Most mine sites use large coarse ore stockpiles as a buffer between the mine and the processing plant. Stable operation of the downstream processes demands a uniform output from the stockpile with respect to particle size, however, particle size distributions of the product drawn from stockpiles can vary significantly over time due to various size segregation phenomena. Although quantifying size segregation occurring in industrial stockpiles would provide valuable information for operators, it is not practical due to the size of these piles which can exceed 100 kt. This research is focused on developing a laboratory test, which aims to quantify the propensity of an ore pile to segregate and to correlate these results to industrial stockpiles. The data generated by the laboratory-scale experiment could enable the modelling of size segregation for industrial-scale stockpiles. The results of the comprehensive laboratory tests indicate that it is possible to quantify size segregation in the laboratory and scale up the results.

大多数矿场使用大型粗矿库存作为矿山和加工厂之间的缓冲区。下游工艺的稳定运行需要从库存中获得均匀的粒度输出，然而，由于各种尺寸分离现象，从库存中提取的产品的粒度分布会随着时间的推移而显着变化。尽管量化工业库存中发生的尺寸分离可为操作员提供有价值的信息，但由于这些堆的大小可能超过 100 kt，因此不切实际。这项研究的重点是开发一种实验室测试，旨在量化矿石堆分离的倾向，并将这些结果与工业库存相关联。实验室规模实验产生的数据可以为工业规模库存的规模隔离建模。综合实验室测试的结果表明，可以在实验室量化尺寸偏析并放大结果。