Mining Forum: Friedland wants to kill the SAG mill
Original announcement by northernminer on
- Company
- Ivanhoe Mines
- Ticker
- IVN
- Exchange
- Unavailable
- Region
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Primary commodity
- Copper
- Secondary commodities
- None reported
- Document categories
- Metallurgy, Other
- Extracted
- 2026-09-29 16:50:58 UTC
Analysis by Minestarters Atlas
Atlas analysis published:
Minestarters Atlas analysis
Summary
Robert Friedland's private company, I-Pulse, is developing pulsed-power technology designed to replace conventional SAG and ball mills. The technology claims to reduce energy consumption by up to 80% and increase metal recoveries by approximately 5%, though commercial-scale results have not yet been published.
Reasoning: The article discusses a novel pulsed-power technology (I-ROX) that promises significant efficiency gains, but notes that commercial-scale validation is still required.
Positive factors
- potential 80% energy reduction
- potential 5% increase in metal recovery
- lower carbon footprint
Negative factors
- no commercial mine-scale results published
- no independently verified results comparing to conventional circuits
- industrial scale and cost details undisclosed
Facts used in scoring: 1
Classification and evidence
Bench Scale Onlynegative
Only preliminary bench tests completed — no locked-cycle or pilot work.
Why it applies: The technology is described as being in the research/testing phase with no commercial mine-scale results published.
Evidence · text
“it hasn’t published commercial mine-scale results supporting its headline claims”
Theoretical Recovery Onlynegative
Only theoretical or liberation-derived recovery reported, with no actual test result.
Why it applies: The reported 5% recovery increase is a projection/claim by the company rather than a measured result from a specific test.
Evidence · text
“Those are I-Pulse’s projections for the technology.”
Gravity Routeneutral
Gravity separation forms a material part of the flowsheet.
Why it applies: the document describes a gravity route ("gravity")
Single Domain Onlynegative
Testing limited to one composite or domain — representativeness not established.
Why it applies: only one composite was tested
Extracted facts
Stored fact records: 1. Some facts used in scoring do not have a stored record.
Metallurgical Results (1)
unspecifiedKamoa-Kakula · copperRecovery: 5 %View all detailsHide details
Identity
- Project
- Kamoa-Kakula
- Commodity
- copper
- Region
- drc
- Reported Region
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Ticker
- IVN
Test Work
- Program Status
- preliminary
- Test Type
- unspecified
- Processing Route
- unspecified
- Sample
- ore and tailings from Kamoa-Kakula copper complex
Recovery
- Recovery
- 5 %
- Recovery Basis
- theoretical
Lab
- Laboratory
- I-ROX research centre
Review
- Needs Review
- No
- Historical
- No
Dates
- Event date
- 2026-09-29T00:00:00.000Z
Reasoning: The 5% recovery increase is a projection from the technology developer, not a reported test result from the Kamoa-Kakula samples.
Positive factors
- potential recovery improvement
Negative factors
- theoretical projection only
- results not disclosed
Evidence · text
“increase metal recoveries by about 5%”
Tags used in scoring
Theoretical Recovery Onlynegative
Only theoretical or liberation-derived recovery reported, with no actual test result.
Why it applies: recovery_basis is theoretical
Low Recoverynegative
Recovery below the weak band for the commodity and processing route.
Why it applies: 5% is below the weak band (80%)
How Atlas produces this analysis
Minestarters Atlas uses automated extraction to summarize mining announcements, identify reported measurements, and classify supporting evidence. Sentiment reflects the extracted narrative and classification rules; it is an interpretation, not a reported measurement. Evidence quotes and context are provided where available. Missing data, low-confidence results, and review flags indicate limitations. Check the original publisher announcement before relying on an interpretation.