The Gold Fields Granny Smith mine in Western Australia has been operating their grinding circuit under a wide range of conditions: campaigning very competent underground ore followed by soft oxide, primary versus secondary crushed feed and finally single-stage SAG and conventional SAG, ball mill and pebble crusher (SABC) configurations. Full circuit sampling surveys were carried out in 2012 and again in 2014 with the results included in this paper. As well as detailing the highlights of the journey that unfolded, this paper will compare the efficiency of the circuit operating in different modes.
