Intertek delivers independent metallurgical testing services to support process selection, flowsheet development and recovery optimisation across the mining lifecycle.
From early stage evaluation through to feasibility and operations, our metallurgical services provide the data and insight required to understand ore behaviour and de risk processing decisions.
Intertek’s metallurgical testing services are tailored to project stage, ore type and processing objectives. Delivered through Intertek’s global network, our work supports informed decision making by providing reliable data and practical insight into comminution behaviour, separation performance, extraction options and overall process efficiency.
Our Capabilities
Intertek’s metallurgical capabilities span laboratory scale, pilot scale and technical consulting services, including:
- Ore characterisation and comminution testing to define hardness, variability and processing behaviour
- Mineral separation and concentration testwork across gravity, magnetic, flotation and dense media processes
- Hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical studies supporting extraction, refining and flowsheet development
- Pilot scale metallurgical programs to validate flowsheets and de risk project development
- Independent technical consulting, troubleshooting and metallurgical support across scoping, PFS, BFS and operations
- Access to specialised offsite metallurgical and mineralogical analysis through Intertek’s global facilities
Talk to our metallurgical specialists
Send us a request to speak with our technical team to discuss your ore type, project stage and testing objectives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Metallurgical testing shows how ore behaves under processing conditions, highlights potential challenges early, and confirms the most effective path to maximise recovery and minimise operating costs.
With real metallurgical data guiding engineering decisions, projects reduce risk, avoid costly surprises, and progress with confidence.
Testwork should align with the maturity of the project. At early stages, high level scoping tests define ore behaviour and indicate a potential processing route. As projects advance into pre feasibility and feasibility stages, programs expand to include variability testing, optimisation studies, and pilot scale confirmation where required.
These programs progressively de risk the project across its life cycle and build confidence in process performance.
A pilot plant tests the flowsheet in continuous operation, allowing observation of circuit behaviour under realistic conditions, including reagent cycling, circulating loads, equipment interactions, and operational dynamics that do not appear in batch tests.
Pilot testing is valuable when dealing with complex or variable ores, unconventional flowsheets, or where scale up uncertainty remains ahead of feasibility. A well designed pilot run validates recoveries, supports mass balance and engineering inputs, and exposes operational issues before they become costly at full scale.
Yes. Integration strengthens flowsheet design and improves process confidence.
Mineralogy is critical to flowsheet development as it defines the minerals hosting the elements of interest. Through process mineralogy, it provides independent verification of metallurgical performance, helps identify causes of poor recovery, losses to tailings, and penalty element carriers in concentrates. From a geometallurgical perspective, mineralogy supports ore domaining based on processability.
Geochemistry complements this by defining head grades and element distribution, supporting recovery calculations, concentrate specifications, penalty element management, and loss evaluation in tailings. Together, these datasets also support environmental characterisation of tailings streams.
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