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C. Edward Stafford, Chester, Pa.:—Doring all my business life, I have been engaged in the manufacture of Bessemer and open-hearth steels, but, during my long connection with the Shoenberger Steel Co. of Pittsburg, I had some experience in the manufacture of high-grade puddled iron for horseshoes, and in making, by Dr. Otto Wuth's process, extremely pure, low-phosphorus puddled blooms (analyzing from 0.005 to 0.01 per cent. of phosphorus and sulphur), which were melted with low-phosphorus pig-iron in acid open-hearth furnaces, to make extra locomotive fire-box steel. I have also seen the Danks puddlers in operation at different times and places, notably where they were most successful, at the Otis Steel Works, Cleveland, Ohio; then under the management of our friend, Mr. S. T. Wellman. These Danks blooms were made solely for open-hearth melting-stock, to which they were well adapted. (The unavoidable presence of bits of ore-fix imbedded in the mass of the metal always prevents the profitable manufacture of merchant iron from Danks' blooms.) With the experience just described, I was to some degree in position to value fairly the means, methods and results of Mr. Roe's mechanical puddling from the metallurgical or technical and economic points of view, when given an opportunity by Mr. Roe to see his puddling-furnace or machine in operation in Pottstown, Pa. Briefly, the furnace, with water-cooled bottom, is rectangular in plan, about 20 by 8 ft. in the clear, suspended by trunnions at the middle of the long sides, at a height of 17 or 18 ft. above the general level. The oscillation (65" each way from the vertical) is accomplished by geared segments (attached to the downward-projecting side or trunnion-plates) with which engage pinions driven by a reversing engine. The whole section

Jan 1, 1906

By G. R. Kotler, W. A. Tiller, W. C. Johnston

Experiments carried out on 100 g samples of molten tin and Sn-Pb alloys showed that the magnitude of the field strength, H, does not effect the supercooling, aTn, at which the initial nucleus of solid forms. However, the nuwlber of nuclei forming per cc, n, is found to increase greatly with H for fixed ATN and to increase with ATN for fixed H. The value of n increases greatly with the presence of solute and is found to he indefiendent of the cooling rate of the simples. Further, the most effective time for stirring to enhance n is immediately following the initiation of recalescence. The effect of inducing nucleation with the aid of a mechanical impact both in the presence and absence of stirring has also been studied. All proposed mechanisms for the enhancement of n by physical means seem to be inadequate in accounting for these results. IN any real nucleation experiment there are two effects influencing the results that would not be predieted from classical homogeneous nucleation theory. These may be separated into chemical and mechanical effects. The chemical effects are twofold. 1) Nucleation catalysts are present which enhance the nucleation frequency of new grains over that predicted by classical homogeneous nucleation theory.' 2) Solute will restrain the growth of nuclei so that many others may form.2,3 The mechanical effects are also two-fold. 1) Vibration (sonic or ultrasonic) of the freezing liquid enhances the nucleation frequency of new grains over that given by the chemical effects alone.4-6 2) Macroscopic fluid-flow effects produce the same effect as l).'7' It is also possible to influence the nucleation experiment by certain physical effects such as the application of electric and magnetic fields.9 From classical homogeneous nucleation theory one would predict the following relationship between the nucleation rate, N1 (number of nuclei formed per unit volume per unit time), and bath supercooling, AT, for an isothermal experiment.

