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By A. V. Nozhkina

"Transformation of diamond into graphite was investigated in the region of diamond metastability under the action of media chemically active relative to carbon in the temperature range from 770 K up to 2200 K and pressure range from 10-3 Pa up to 3 GPa/IV VIII group metals of periodic system and oxygen were used as media chemically active relative to diamond.Methods of electron diffraction, chemical analyses, emission spectroscopy and X-ray phase analyses were used for determination of the reaction products.It was found that in the region of diamond metastability the stage of catalytic phase transformation of diamond into graphite took place during the interaction between diamond and metal. Metal reduce activation energy for transition of diamond into graphite from 109,4 kcal/mole to 77,4 kcal/mole.Kinetic of phase transformation of diamond into graphite was investigated.Pressure does not considerably influence on the rate of phase transformation of diamond into graphite in the presence of transition metals."

Jan 1, 2003

By K. A. Natarajan

Interaction with microorganisms results in significant surface chemical changes on minerals. For example, chemolithotrophs such as Thiobacillus ferrooxidans and Thiobacillus thiooxidans significantly alter the surface chemistry of several sulfide minerals such as pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena. Heterotrophic bacteria such as Bacillus sp. could alter the electrokinetic properties of oxide minerals such as hematite, alumina, silica, kaolinite and calcite. Microbe-mineral interactions could thus be beneficially utilised in mineral beneficiation as different from bioleaching. Microbially induced mineral beneficiation unlike bioleaching deals with interfacial phenomena at mineral-solution-bacteria interfaces and surface chemical changes are brought about at very rapid rates amounting to a few minutes resulting in mineral separations in an aqueous medium.

Jan 1, 2003

By Milind Sabne, Pradip, P Kapur, Beena Rai

"The efficiency of an industrial flotation circuit depends on (a) the selectivity and the kinetics of the reagent combination selected for the separation (b) the hydrodynamic conditions prevailing in the flotation cell (essentially equipment design parameters) affecting both the pulp and froth phase (c) the operating parameters such as feed rate, pulp density, pH, temperature etc. including the mineralogy, particle size distribution and relative proportion of liberated and composite particles of constituent minerals in the feed to flotation circuit and (d) the circuit configuration itself. We have developed a molecular modelling based reagent design and selection framework to assist mineral engineers to arrive at the preferred reagent combination based on a rigorous, scientific and quantitative comparison of various options available for this purpose. Similarly we have also utilized a general circuit design methodology proposed by Kapur and Mehrotra in 1974. The advances thus made in modelling both the reagent chemistry as well as circuit design, along with the availability of sophisticated, automated tools for characterization of ores (liberation as well as mineralogical composition of the different flotation streams) provides a scientifically rigorous, quantitative, robust framework for design and optimization of complex flotation circuits. We illustrate in this paper the power and the utility of our rigorous optimization based approach to designing industrial flotation circuits for the beneficiation of a multi-component feed with the help of few case studies from our own work. With the proposed methodology, higher levels of process efficiencies can be achieved in the industrial flotation plants, in particular those processing complex, multi-component feeds requiring multiple stages of flotation separation. We are currently developing an IT platform consisting of computer-aided decision support tools for arriving at the preferred flotation circuit and the appropriate reagent chemistry for a given ore deposit and/or a given plant."

Jan 1, 2014

By Partha Patra

Numerous proteins of varying properties are available in extracellular bacterial proteins (EBP) isolated from Paenibacillus polymyxa. EBP was fractionated through ammonium sulfate precipitation in a controlled fashion and characterized through SDS-PAGE technique. Different groups of proteins, (Group A~D) exhibited varying degrees of surface affinity to minerals such as quartz, pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite. Interaction with mineral specific bioproteins rendered pyrite and chalcopyrite hydrophilic while surface of quartz, galena and sphalerite turned more hydro-phobic. Specific groups of proteins could thus be used for selective separation of galena, sphalerite and quartz from pyrite and chalcopyrite (as a mixed sulfide) through microbially-induced flotation or selective flocculation.

Jan 1, 2014

In order to determine the optimal process parameters of agitation leaching and provide industrial process design parameters, experiments were carried out on leaching behaviors of copper oxide ore with high mud content. Condition tests show that the main factors affect the leaching efficiency as follows: Temperature, Initial acid concentration, leaching time and particle size. As the temperature increases, the copper leaching rate was increased. At 60 ?, the initial acid concentration 80g / L, leaching time 2h, liquid-solid ratio 2:1 and grinding fineness65%-0.074mm, the optimal copper extraction was 83.15%, the acid consumption was 187.91kg / t. ore. Keywords: agitation leaching, copper oxide ore, mud

Sep 1, 2012

By D. Whittles, S. Kingman, K. Jackson, S. Bradshaw, N. Miles

The influence of microwave energy at high electric field strength on ore strength has been investigated. Two ores of varying mineralogy were treated in both multimode and single mode microwave cavities. After treatment, any change in strength relative to untreated ore was established. It was shown that in the multimode cavity reduction in strength was related to the applied power level. Results of tests carried out in the single mode cavities showed that, for both ores, reductions in ore strength > 50% could be achieved in very short periods (<1 second). Thermal stress analysis showed that the mechanism of microwave induced failure was the development of tangential stresses at the grain boundaries. It was concluded that operation at 915 MHz with high power and short residence times gives feasible scale-up possibilities.

