
--slurry characteristics.
We know Hammer161 got hung up on "homogeneity" because he mentioned "porphyry and quartz" before I challenged him to explain himself, when he has repeatedly declined to oblige.
As you can see, that is only 1 of the factors a commercial mining concern tries to control with the combined input of the head mine engineer, the pit boss and the met staff. Truthfully, in some outfits, the mine engineer sits in front of a panel of big LCDs with all kinds of diagramatic boxes, blinking indicators, literally bells and whistles, performing push-button engineering control based upon his or her years of experience and what data is constantly flashing on said screen in front of them in their airconditioned crow's nest.
For example, in just one instance -- ore feed -- if it is primarily sulfidic, the seated at the control panels display (mine engineer) will direct or re-direct the ore feed to a gravimetric separator stage (where a jig would be located). Then that gravimetric separated feedstock would be directed to a second grinding circuit for addition fine grinding, comminuting the sulfides to even smaller particle size before continuing on to the next phase at the mill. All this decision making is based by what constant info flow is coming into Mr Engineer from the met lab.
Whether computerized control or old-fashioned seat of the pants, experienced, hands on control, each batch is constantly sampled and analyzed by the met lab using various assay techniques, including GA (X-ray) to name just one--is performed constantly during the 24/7 mining operations. The crused ore samples are constantly fed to the lab, where some of the guys using older X-ray equipment, create pressed powder disks about the size of a thin, 25c pc. That disk is then fed into the GA machine about the size of an old-fashioned highspeed copy machine before the days of desktop laser printing, and a QC reading pops out. Those readings are instantly reviewed by met chemists, and then transmitted to the engineer at the control panel for executing instant decision and directional processing control of the feed.
It's a very well choreographed work environ, and quite everyday normal SOP--much predictable.
Thanks for saying something.