Jan 1, 1963

By R. Venugopal

Hydrocyclones have been used extensively for more than 100 years to classify mineral slurries for recirculation in grinding circuits. Sometimes hydrocyclone classification is carried out in more than one stage to improve the efficiency of classification. Factors affecting separation efficiency include fluid velocity, density, and viscosity as well as the mass, size, and density of the particles. The geometric configuration also affects its efficiency; it includes parameters like cyclone diameter, underflow and overflow diameter, position of vortex finder, height of the cyclone, feed inlet geometry, and diameter etc. Besides changes in the basic parameters some modifications in cyclone has also been introduced from time to time which have affected its efficiency, some of these are :-(i).Introduction of magnetic force along with the centrifugal and drag force to control the flow of the magnetic particles inside the chamber.(ii). Introduction of sparger, air is introduced in the chamber in the form of bubbles, to control the flow of fine particles and hydrophobic particles. (iii). Introduction of dilution technologies for the dilution of thickened underflow. (iv).Introduction of new model. In spite of wide use and simple geometry, the real working principle of hydrocyclone chamber is extremely complex because of the swirling turbulent flow inside the device. In order to get more knowledge about hydrocyclones and to increase its efficiency, past 10-15 years simulation techniques are being developed. The simulation models also enabled a deeper insight into the static and dynamic behavior of hydrocyclones. Therefore, more emphasis on simulations by methods like Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Finite Element method (FEM) is given. Overall, a status review of the work carried out on the analysis of hydrocyclone performance, modeling approaches and its contribution in the efficiency of mineral processing operation is highlighted.

Sep 1, 2012

By F. G. Miller, R. C. McFarlane, T. D. Mueller

During the process of gas storage in pressure-depleted oil reservoirs, it has been observed that in some instances additional liquid oil is recovered and that the composition of the storage gas is materially altered. A mathematical study was made of the dynamic behavior of such a depleted oil reservoir undergoing gas injection. The important variable considered in this study, not included in previously published work, was that of compositional effects on the phase behavior of two-phase flow. Pressure, saturation and component composition profiles were developed for a linear, horizontal and homogeneous porous medium containing oil and gas but undergoing dry gas injection. Special new techniques were developed to overcome the problems of numerical smoothing which arise in the solution of the equations representing such systems. The method of solution includes the development of partial differential equations describing the behavior of the system, representing these equations by finite difference approximations, making certain simplifying assumptions and, finally, applying methods of numerical analysis with the aid of a high-speed digital computer. In an example calculation, results using the mathematical model are compared with field observations made on a gas storage project in Clay County, Tex. This field project involved a depleted oil reservoir used 'for gas storage and gas cycling purposes. As a result of these processes, the reservoir yielded substantial amounts of secondary oil, both in the form of stock tank oil and as vaporized products in the produced gas. The methods derived in this study may be applied to a variety of oil reservoir problems which are dependent on compositional effects. In recent years the number of oil reservoirs being used for gas storage purposes has increased greatly, and there has been at least one published account of additional oil recovery resulting from gas cycling a depleted oil reservoir after repressur-ing with dry gas for storage purposes. Additional oil recovery from oil reservoirs resulting from gas storage operations could become an important secondary recovery process. This is especially true since the use of natural gas in large metropolitan areas continues to increase and more gas storage volume near these areas is needed. These facts provided the motivation for the work reported here. This paper reports on a study of the inter-relations of composition, saturation and pressure changes which occur when hydrocarbon gas is injected into an oil reservoir system. From an understanding of the process, prediction methods may be developed for use in forecasting the secondary recovery products from gas storage operations in oil reservoirs and, consequently, .the economics of such projects can be developed. The process of storing hydrocarbon gas in an oil reservoir and the cycling process both involve the transient multi-phase flow of oil reservoir fluids with changing fluid compositions. There is a scarcity of work published on the subject. One of the first laboratory models developed to study a problem similar to the one posed here was published in 1948 by Standing, Lindblad and Parsons. l They developed a model to study gas condensate recovery by gas cycling, including the effect of heterogeneous reservoir permeability. Their results showed the compositional effects of injecting a gas of known composition into a two-phase condensate reservoir of known composition. A major finding of their study indicated that maximum oil recoveries from gas cycling projects result when low cycling pressures are used. Previous to their work it was generally considered

