Mine operating costs and the potential impacts of energy and grinding
Energy costs typically comprise one of the largest ongoing costs of mining operations, of which 70% is devoted to the comminution of the ore (Norgate and Jahanshahi, 2010). Furthermore, the most significant energy cost occurs in the grinding circuit of the Milling section, where up to 97% of the energy cost is incurred (Ballantyne et al., 2012).