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By Peter Ay, Bodo Müller, Jens Markowski, Manfred Kanthak, Florian Logsch

"Presently the global commodity situation for non ferrous-, precious- and rare metals is characterized by a strong increase in consumption and a simultaneous shortage of materials derived from primary sources. So the use of secondary raw materials gains is important due to economic and ecological reasons. Non Ferrous-, precious- and rare earth metals were detected in household waste (Municipal solid waste, MSW) for years. In MSW-treatments plants NF-metals are actually mostly separated from dried fractions. The separation of these metals is carried out with the aim of removing particles which disrupt further processing. A selective enrichment of individual non-ferrous metals has not been carried out previously. The separated fractions contain mixtures of Al, Cu, Zn, Pb, Sn, alloys, precious metals (e. g. Au, Ag, Pt) and rare metals (Ga, In, Nd etc.) along with considerable amounts of contaminations. The R&D project "NE-Rec" selectively processes the coarsely separated non-ferrous-metal-conglomerates increasing the concentration of targeted metals. Metals and metal mixtures are concentrated by sorting steps and the impurities are discharged from the process. Still contaminated precious metals are then subjected to a wet-chemical treatment. So metals can be specifically brought into solution or can be precipitated to separate unwanted components (inerts, polymers, foreign metals). Further the relevant metals will be concentrated by thermal-metallurgical processes. The technology, developed in the R&D project, enables identification, separation and processing of non-ferrous metals, precious metals and REM in household waste and transfers them into further processable individual fractions."

Jan 1, 2014

There is a strong demand for nickel metal due to quick development of stainless steel and new electrical materials, most of which is extracted from sulfide resources, resulting in a serious depletion of sulfide resources. Therefore, more attentions have been paying to extracting nickel from nickel laterite, which accounts for some 50% of total nickel metal production. In this paper prereducing?magnetic separation?reduction smelting process is developed to manufacture ferronickel rom two types of nickel laterite DN and GN, assaying 1.42% 1.83% Ni and 49.09% 26.08%Fetotal, respectively. Mineralogy of two types of nickel laterite was determined and optimization of process parameters was conducted to manufacture ferronickel. Prereduction?magnetic concentration process is used to upgrade low grade nickel laterite firstly, two kinds of Ni-Fe concentrates being prepared of DN assaying 2.26% Ni and 69.45% Fetotal and GN containing 2.76% Ni and 38.00% Fetotal. Finally, two types of ferronickel were produced by reduction smelting of prereduced concentrates DN and GN, DN and GN ferronickel contains 2.97% Ni and 6.58%Ni, 89.25%Fetotal and 89.95%Fetotal, respectively. The total recoveries of Ni and Fe of the two ferronickel are beyond 90% and 80%, respectively. There is significant difference in grade of magnetic concentrates and ferronickel between DN and GN laterite due to their different mineralogy, the former belongs to limonitic laterite and the latter saponite one. There are some advantages for this process to manufacture ferronickel from nickel laterite, including effectively upgrading low grade nickel laterite by prereducing?magnetic separation technique, higher throughput and lower energy available for reduction smelting section due to some 40% gangue being rejected in pre-upgrading section, and much less metallurgical coke consumption by using non-coking coal as reductant for prereducing?magnetic separation?smelting process.

Jan 1, 2014

By A. Morrison, D. Mesa, P. R. Brito-Parada

"Froth flotation is the most widely used mineral separation technique. It is based on the relative hydrophobicity of valuable and gangue particles. In a flotation tank, two distinct zones can be identified: the pulp and the froth. The pulp is a turbulent region in which hydrophobic valuable particles attach to air bubbles while hydrophilic gangue particles remain in the slurry. As the particle-laden bubbles rise, a mineralised froth zone is formed that overflows as a concentrate. Although the process is more than a hundred years old, there remain many aspects that are not completely understood, particularly for the froth zone. Thus, the rules governing the design of flotation tanks tend to focus on pulp zone parameters, which are largely based on operating data. An example of this is the design and operation of impellers. These tend to be designed paying attention to hydrodynamic phenomena in the pulp zone, but their effect on the froth zone has not been completely addressed. The role of impellers in a flotation tank is to break the air bubbles in order to generate smaller ones and to provide an environment that enables the collision between those bubbles and the particles in the slurry. This usually creates turbulent regimes that can affect the pulp-froth interface, destabilising the lower regions of the froth and affecting the overall performance of the process. Different impeller designs and retrofit modifications have been proposed in the past, addressing some of those issues. However, there is no systematic study of the effect of different impeller designs on the bubble size in the pulp and its links to the stability of the froth. This work tested the impact of an impeller designs combined with the use of a stator on the performance of an 87 litres continuously operated laboratory-scale flotation tank, with a focus on bubble size in the pulp and froth stability. The results showed that the implementation of a stator system decreased bubble size and increased froth stability. That resulted in an increase of mass pull, measured as a proxy of metallurgical recovery."