By Nelson M. Solow

Raise boring of mine ventilation shafts in many cases offers a lower cost and higher speed method of construction in comparison to conventional shaft sinking. Where underground access is available for raise boring the potential savings indicate that raise boring should be considered as an alternative to other methods. Raise boring machines are currently in use which have the capability for reaming shafts up to twenty feet in diameter, depending on the strata and depth. These large capacity machines make it possible to consider raise bored shafts for moving large volumes of air. Although we will consider here only ventilation shafts, raise boring should also be considered for men and material shafts. When the mine planner has determined the volume of air required through a shaft at a particular location he is faced with the problem of selecting the shaft size. The principal factors in optimizing the shaft size are the construction costs for the shaft 'and the power cost to move the air through the shaft. The larger diameter the' shaft is the more it costs to construct, but for a given volume of air the power required (cost) becomes lower as the diameter increases. The construction cost is paid only once, when the shaft is constructed. The power costs, however, are paid throughout the life of the shaft. Methods of optimizing air shaft size found in the literature (References 1 and 2) amortize the construction cost and include it in the average annual cost of operating the airshaft. These methods derive a formula for the average annual cost vs. shaft size and de-rive the formula to compute the optimum size for a given air flow rate. It is, however, desirable to take into account tax considera-

Jan 1, 1977

By K. C. Corin, M. S. Manono, J. G. Wiese

Depressants play a crucial role in the flotation of PGM bearing ores as they prevent naturally floatable gangue (NFG) from reporting to the concentrate. This action is regarded as critically important because less dilution of the concentrate means lower costs for downstream processes. However, abnormal water conditions (such as high concentrations of ions) in the flotation system can modify the selectivity of these depressants. It is well known that the existence of selected electrolytes in water can alter the behaviour of some polysaccharide depressants by enhancing their adsorption onto gangue minerals and thereby prevent naturally floatable gangue from moving into the froth phase. Concurrently these same electrolytes may enhance frothability, owing to their stabilising effect on the bubbles within the system. Plant water at various ionic strengths was investigated against depressant type and dosage in order to understand electrolyte-depressant interactive effects during the flotation of a Merensky ore, using entrainment, rate of NFG recovery, and total gangue recovery as proxies. The study showed that the rate of NFG recovery per unit mass of water decreased with increasing ionic strength at all dosages, however the total amount of gangue reporting to the concentrate increased with increasing ionic strength at all depressant dosages. Thus, this paper attempts to consider the effects of both ionic strength and depressant dosage as individual factors within flotation. It further looks to investigate whether any interactive effects exists between these two factors when considered simultaneously.

Jan 1, 2016

By Harold M. Feder, Irving Johnson

Tkermodynamic functions for dilute solutions of uranium in liquid cadmium were obtained from galvanic cell measurements. Deviations from Henvy's law were observed at concentvations down to 2 x 10-3 atom fraction. Unusually large negative values of the pavtial molal relative enthalpy and excess entvopy of uranium, suggestive of the occu,vvenctwe of partial ovdering of cadmium around uranium in these solutions, were found. The negative relative partial molal enthalpy of uranium at the liquidus accounts for the observed retrogvade solubility of metallic uranium between 473" and about 630°C. The standard free enevgy of formation of UCd,, from a-uranium and liquid cadmium is given by F,° THE constitutional diagram of the U-Cd system,' Fig. 1, is unusual in several respects. The near equality of the Goldschmidt atomic radii2 (Cd, 1.52A U, 1.56A) might be expected to give rise to extensive mutual solubility of the elements except for the restrictions imposed by differences in valence and electronegativity.3 The latter factors must be strongly influential because mutual solubilities in the terminal solid phases are probably negligible, and the solubility of uranium in liquid cadmium in the readily accessible range is only about 1 at. pct. Interestingly, the solubility of uranium in liquid cadmium actually decveases slightly with increasing temperature from 473" to about 630°C. Such a retrograde solubility in a liquid phase is a rare phenomenon in metallic systems; no other authenticated examples were found among the nearly 700 binary phase diagrams compiled by Hansen and Anderko.2 These observations suggested the existence of some unusual interaction between uranium and cadmium. Greater insight into the nature of this interaction was sought by measurement of the thermodynamic properties of the system. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The emf of cells denoted by the scheme was measured. Each cell consisted of two uranium and two alloy electrodes immersed in a molten lithium chloride-potassium chloride eutectic mixture containing uranium trichloride. The physical arrangement is shown in Fig. 2. The potential between any pair of electrodes could be measured with a Leeds and Northrup Type K-3 potentiometer. The measurements were made at points marked in Fig. 1. It should be noted that points on the phase boundaries represent the concentrations of uranium in the saturated liquid phases of heterogeneous alloys. Uranium Electrodes. Uranium, which is not a particularly soft metal, is capable of retaining residual stresses, and its potential may depend upon its physical condition. Electrodes were prepared from 3-mm diam rods of hot-rolled high-purity4

