Madneuli Concentrator is of conventional design incorporating 6 main units of operation:

Mining

 

Data is collected about ore bodies in the pit by drilling afterwards rock material is blasted excavated and moved to the blending facility.

 

Ore Blending

Run-off mine ore is placed in six stockpiles, totaling 40,000 – 50,000 tonnes, located close to the receiving hopper of the primary crushing plant. The individual stockpiles are designated according to copper grade, gold grade and mineralogy. An optimum blend of the various ore categories is determined in order to achieve a reasonably consistent feed to the concentrator having good flotation characteristics giving acceptable recoveries of copper and gold whilst using all available ore

Crushing & Milling

 

Ore received from blending facility is crushed from a maximum size of 1,200 mm to 5 –15 mm in a series of 3 crushers:

 
 
        •   Primary crushing using a jaw crusher to 150-200 mm.

•    Secondary crushing using a cone crusher to 15-30 mm.

•    Tertiary crushing using 2 cone crushers in parallel to give a final product size of 5 –15 mm.

•    Crushed ore is then ground even smaller by a series of mills.

 

Flotation & Thickening

 

The slurry received after grinding is mixed with Sodium iso-butyl xanthate, which coats the copper particles. Pineoil (also called a frother) and slaked lime for pH control is added. This mixture is pumped into rectangular tanks, consisting of 104 flotation cells, where air is injected into the slurry through the bottom of the tanks.The chemical reagents make the copper particles cling to the bubbles as they rise to the surface. The frother forms a thick layer of bubbles, which overflows the tanks and is collected in troughs. The bubbles are allowed to condense and the water is drained off.  The mixture received is copper concentrate, containing copper at about 18-22% along with various sulfides of copper and iron, plus smaller concentrations of gold and other materials.

Filtration & Drying

The combined concentrate slurry from the 3 flotation sections is thickened in a circular settlement tank with the aid of magnafloc flocculating agent. Underflow solids are dewatered to approximately 10-12% moisture using two vacuum disc filters, one operating and one standby. The filtered concentrate is stored in a bin for one day where further natural drying reduces the moisture to 8-10%.

Shipment

 

Dewatered concentrate is and then loaded into 2 tonne capacity bags.Concentrate is stored on site in the concentrate warehouse until there is sufficient for shipment and then transported by rail to port Poti on the Black Sea. Commercial sampling takes place during emptying of concentrate from the big bags and the weight of the shipment is determined by the displacement of the barge when landed. The sales contracts are on a FOB basis. Madneuli has a long-term contract in place with LLC Georgian Railways for the transportation of copper concentrate from Kazreti to port Poti.