Jan 1, 2018

By Amir Hajizadeh Omran, Mehdi Irannajad, Sima Mohammadnejad, Fardis Nakhaei

"This study presents an experimental program performed to investigate the effects of flotation variables including gas flow rate, froth depth, slurry solids percent, frother/collector dosage and pH on the froth bubble size during desulfurization of an iron ore. These conditions were varied using a central composite design (CCD). Image analysis techniques have been developed and used successfully to characterize the froth bubble size. Results of the CCD experiments showed that the flotation variables have different effects on the froth bubble size. The froth height, air flowrate, pH and solid content had the most important influence on the froth bubble size. The interaction between the collector-frother, pH-collector, frother-air flowrate, solid content-froth height, pH-froth height and solid content-pH were also significant. Process state can be accurately deduced from the froth surface appearance, providing a convenient way to quantify the parameters as a function of the process control. INTRODUCTION Flotation processes are subjected to a wide variety of process disturbances, some of which are made by the change in mineral features and others to variation in operating procedures. Feed and air flow rates, densities, size distributions and shapes of particles, surface properties, and reagent dosages and compositions can all change, often with significant effect on the performance of the plant (Moolman et al., 1996a). Flotation process efficiency is governed by the wettability of the solid as well as the surface tension at the liquid-gas. Both of these properties are influenced by operational conditions encountering in a flotation process. The structure of froths developed on the pulp surfaces of flotation cells has a remarkable effect on both the grade and recovery of minerals in the concentrate (Shean and Cilliers, 2011)."

Jan 1, 2018

By Bisweswar Das, Barada Mishra, Hrushikesh Sahoo, Swagat Rath

Banded hematite jasper (BHJ) containing 45.2% Fe, 32.64% SiO2, 0.63 % Al2O3 and 1.25 % LOI is found difficult to beneficiate either by magnetic or flotation techniques due to fine intergrowth of jasper with hematite. Phase transformation by reduction roasting with activated charcoal followed by low intensity magnetic separation to achieve a suitable iron concentrate has been attempted in this study. The mineralogy of the ore and different roasted products has been studied by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) to understand the reduction mechanism. The magnetite formation is observed at 850ºC while metallic iron appeared at a higher temperature. The effects of reduction variables such as reduction time (30-270 min), temperature (750-1050ºC), and reductant (1-12 %) using activated charcoal are studied. An iron concentrate with 64.65% Fe and 55.8% recovery could be obtained under optimum conditions of temperature: 850ºC, time: 1.5 h, and reductant: 6% by weight.

Jan 1, 2014

By Shounak Banerjee, Suresh Babu Dasari, Dharmendr Kumar, Shashank Pardhikar, Beena Rai, Venugopal Tammishetti

Recent increase in steel demand has led to the increased usage of high grade iron ores. During the mining, crushing and washing of ore, huge quantities of fines and slimes (<150 µm) are generated, majority of which is dumped into tailing ponds owing to their high alumina contents (~10-15%). Due to rapid depletion of high grade iron ore, it is the need of the hour to utilize low grade iron ore fines and slimes. These fines and slimes contain high iron values assaying 45-60% Fe. Dumping these valuable resources in ponds locks enormous land space and causes environmental hazards. The constituent minerals present in Indian iron ores comprise of hematite, goethite, gibbsite, kaolinite and quartz. Our research is focused on beneficiation of iron ore slimes through selective flocculation. We use density functional theory simulations to screen the reagents and perform experiments with screened reagents to determine the experimental conditions for effective performance of the reagents. Our studies revealed that reagents like starch, guar gum and carboxymethyl cellulose exhibit excellent selectivity in high alkaline pH range. However, the higher cost of alkali makes the process economically less attractive. In the present study, a commercial reagent from NALCO Water (Hi-Tex 83570) has been explored as selective flocculant for beneficiation of iron ore slimes in wide pH range (4-11). However, the reagent was also found to be the most selective in alkaline pH range only. Full factorial design of experiments was done considering three parameters namely, pulp density, flocculant dosage and settling time. Regression models were developed for yield, iron grade, alumina grade and iron recovery in the concentrate, using experimental results. Further parameter optimization was done to achieve high Fe recoveries and low alumina recoveries. The optimal parameters thus arrived at were validated with the experiments. We were able to achieve a concentrate grade of 60.0% Fe and 5.1% Al2O3 with 68.8% Fe recovery from a feed containing of 53.1% Fe and 8.9% Al2O3. The performance of flocculant Hi-Tex 83570 was also compared with reagents starch and guar gum.

