Wanted: Opinions on crushing in the Mining Industry

I have been talking to Christophe Philippe of Magotteaux, one of our Comminution ’12 sponsors.

Magotteaux is trying to establish if it is worth spending time, energy and money in developing a new type of crusher for intermediate and/or fine crushing stages (feed up to 150mm).

As a first step, the company would like to seek opinions on the shortcomings of current circuits (if any), the specification for the "ideal crusher", and feelings on the industry's openness to change.

According to Christophe there have not been any real technological breakthroughs in crushing for a long time, apart from HPGR, most crushing circuits in the mining industry utilising cone crushers.

Magotteaux is open to any input, in whatever form (text, reference to a published article, a link to another forum, a reference person to contact, etc...), but seek answers to the following questions:

1 : Do you feel the Mining Industry is happy with the current crushing circuits ?

2 : If not, why not? (what weak points do you see ?)

3 : If you could set the specs for a new type of crusher, what would they be ?
- feed bulk density (range) :
- abrasiveness of processed material (range) :
- feed size (mm) : 150 mm or lower.
- reduction ratio :
- capacity (tons per hour) :
- specific energy consumption (kWh/ton max) :
- % of fines (0 to 2mm) in the product :
- maintenance intervals (hours) :
- maintenance duration (hours) :
- OpEx (USD per ton crushed, energy, maintenance labor and parts) :

4 : If one could come-up with a crusher matching the specs above, how open would the industry be to change from current to new ?
- what barriers to change do you see ?
- what circuit constraints would affect the new crusher ?
- what is the expected pay-back time for a crusher ?
- would any positive impact on milling be taken into account when comparing new to current (eg more fines in the product) ?

I invite your comments on behalf of Christophe.