Jan 1, 2003

By Osvaldo Bascur

"The Metals and Mining industries continue to be challenged by deflated commodity prices, increased energy costs, decreased quantity / quality of raw materials, and expanded regulatory requirements. In an effort to offset these headwinds, leaders in these industries are now starting to adopt comprehensive information strategies to improve operational efficiency and business performance. These strategies are resulting in competitive advantage and helping to move operating locations down the commodity cost curve. Current information trends are enabling collaboration, analysis, and action across competence centers to ensure corporate sustainability and ongoing profitability. The digital revolution has created a new focus for continuous process improvement and innovations (SIX SIGMA in practice) -one that spans operations, service organization and also customer interaction. With this expanded focus comes the need to improve processes more openly, more iteratively and more collaboratively. This presentation will share examples of how mineral processors have adopted new strategies such as self-serve business intelligence, data mining, cloud computing and internal/external collaboration. Mine to mill integration for grade recovery optimization, mine and mill asset availability and reductions in operating costs examples will be presented."

Jan 1, 2014

By P. Saha, D. M. Chakrabarti, National Metallurgical Laboratory, P. Bhattacharyya, B. R. Sarkhel

The estimated reserve of the phosphatic soils at the Sukulu hills region of Uganda upto a depth of 60 meters is of the order of 200 million tonnes and analyses 10-12% P2O5. A 5-tonne sample of the phosphatic soil was received at the National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), India for beneficiation studies. The ore occurred as a naturally degraded soil deposit and the slime contained earthy lateritic minerals which made it extremely sticky. Microscopic examination revealed the presence of limonite, magnetite (martitised), hematite and goethite as major minerals along with apatite and quartz. Presence of clay was indicated by earthy smell on moistening the sample. It was observed that getting rid of the slime was as important for adequate beneficiation of the ore, as it was difficult. Earlier studies on samples of the same ore at the NML and abroad established that it was necessary to pass the ore through a series of three stages of desliming, each consisting of a step of rigorous attrition scrubbing followed by hydrocycloning, for effective elimination of the sticky slimy coating which stubbornly adhered to mineral grains. Studies were carried out at the NML in two phases to develop a flowsheet for beneficiation of the phosphatic soil. In the first phase, reproducibility of the results obtained by employing a flowsheet developed abroad was confirmed along with suggesting some modifications of the flowsheet. Then 200 kg. of concentrate was produced following the recommended flowsheet for evaluation of its suitability for production of fertilisers. To remove the limonitic slimy coating, which stubbornly adheres to the other mineral grains, it was necessary to subject the ROM ore, after screening out the +840 micron size fraction which contained only 1.75% P2O5 , to three stages of hydrocycloning each preceded by attrition scrubbing. Then only conventional beneficiation techniques could be effectively employed to upgrade the ore.

Jan 1, 2003

By J. Qiu

By means of natural sedimentation, two different bentonite samples from Shandong province were purified, this paper studies the Hydro-properties of the two purified montmorillonite samples. Firstly, the layer charge of two purified montmorillonite samples were calculated by crystal structure formula reckon method and general hydro-properties were also measured. The research results showed that the layer charge of montmorillonite correlated well with its hydro-properties: mont-morillonite with lower layer charge had better hydro-properties, such as Mont-1, which had higher swelling volume and gelling value with lower CEC; while, montmorillonite with higher layer charge had worse hydro-properties, such as Mont-2, which had lower swell volume and gelling value with higher CEC; it proves that the hydro-properties of montmorillonite depends on its layer charge characteristics, layer charge characteristic is the inherent factors deciding the hydro-properties of montmorillonite, montmorillonite with lower layer charge has better hydro-properties than the one with higher layer charge. In this paper, the relation between the medium condition and colloid performance of Mont-1 are also studied. The results show that the hydro-properties of Mont-1 could be changed by changing slurry concentration (w/w) and shear rate or adding certain amounts of inorganic cation electrolytes, dispersants and surfactants. The viscosity of montmorillonite slurry could be enhanced by increasing slurry concentration,adding univalentcation electrolytes (less than 4% w/w) or proper amounts of dispersants and surfactants (less than critical micelle concentration); The slurry viscosity could be reduced by decreasing slurry concentration, increasing shear rate, adding proper bivalent (more than 4% w/w) cation electrolytes or proper quantities of dispersants and surfactants (more than critical micelle concentration).