Jan 1, 2018

By A. De1

Because of the extremely low utilization of strain energy in the breakage of solid particles, the energy efficiency prevalent in comminution technology is extremely poor. Schoenert considered that single-particle comminution under slow compression is the most energy-efficient mode of comminution and that energy efficiency should be compared to that. The usual method for grinding minerals and cement has been the ball mill, in which the hit-and-miss aspect of loose-bed comminution severely reduces energy efficiency. The fine grinding of minerals is a particularly energy-intensive process. Schoenert showed that the energy consumed in the comminution of particles in confined beds is second only to that of single-particle comminution under slow compression and developed the method of conducting particle-bed comminution continuously in a high-pressure roll mill. Since its first industrial installation in 1985, the high-pressure roll mill has established itself as the comminution device of choice for significantly improving the productivity and energy efficiency of size reduction from coarse size feeds down to products finer than 20 microns. The first of several hundred installations were in cement plants. The preliminary design and optimization of the industrial operation of high-pressure grinding roll (HPGR) systems, owing to the continuous nature of the device, cannot be efficiently done through laboratory experiments and needs to be achieved through proper system modeling. While the energetics of size reduction in high-pressure grinding rolls has been modeled very well, no model exists for the macroscopic variables in HPGR comminution. In high-pressure roll mill grinding, size reduction results from confined particle-bed comminution under compressive stresses such that the daughter particles produced are highly fractured, stressed, or otherwise weakened. This paper attempts to relate the comminution / compaction behavior for confined particle-bed under compression in a piston-die press with the macroscopic variables in HPGR comminution. A model describing the pressure-densification relationship is presented and used to accurately simulate the macroscopic variables in high-pressure grinding rolls, utilizing experimental data for particle-bed comminution with the piston-die press. The accuracy of the predictive simulations strongly suggests that, starting with a few batch-mode laboratory-scale experiments, it should be possible not only to identify the optimal operating conditions for existing operations but also to successfully design new industrial high- pressure grinding roll systems.

Sep 1, 2012

By John Nell, Paul den Hoed

Carbochlorination tests were conducted with matched particle-size fractions of rutile, ilmenite and high-titania slag in a small bubbling fluidized-bed reactor. The effects of temperature, the type and proportion of solid reductant in the charge, and the fraction of Cl2 in the fluidizing gas were investigated. Tests confirm the need for solid carbon in the bed if chlorination is to run at high rates. With solid carbon in the bed, CO supplied with the fluidizing gas does not increase significantly the degree of chlorination after 75 minutes. Ilmenite is chlorinated more quickly than titania slag, which in turn is chlorinated more quickly than rutile. Rates of chlorination at 1100°C and 1000°C are much the same and significantly higher than at 900°C. Chlorination is associated with significant increases in particle porosity (even for rutile), which is brought about by the rapid initial chlorination of FeO and MnO (in ilmenite and slag) and (it is argued) by the chlorination of Ti2O3 which forms at high-energy surface sites. A reaction mechanism is presented; where possible, its validity is demonstrated by the support of empirical observations.

