DETAILED ACTION
This detailed action is in response to the application filed on September 1, 2023 and any subsequent filings.
Claims 34-52 are pending. Claims 37-52 are withdrawn from consideration. Claims 34-52 are subject to restriction and/ or election requirement. Claims 34-36 are rejected.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's election with traverse of Group l. in the reply filed on 30 January 2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the previous Office Action did not establish an undue search burden of the claims as specified by MPEP 803. This is not found persuasive because the instant application is a national stage entry filed under 35 U.S.C. 371 and is therefore not subject to US restriction practice but rather subject to lack of unity practice, see MPEP 1893.03(d). It is noted that undue search burden is not a criterion in lack of unity analysis. The test is whether or not special technical features can be established. It is noted that inventions listed as Groups l.-lV. do not relate to a single general inventive concept under PCT Rule 13.1 because, under PCT Rule 13.2, they lack the same or corresponding. The restriction is still deemed proper and is therefore made.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 34-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vollert, et al., U.S. Patent No. 11154872 B2 ("Vollert"), in view of Powell, et al., U.S. Patent Application No. 20240207861 A1 ("Powell").
Regarding Claim 34, Vollert discloses a plant for recovering valuable material in the form of gold and/or copper from a sulfide ore system (Vollert, Column 7, line 40-45), the plant has a separation unit (comminution circuit 5 may include additional recovery options such as flash flotation or gravity gold recovery, Vollert, Column 9, line 38-40) for separating an ore obtained from a sulfide ore system (sulfide ore, Vollert, Column 5, line 53-54) into a fines fraction (fines split 9'', Vollert, Column 10, line 38-42), and a coarse fraction (coarse split 9', Vollert, Column 10, line 38-42); Accurate Rock Breakage System (ARBS) unit which is disclosed by the applicant in the Specification is an alternative to the SAG/ball mill (comminution circuit 5, Vollert, Column 9, line 22-27) for comminuting the coarse fraction (coarse split 9', Vollert, Column 10, line 38-42) and producing a milled stream (coarse split 9', Vollert, Column 10, line 38-42) and process fines stream (fines split 9'', Vollert, Column 10, line 38-42). The circuit has horizontally-opposed pairs of rolls comminution (in the form of a crushing and milling) circuit 3, 5, which may include single or multiple crushing steps 3, Vollert, Column 9, line 22-27); and a recovery unit for recovering gold and/or copper from the milled stream (comminution circuit 3, 5 may include additional recovery options such as flash flotation or gravity gold recovery, Vollert, Column 9, line 38-40).
Vollert does not teach a mid-size fraction, a vertical of multiple stages with each roll pair of each crushing stage being configured to operate with single particle breakage of rock fragments passing through the roll.
Powell discloses a mid-size fraction (pre-crushed to <80 mm nominal top-size by a primary crusher, Powell, Pr 174), a vertical stack (vertical stack, Powell, Pr 12, Figure 2 and 3) of multiple stages with each roll pair of each crushing stage being configured to operate with single particle breakage of rock fragments passing through the roll pair (vertical stack, Powell, Pr 12, Figure 2 and 3).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to combine the references of Vollert with the reference of Powell because both references fall within the same field of innovation regarding a plant for recovering valuable material in the form of gold and/or copper from a sulfide ore system. One of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention would be motivated to combine these two inventions because the limitations added by Powell improve the compression breakage force of the particulate, allows the solid particulate material to be preselected at a size range, and minimizes energy consumption in a stage of the mill (Powell, Abstract).
Regarding claim 35, paragraphs 9-13 in the office action discuss the references from Vollert and Powell, and the motivation of combining the references to achieve invention of claim 34. The combination of references does a comminution unit (comminution circuit 5, Vollert, Column 9, line 38-40) for comminuting the fines fraction in a comminution circuit and producing a fines stream (valuable fines concentrate stream 41, Vollert, Column 10, line 45-51).
Regarding claim 35, paragraph 14 in the office action discusses the references from Vollert and Powell, and the motivation of combining the references to achieve invention of claim 35. The combination of references does a recovery unit for recovering gold and/or copper from the fines stream (valuable fines concentrate stream 41, Vollert, Column 10, line 45-51).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DeMarkus J Hodge whose telephone number is (571)272-3593. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8-5.
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/DeMarkus Jerrell Hodge/Examiner, Art Unit 1779
/Bobby Ramdhanie/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1779