Introduction
The pilot plant facilities housed in the Becher Building extend the Parker Centre's expertise in laboratory-based hydrometallurgy research to include pilot-scale testing of batch and continuous operations.

The Becher Building is located on the Waterford site of CSIRO Minerals, adjacent to Curtin University. The building comprises 1000 square metres of process bay floorspace suitable for pilot plant trials, a workshop, several laboratories and offices for 20 people.

Pilot-scale work will benefit from the expert support and world-class infrastrucure available through the existing 40 Parker Centre researchers and academics in the buildings adjacent to the Becher Building (CSIRO Minerals and Curtin University Department of Chemical Engineering). The result is a large, integrated strategic research facility.

The aim is to develop expertise in small to medium scale continuous operations, so that the Parker Centre can provide a better service to the Australian minerals industry. The focus is on hydrometallurgical R&D.

The Becher Building accomodates several unique pieces of equipment that are useful for testing certain unit operations upstream and downstream from the hydrometallurgical parts of a plant, eg comminution (particle size reduction) using high pressure grinding rolls and roasting or calcining using a rotary kiln. There is also a range of standard mineral processing equipment.

Thus, the Becher Building allows companies to collaborate with the Parker Centre in order to progress laboratory experiments towards commercialisation, and to test new technologies and flowsheets.

Pilot-scale Equipment Available

• High Pressure Grinding Rolls
  Australia's first pilot-scale high pressure rolls crusher allows concepts developed on a small scale to be tested at a scale appropriate for capital expenditure decisions.
  
  The fully-instrumented crusher has been used to crush iron ores, gold ores and diamond ores, and processes 0.5 to 50 tonnes per hour.
  
  There is a range of advantages of using this crusher over conventional grinding processes, the most significant being a considerable decrease in the specific energy consumption required for size reduction. It is also claimed to increase reactivity of ores towards leaching. The crusher has been upgraded with a new drum loader and dust control equipment.

• Rotary Kiln
  The rotary kiln for roasting or calcining has been operated at up to 1390^oC under oxidising conditions and up to 1180^oC under reducing conditions using a char reductant. Feed rates up to 80 kg per hour are possible, depending on the application. Recent applications include use on a vanadium ore and on alumina calcination. The kiln has been relined and upgraded to allow improved control.

• Solvent Extraction Rig
  A multistage mixer-settler capable of treating up to 15 litres per hour of process liquor has been used for copper and cobalt extraction.

• Pressure Leaching
  After worldwide investigations, a new automated high pressure, high temperature hydrometallurgy facility for the batch leaching of nickel laterites and metal sulphides has been built. It incorporates the latest safety features. The following pressure vessels are available: 2 litre zirconium, 4 litre titanium, 20 litre titanium and 20 litre stainless steel.

• Other Equipment
  The Becher Building is fully enclosed and serviced with modern dust, noise and fume control measures to ensure the integrity of testwork, worker safety and zero emissions.
  
  A heated floorpad (50 square metres) for drying bulk samples of ore.
  
  Conventional jaw, impact and rolls crushers.
  
  Rotary pot simulators (2-10 kg per hour).
  
  A pilot-scale flotation plant.
  
  Jigs, spirals, air and Wilfley tables and the Magstream and Mozley multigravity separators for gravity separations.
  
  Magnetic and electrostatic separators.
  
  Settling and filtration equipment, including thickeners, drum and belt filters.

If you are interested in using the Becher Building pilot plant facilities, please contact
Dr John Farrow
CSIRO Minerals
Ph: (08) 9334 8020
Fax: (08) 9334 8001
e-mail: John.Farrow@csiro.au