OUR TRACK RECORD
NEWMONT - BODDINGTON GOLD PROJECT
Project Details
TIMEFRAME: 2006 – 2010
CLIENT: Newmont
LOCATION: Western Australia
COMMODITY: Gold
SERVICES: Owner's Representative | Process Plant Design | Process Plant Commissioning
GOLD OUTPUT
>700koz/a
PROCESSING THROUGHPUT
>35 Mt/a
KEY OUTCOMES
One of the world’s top 10 gold producing operations
Project Background
Newmont’s world-class Boddington Gold Project was approved in 2006 with a mineral resource of 989Mt containing 24.5Moz of gold. To achieve the project’s financial goals, the low-grade ore (<0.8g/t) needed to be reliably processed at 35 Mt/a with high gold recovery and a saleable concentrate.
The design of the Boddington process plant represented a unique and challenging task with significant risks to Newmont, including the first large-scale application of HPGRs to treat the extremely competent and highly abrasive ore. To mitigate these risks, Newmont appointed a highly experienced owner's team to oversee the design in Chile, and selected Chemech for two key roles in this small team.
Chemech's Contribution
Chemech spent ~18 months in the Engineer’s office in Chile, providing important direction and decision-making for the process design, plant layout, equipment selection, and detailed design. This included specification, evaluation, and award of $150M worth of comminution equipment that was undertaken by Newmont directly. The size and complexity of the Boddington process plant, combined with design execution in Chile, made this an extremely challenging but rewarding engagement.
In 2008 Chemech joined the commissioning team and played key roles in defining the plant control system logic and assisting with the start-up. They continued to provide technical support as Newmont ramped-up and optimised the process plant.
The Final Outcome
In its first 15 years of production, Boddington’s throughput averaged 36.2 Mt/a, comfortably exceeding its design value of 35Mt/a. Throughput exceeded design by 15% in some years, which is a significant achievement given the extreme ore competency (A*b ~27) and abrasivity (Bond Ai ~0.5). Average gold recovery also exceeded design with more than 10Moz of gold produced. Boddington is one of the world’s top 10 gold producing operations, and Chemech’s significant contributions to the project is something that they are proud of.
In 2006, Ian and Brendan joined Newmont’s owner's team which was charged with guiding the design of the Boddington Gold Project based in Santiago, Chile. The design task and working environment was complex and challenging, but Brendan and Ian showed great commitment, competency and teamwork in guiding a successful outcome. Their particular commitment to getting the design details right paid off, and the Boddington process plant went on to exceed design throughput and recovery, despite the ore's extreme competency and low-grade.
- Simon Briggs, Newmont’s Engineering Manager – Boddington Gold Project¹
1: This statement reflects the personal views of Simon Briggs and does not constitute an official endorsement by Newmont Corporation.