Jan 1, 2014

By J. S. S. Allwin Ebinesar

The bioremediation of zinc was carried out using Pseudomonas alcaligenes, a Gram negative heterotroph. The parameters such as pH, bacterial cell number, initial metal concentration, and interaction time on the biosorption of zinc were studied. The maximum zinc uptake was found to be about 95% at pH 5 and biomass loading of 2.7x1010cells/mL. The biosorption isotherm for zinc exhibited Langmuirian behavior and the Gibbs free energy of biosorption was determined to be -31.2 kJ/mol, indicative of coordination of zinc with the functional groups on the bacterial surface. The adsorption kinetics followed a pseudo-second order equation. FTIR and EDAX studies confirmed the interaction of zinc with the biomass. The mechanisms of metal-microbe interactions are discussed.

Sep 1, 2012

By Q. Huo

The alumina production might not continue when the sulfur content of bauxite was too high. In order to bring down the sulfur content in bauxite, we studied on the bauxite desulfurization by bacteria screened from the acid mine drainage at mines of high sulfur content. The screened bacteria were domesticated by the high sulfur content bauxite. The experiments of bauxite desulfurization were carried out under the conditions of 5% pulp density, temperature of 30?, rotate speed of 120rpm. Bacterial desulfurization for 30 days, the sulfur content of the bauxite was reduced from 5.73% to 1.55% and the desulfurization percent was 72.9%. The recovery percent of alumina was 94.3%. The study showed that it was feasible to bring down the sulfur content of bauxite by bioleaching and this technique might make full use of the low grade bauxite.

Jan 1, 2014

By C. L. Tang

Parts of the wastewater are reused directly and the rest moderately purified and reused, so the utilization rate of wastewater of the whole processing plant reaches 100 percent. At the same time, beneficiation indicators have been improved stably, and great economic and social benefits have been achieved.

Jan 1, 2014

By Daniela Venter, Stephen Chryssoulis, Ken Stowe

"A sampling campaign was conducted at Kemess in order to identify and assess the chemical and physical factors, which control free gold flotation kinetics in the rougher and cleaner circuits. The rationale behind this approach was that accurate knowledge of the parameters affecting free gold flotation kinetics, can be used to determine how to accelerate free gold flotation. Collected samples were composites of 5-6 cuts over a four-hour period, at steady plant conditions.In the rougher circuit, coarser equidimensional gold particles floated ahead of the finer grained and the flaky gold. Sulphur followed by molybdenum and to a lesser extent silver enhanced gold flotation kinetics, while hydroxyl followed by carbonate ions induced depression."

Jan 1, 2003

By Leon Lorenzen, Trevor J. Britz, Pierre J. Van Zyl, Ellis R. Els

Enhanced granulation of UASB granules was tested on pilot scale with two different test reactors (about 5 litres capacity each). Sludge from a local sewage works was used, with peach cannery effluent as carbon source. Cyclic motion of the reactor contents, and a daily replenishment of feed material create the necessary stress conditions for enhanced growth. Sizable granules, bigger than 0.5 mm, were produced within 20 days. Of the two reactors tested, the reactor equipped with a horizontal agitation shaft proved more effective.

Jan 1, 2003

By Wang Xiaotie, Yu Yongfu, Che Liping, Zhang Fuguang

The flotation process of native Rare Earth minerals such as bastnasite, monazite, mixed minerals of bastnasite and monazite, using the new effective collector Dh was studied in this paper, respectively, and the flotation properties are described. The good qualities of the new collector Dh were revealed through comparing with other collector of Rare Earth minerals. The test results of different ore samples show that at moderate pulp pH (8.5-9.5), Rare earth minerals can be effectively separated from barium, calcium and silicon bearing intergrowth minerals (barite, calcite and silicate minerals) and high quality Rare Earth concentrates can be obtained successfully by the new collector Dh, acid silica gel, turpentine and reagents fitting together rationally. In order to determine optimum technical conditions, the effect of pulp pH, pulp temperature, pulp density and the effect of dosage of reagents (Dh and acid silica gel) on the flotation were investigated in the test.

