With 37 years of experience, the majority of which has been spent operating, optimising and designing grinding circuits. The author is known for implementing the first reduced row SAG mill liner design and combining it with the use of 152mm grinding balls to improve throughput rate in the absence of a pebble crushing circuit, which took place 20 years ago. This paper presents the lessons learnt over the ensuing 20 years and identifies opportunities for improving the efficiency of a SAG mill based grinding circuit.

Ted has 31years’ post-graduate experience that covers practically the full mining and processing value chain. He has worked across various disciplines including the mining/processing interface, mechanical design, process simulation and operational troubleshooting. Ted has undertaken these functions for mining companies, heavy engineering manufacturers, R&D providers and consulting organisations. Following 13years' with Rio Tinto in comminution, processing and innovation, Ted founded BRS in 2009. Since that time BRS and its Associates have worked extensively to deliver projects that target value through the coupling of operational experience with appropriate innovation.

Matti Talikka is a geologist with experience in the fields of geological research, mineral exploration, project development, mining and minerals processing. He has held senior technical and management positions in exploration, mining and minerals processing technology companies. Matti is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Chartered Professional under the discipline of geology.

Bob McCarthy is a Principal Consultant for SRK Consulting based in Vancouver. As a mining engineer with over 30 years’ experience, Bob also possesses an MBA and is presently pursuing a PhD relating to orebody heterogeneity and ore sorting concepts. His expertise is in mine planning, project evaluations, and new technology evaluation and implementation.

Teresa earned a MS in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from Montana Tech and a PhD from Curtin University in Australia. She now leads the Technology Transfer and Gangue Rejection themes of the AMIRA P420 Gold Processing Technology Project, the world’s largest and longest running collaborative research project in gold processing.