Jan 1, 2003

By V. Panayotov, M. Panayotova

"The combined use of semiconductor properties and specific flotation characteristics of minerals under different conditions with external influences ensures a possibility for process control and management. This work presents the relations between the volumetric and surface characteristics of minerals and the minerals' flotation ability (flotability), as well as the possibility for the flotability purposeful change. Results from proprietary laboratory and industrial research are presented showing how controlled impacts on minerals and flotation pulp improve flotation technology. Such an approach reveals prospects for the creation of new technologies for the minerals' beneficiation.INTRODUCTIONThe decrease of the useful components content in the ores, the increasingly complex nature of the raw materials, the increasing energy consumption per the unit of production, and the need to solve the problems related to the environment pollution require solutions different than the existing classical ones. One of the ways to find such solutions is the detailed consideration of the fundamental properties of minerals and, in particular, of minerals having semiconductor properties. The studies of Plaksin et al. (1968), Chanturia and Shafeev (1977), Chanturia and Vigdergauz (2008), Carta et al. (1973), Hoberg and Shneider (1975), Rao et al. (1992) have given an idea of the energy state of the minerals, their flotation ability, and the ways in which this ability can be changed in one or the other direction. The main line in these works is the study and use of the relationship between bulk and flotation properties of minerals. To improve the efficiency of the process, it is also necessary to consider the relationship between the surface properties of the minerals, especially minerals-semiconductors, and their flotation ability.THEORETICAL BACKGROUND IN BRIEFA quantitative estimation of energy changes in a solid phase in the process of flotation may be made by taking in account the changes in the Fermi level. Its position in the forbidden band is an indicator about the direction and the intensity of electron exchange between solid and liquid phases. The Fermi level energy EF enables the estimation of flotability, intensity of needed external impact before flotation, as well as efficiency of the process going on. Quantitative estimation of these processes can be made by means of the flotability coefficient Kf."

Jan 1, 2018

By S. Chuanyao

In last decade, along with its booming Chinese economy, China?s higher education has experienced rapid growth. In 2010, the number of various colleges totals more than 3500, with 2.2 million faculties registered. Currently there are almost 30 million students studying in the colleges, 3 times more than 10 years ago. Mineral Processing was initiated in 1949 as a sub-discipline of Mining Engineering, one of the 13 first level disciplines. Mineral Processing is now established in 34 Chinese colleges, recruiting 2600 undergraduate students, 540 postgraduate students and 100 PhD students every year. A further 9 institutes offer postgraduate education in this field. More than 3000 graduates majoring in Mineral Processing join the industry or institutions each year. The four-year undergraduate teaching and practical training in the colleges is designed to produce qualified mineral processing professionals. This includes courses in mathematics and natural science, fundamental engineering and basic and specialization courses. Recently, the ?Excellent Engineer Program? was launched to strengthen students? practical capabilities. This is a 3+1 teaching and training model; 3 years of theoretical course study plus 1 accumulated year of various practical studies, either inside or outside the college. As for graduate employment, mining-related major graduates have been in a good demand thanks to the intensive investment in mineral sector by Chinese companies. The shortage of experienced metallurgists generates a greater than 90% employment rate for Mineral Processing graduates. However, the biggest problem we are still facing is the gap between the quality of the graduates and the requirements of industry, as a result of occupation attraction, teaching systems, faculty quality, and so forth. Another problem is international orientation. Although nowadays Chinese-foreign cooperation in college education is popular, collaborative mineral related projects are far less common, leaving much room for improvement. Looking ahead to the next 10 years, we still have the right reasons to estimate continued prosperity in the minerals sector as well as mineral processing education in China. A brief analysis and views on this will also be shared in the presentation. Keywords: China, mining engineering curriculum, excellent engineer program