Jan 1, 2003

By John Ralston, Jonas Addai-Mensah, Patience Mpofu

The flocculation and dewatering behaviour of kaolinite (non swelling) and smectite (swelling) clay dispersions has been investigated using hydrolysable metal ions Mn(II) and Ca(II) and anionic polyacrylamide-acrylate copolymer (PAM) at pH 7.5 and 10.5. A pH-dependent, specific metal ion adsorption behaviour, accompanied by a marked reduction in particle zeta potential and slurry shear yield stress, was observed to have a profound influence on the colloid stability of both types of clays. Due to the differences in the cation exchange capacity, the smectite clay dispersion required a higher amount of metal ions than kaolinite dispersion to produce similar effects. The adsorption density of the anionic PAM at the negatively charged clay particle surfaces correlated well with metal ion hydrolysis and adsorption behaviour, all of which had a strong effect on slurry settling rate and extent of consolidation. At pH 7.5 where Mn(II) ions hydrolyse, metal ion and flocculant adsorption densities were both greater in the presence of Mn(II) than Ca(II) ions. At pH 10.5, however, where Ca(II) ions begins to hydrolyse, higher adsorption densities were observed for Ca(II) ions in comparison with Mn(II) ions, as the latter hydrolysed completely and precipitated. The metal ion mediated flocculant adsorption led to improved hydrogen bond driven particle bridging and facilitated charge neutralisation flocculation mechanisms which significantly enhanced the dewaterability of both clay dispersions.

Jan 1, 2003

By Masanori Mori, Hajime Miki, Osamu Ichikawa, Tsuyoshi Hirajima, Mitsuru Sawada, Keiko Sasaki

For pretreatment of selective flotation, surface oxidation of chalcopyrite and molybdenite was applied by oxygen plasma then the minerals were washed by solution at pH 9 with oxygen bubbling. Surface characteristics of these minerals were investigated with AFM, XPS, zeta potential and contact angle measurements. Contact angle of chalcopyrite and molybdenite decreased a lot by plasma treatment. When they were washed with pH 9 solution with oxygen bubbling, contact angle of molybdenite increased whereas chalcopyrite one kept low. Adhesion force measurements indicated similar behavior. Result of flotation experiments indicated low recovery of both chalcopyrite and molybdenite after plasma treatment and only molybdenite recovery became higher after washing. Selective flotation of chalcopyrite and molybdenite could be achieved with this process. Possible mechanism of selective flotation was proposed from the results of XPS, AFM, etc.

Jan 1, 2014

By Hamid-Reza Manouchehri

"The triboelectric charge attributes of some silicate minerals (i.e., feldspar, quartz and wollastonite) after contacting different triboecharging medium made of different materials were studied. The charge acquisitions by different size fractions of minerals were monitored and accordingly the energetic work function values, i.e., the main parameter determining the entity of triboelectric charges acquired by mineral grains, of the examined minerals were estimated. Moreover the separation behavior of different size fractions of these minerals through the electric field of a laboratory free-falling separator when the mineral grains are charged by different tribochargers were observed and considered as the electrical separation potential of the examined minerals.Furthermore, the role of adsorption of different chemical species on triboelectric charge characteristics and charge acquisition of mineral samples were described from theoretical point of view and the effects of some chemical reagents on triboelectric charge acquisition of the examined minerals were studied. In addition the separation behavior of chemically conditioned quartz, feldspar and wollastonite minerals, using different anionic and cationic reagents, through the electric field of a free-fall electrostatic separator before and after chemical conditioning were monitored.Finally an attempt was made to translate the findings from single mineral systems to a complex silicate ore, containing mainly of feldspars, quartz, and wollastonite. Different separation tests under various conditions were conducted to this complex silicate ore. Before passing through the separation device, the ore sample was conditioned by different cationic and anionic reagents and then was triboelectricaly charged by different tribocharging medium in order to find the effective reagent and tribocharging medium for separating silicates. Besides the role of temperature and humidity of the surrounding ambient in separation behavior were considered."

Jan 1, 2003

By G. Demi, G. Belardi, N. Shehu, S. Cico

The physico-chemical interaction between minerals such as olivine, chromite and serpentine and the ions most commonly present in solution, like Ca and Mg and flotation reagents such as EDTA and oleic acid was investigated. The study was conducted via release tests, electrophoretic measurements and microflotation of selected minerals coming from the Kukes deposit (Albania).

Jan 1, 2003

By Gi-Chun Han, Ki-Suk Han, Korea Energy Management Corp., Jin-Sang Cho, Hyung-Seok Kim, Jae-Hyun Oh

This study has been carried out to use the waste sludges generated at Pohang Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. (POSCO) as the raw materials of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). The burnability index of the raw mixture and the hydration characteristics and compressive strength of clinker have been examined. The waste sludges were mainly composed of CaO, SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3, the main component of OPC. The Burnability index of mixture was improved, according to the replacement content of POSCO sludge increase. POSCO sludge can be used as a raw material for cement because the state of mineral development and property of clinker produced from POSCO sludge are similar to the plain. Therefore, POSCO sludges can be used as the source materials of iron and calcium oxide.

Jan 1, 2003