Sep 1, 2012

By A. Y. Senchenko, S. G. Rybkin, A. V. Aksenov

"Oxidized nickel ores are important source for nickel production in Russia. Considerable explored reserves of oxidized nickel ores with relatively low nickel content, about 0.6-1.4%, are concentrated in the Ural region of Russia. Conventional process flowsheet with the use of blast matte smelting, applied in particularly by JSC “Ufaleynickel”, proves itself as extremely low-margin technology. This paper will examine development of a new more cost-efficient process involving integrated treatment of oxidized nickel ores using the ore from Serovskoye deposit as an example. Target products of this process are hydrate residues containing up to 15 % of nickel and 0.3 % of cobalt, as well as saleable salts of magnesium sulphate and ammonium suplphate. This innovative process includes roasting of a mixture composed of ground ore and sulphuric acid at 650 °?. Sulphate roasted product is then leached in a weak sulphuric acid solution with the following separation of liquid from insoluble solids. Sulphate solution is neutralized by aqua ammonia in two stages until media pH is 3.0-3.5 and 7.5-8.0 with detachment of iron- and nickel-bearing hydrate residues respectively. The mother solution is boiled out resulting in salt crystals which are then dried and roasted at 500-600 °? to obtain magnesium sulphate. The gases generated during salts roasting are captured with production of ammonium sulphate. The developed technology demonstrates higher potential in terms of its economics and eco-efficiency comparing with the conventional process. This innovative technology for integrated process of oxidized nickel ores was patented in Russia.INTRODUCTION Development and industrial implementation of efficient technologies to process oxidized nickel ores is a very important task for non-ferrous metallurgy of Russia. The main reasons for the required technical upgrade of the plants processing oxidized nickel ores is depletion of rich ores, increase of energy resources costs, amplification of environmental and production standards. Due to this, transition from conventional pyrometallurgy to cost-effective hydrometallurgical technologies of ore liberation and solutions processing is logical and corresponds to the worldwide practice of Ni production from oxidized nickel ores."

Jan 1, 2018

By Avishan Atrafi

Frothing behavior of surfactants originate from their preferential adsorption at the gas-solution interface. Different surfactants may demonstrate different adsorption behaviors depending on their molecular structure and surface activity. The quantity and rate of adsorption of surfactants at the gas- solution interface in flotation systems will certainly affect kinetics of reaction and fractionation of surfactant between bulk and foam phase and subsequently their frothing characteristics. In this paper, the frothing characteristics of sodium oleate which is the main constituent of fatty acids used in flotation systems is explained. The adsorption behavior of sodium oleate is then compared to a typical non-ionic frother (Methyl Isobutyl Carbinol, MIBC) in terms of different adsorption behavior at the gas-solution interface. Since long chain fatty acids are weak electrolytes, their behavior is a strong function of pH. Also semi soluble salts including apatite contain considerable amounts of ions like calcium in their lattice, so the effect of presence of ions on the frothing behavior of fatty acids requires an investigation. A mass balance on the surfactant transferred to the foam was solved to estimate the bubble surface area flux in foam, which explained how the adsorbed surfactant at gas-solution interface controls the bubble surface area flux at foam. Since sodium oleate adsorption at foam takes place gradually, frother concentration as a function of time was monitored by the total organic carbon measurement (TOC) to compare the surfactant uptake rate at different concentrations, pH and ionic strength. The surfactant concentration adsorbed within foam together with the value of adsorption density from the Gibbs adsorption, leads to the calculation of the surface area flux and prediction of average bubble size in the foam at a specific time frame. This value was compared at different concentrations of sodium oleate. Dynamic surface tension measurements were accompanied to explain the adsorption behavior, though finally equilibrium surface tension turns out to better explain the foamability characteristics. Keywords: flotation collectors, flotation froths, foams, fatty acids, adsorption behavior

Sep 1, 2012

By Bulelwa Ndlovu, Saeed Farrokhpay, Dee Bradshaw

The effects of phyllosilicate minerals on the flotation performance and froth stability of a copper ore was investigated. It was found that various phyllosilicate minerals affect the copper recovery differently however they all caused the flotation grade to be reduced. The effect of different phyllosilicate minerals on the froth stability followed the order of talc >> montmorillonite > muscovite > kaolinite > illite. The results demonstrated that there could be a relationship between the deleterious effect of phyllosilicate minerals on the flotation and froth stability. Talc and montmorillonite have both shown the highest effect on the flotation recovery and grade as well as froth stability. On the other hand, illite has the least effect on the both flotation performance and froth stability. Kaolinite and muscovite also affected the copper flotation grade (but not the recovery) while they also affected the froth stability. Therefore it is possible to control the flotation performance when phyllosilicate minerals are present via monitoring and controlling froth stability which needs to be investigated further.

Jan 1, 2014

By J. Jirestig

Poor grade iron ore, suffering from interlocked particles, is challenging for any process technology. Extensive grinding is required to attain liberation and to yield concentrates of desired grade. Fine particles are commonly very difficult to retrieve, resulting in value losses to tailings. In this paper, results from HGMS tests on fine to ultra fine hematite are reported. Special emphasis is put on slurry flow velocity. If hydrodynamic drag force, i.e. flow velocity is not controlled and kept constant during the feed and/or rinse phase, fine particles will not be captured and retained. Flow velocity control and constant flow during separation are achieved by discharge valves/slots and parallel magnetic flux and pulp flow configuration. In tests, increased slurry velocity from 178 to 268mm/s caused Fe-recovery to drop from 78 to 48%. Proving that flow velocity control is essential to optimise grade and recovery. HGMS tests at the Metso mineral laboratory on natural (weathered) hematite fines clearly show a large potential to recover valuables, currently lost to tailings. Even at particle size distributions as low as D80=35µm concentrate grades and recovery are very satisfying. Two samples, in-plant desliming rejects (D80=35µm and 50µm) where significantly upgraded and recovered, from 45,3% to 63,6% and 53,0% to 63,4% Fe, at 73,8% and 81,1% Fe-recovery respectively. Other types of in plant rejects, such as gravity separation or WHIMS tailings, also benefits from HGMS separation. Gravity separation reject, 55,8% Fe, at D80=500µm was tested, yielding a magnetic concentrate of 60,8% Fe at 50,7% Fe-recovery. The results indicated that the hematite was poorly liberated. HGMS separation was repeated after a regrind to D80 150µm, resulting in a magnetic concentrate of 62,8% Fe at 75,9% Fe-recovery. The tests prove that hematite, presently lost to tailings streams, can be recovered by HGMS and thereby significantly contribute to improved overall economy. Keywords: HGMS, magnetic separation, recovery of ultra-fine hematite, Indian hematite ores, hematite recovery from tailings

Sep 1, 2012

By S. H. Morar

Froth stability is widely recognized as a key driver of flotation selectivity. It is well known that froth stability is affected by the type and quantity of surface active reagents present (frothers), and the concentration and hydrophobicity of solid particles present. While some studies have been performed on the effect of frothers on froth stability in three-phase systems and the hydrophobicity of particles present, very little work has been performed on the effect of solids loading on froth stability. This may be due to insufficiently robust measurement techniques. This paper investigates the use of a new machine vision measurement to measure solids loading, and the relationship between this measurement, bubble size, and bubble burst rate on the froth surface. Keywords: froth flotation, machine vision, solids loading

Sep 1, 2012

By R. C. Dunne

As ore grades of existing and new ore deposits continue to decrease there is ever increasing pressure to decrease operating costs to maintain profitabitabitiy at existing mine sites and for new projects. The accepted solution to this dilemma in most cases is to increase treatment rate, leading to a coarser grind, at the expense of marginal decreases in recovery. The recovery loss is usually associated with losses of liberated and composite coarse material. This paper will review the practice of coarse particle flotation, including the reagent chemistry, cell hydrodynamics, froth stability, entrainment and flotation cell design, all parameters important to the recovery of coarse liberated and composite particles. This will provide a better understanding of opportunities to improve the recovery of coarse particles. Some examples will be provided.

Sep 1, 2012

By Michael Young, Rodrigo Araya, Cesar Gomez, Le Huynh, James Finch

The performance of flotation machines is closely related to the gas dispersion characteristics achieved in their operation. It is known that frothers play a major role not only in the size distribution of the generated bubble population, but also on the swarm rise velocity. A program to characterize frother effects on two-phase hydrodynamics (air-water) of Jameson cells was undertaken in a fully instrumented pilot unit installed at McGill University. Gas dispersion parameters (gas velocity, gas holdup and bubble size distributions) of the gas-liquid mixture generated in the downcomer were measured after its release into the separation chamber. The unit was operated under different conditions including gas velocity, liquid jet velocity and frother concentration (MIBC). Bubble size distributions for concentrations above the critical coalescence concentration (CCC) were narrow with Sauter mean diameter between 0.6 to 1.3 mm. The bubble size followed the general trend as encountered in other types of flotation machines, i.e., rapid decrease with increasing frother concentrations below 10 µL/L, and almost no change in size for concentrations above 30 µL/L. The CCC was between 10 and 15 µL/L. Strong correlations were found between bubble size and air-to-liquid flow ratio (APR), and between the bulk density of the aerated solution in the separation tank and the vacuum inside the downcomer. An equation is proposed to estimate gas holdup in the separation tank from vacuum and bulk density readings.

Jan 1, 2014

By A. V. Neretin

This paper is a continuation and extention of the previous paper on energy-efficient placer mining methods which was presented in 2007 at the World Gold Conference in Cairns, Australia (Nere-tin, 2007a). The paper reports the results only on gravel processing as they were not fully discussed in the previous paper. It is common knowledge that placer gold mining requires processing of large tonnages of gold-bearing gravels by wash plants of different types. In Russia, gold-bearing gravels are mostly disintegrated and screened by the following types of wash plants: a water canon, a derocker or a scrubber trommel. Gold-bearing gravel processing is regarded as highly energy-intensive due to high energy consumption for transportation of large tonnage of material and high pressure water flow rate. The industries requiring a significant expenditure of energy normally estimate the process efficiency by energy consumption per product unit. In order to obtain quantitative data on energy consumption for gravel processing and to estimate placer mining costs, in 2003~2006 four placer gold mines located in the Irkutsk Region were thoroughly investigated through time and motion studies. At all these placer mines gravels were processed by a water canon, a derocker or a scrubber trommel. The objective of the study was to investigate the following parameters: ? wash plant throughput rate per hour; ? hourly diesel fuel and power consumption per cubic meter of gravel processed; ? volume per cent and shape of oversize material; ? different combinations of gravel processing methods. The results from this study were as follows: ? specific energy consumption per cubic metre of gravel processed for different combinations of gravel processing methods was estimated; ? a correlation between energy consumption and unit cost of gravel processing was determined; ? effect of yield and shape of oversize material on wash plant throughput rate per hour was de-fined; ? energy-efficient gravel processing methods were developed. Based on these results, an improved method of gold-bearing gravel processing was proposed. Implementation of this method at a placer mine saved US$ 123 000 in operating expenses only during a short-time Siberian placer mining season. At the same time, this method improved gravel disintegration, screening and processing operations used at the mine. Another advantage of the pro-posed method was higher gold recovery due to reduced yield of undersize material. In order to improve efficiency of gravel processing, a wash system including a derocker for primary gravel processing and a lightweight scrubber trommel was developed. There are two economic benefits of replacing water cannons with the proposed wash system. The first benefit includes lower operating costs for gravel processing due to lower specific energy consumption, while the second benefit is lower gold losses during slurrifying (disintegration and screening) and sluicing of the undersize material.

Jan 1, 2014

By Sebastian Fredes, Williams Calderon, Mauricio Toledo, Gonzalo Montes-Atenas

The influence of the temperature on leaching kinetics of copper-bearing minerals has been widely acknowledged: the leaching of copper oxide ores is generally described as exothermic reactions while copper sulfide ores are associated with endothermic reactions. Reports studying the influence of temperature on leaching kinetics at laboratory scale frequently involve the implementation of either fully flooded isothermal systems or jacketed column setups. Nevertheless, at industrial scale controlling or monitoring the temperature or temperature changes is almost impractical. In fact, leaching process is usually a large tonnage operation and changing the temperature of vast amounts of material would require an enormous amount of energy and highly specific heat transfer equipment. Preliminary computations on the amount of energy required to increase the temperature of a heap or dump in 1°C indicates that it would be impossible to find an energy source able to accomplish the task. In order to provide a solution to this matter it is suggested to create an energy managing protocol (EMP) that permits heat up or down the porous body locally taking advantage from the temperature gradients and from the reactivity of different regions within the material as a function of the leaching cycles. The aim of this study is to evaluate different heat transfer regimes in a 1 ton pilot column leach operation. It was found that best results of copper recovery are obtained when heating up the column in horizontal bands starting from the top of the column moving downwards as the leach cycle evolves. The system is expected to be suitable for industrial applications, but further development of the technique is required, particularly in the design of the heat transfer dispositive.

Jan 1, 2014

By Janusz S. Laskowski

The flotation-related properties of hexanol derivatives and mono-alkyl ethers of propylene oxide, which include many important flotation frothers (e.g. MIBC, DF-200, DF-250, DF-1012, etc.) have been studied. The obtained results show that the DFI (Dynamic Foamability Index) - CCC (Critical Coalescence Concentration) plot can be used to classify flotation frothers. The frothers characterized by low CCC and high DFI values have properties of strong flotation frothers, while those with high CCC and low DFI values are more selective. The proposed frother classification system, based on simple CCC and DFI measurements, provides, for the first time, a solid ground-work for characterization of the flotation frothers.

Jan 1, 2003