Jan 1, 1962

By H. Manurung, I. M. Bendiayasa, W. Astuti, and H. T. B. M. Petrus, F Anggara, K. C. Wanta

The leaching kinetics of cerium (Ce) and yttrium (Y) in sodium-hydroxide-digested non-magnetic coal fly ash using acetic acid were investigated. The variables analysed were pH, solid-to-liquid ratio (S/L), and temperature. The results show that cerium and yttrium's maximum recovery was 57.33% and 58.36%, respectively, under leaching temperature of 90°C for Ce and 60°C for Y at pH of 1,74 and 10 g/mL solid-liquid ratio in 240 minutes. Increasing the leaching time to more than 120 minutes did not significantly improve the results. After the magnetic separation process, the ICP-OES analysis shows a slight increase in the concentration of cerium and yttrium on nonmagnetic components. The XRD and ICP-OES analysis for the sample before and after silicate digestion shows that 40% silicate was dissolved. The calculation of apparent activation energies of leaching using the Arrhenius law for the leaching of cerium and yttrium gives 22.72 kJ/mol and 35.84 kJ/mol, respectively. The kinetic leaching model of cerium and yttrium all fit Dickinson's new shrinking core model. The calculation results show that the leaching reaction is controlled by combining interface transfer and diffusion across the product layer.

Nov 6, 2024

By R. M. Asimow

Both smith1 and wells2 have shown that the dif-fusivity of carbon in austenite increases rapidly with increasing carbon concentration. Smith has shown, in addition, that part but not all of this increase can be attributed to the concentration dependence of the activity coefficient of carbon in austenite. From the work of Eshelby', it is known that, because of the image displacements, there is a uniform dilatation of the material in a body containing random centers of dilatation. It is thus tempting to explain the enhanced diffusivity as resulting from this apparent negative pressure caused by the interstitial carbon atoms.* That is, the activation free energy for diffusion is not directly a function of concentration if we consider that the alloy is subjected to a concentration-dependent pressure. To proceed with a quantitative solution, it is necessary to determine the activation volume AV for the diffusion process. An exact calculation of AV is quite a difficult problem and does not appear to have been solved as yet. A simpler procedure is to use the semiempirical, macroscopic theory of seyes' which relates the activation free energy AG to AV. Keyes has shown that for many types of diffusion processes the following relationship is valid Where p is the Gruneisen constant and x the compressibility. This relationship is based on the assumption that AG can be identified with strain-energy terms. In general there will also be contributions to AG due to a change in the energy of the valence electrons of the metal; thus the relation must be considered largely empirical. Surprisingly, for self-diffusion where it is well-known that the electronic contribution is quite important,' the Keyes relation works quite well for many systems. For interstitial diffusion where it might be expected that the relationship is on a firmer theoretical basis, the limited experimental data available is not in particularly good agreement as can be seen from Table I. However, it must be remembered that besides the uncertain basis of the Keyes formula there is considerable uncertainty in some of the experimental values of AV. The only real justification for using the Keyes formula in the present analysis is that it gives a result which satisfactorily solves the problem at hand and, further, there are no more reliable procedures for calculating AV available. The coefficient 3 in Eq. [I] is determined such that the room-temperature value for x is to be used. The activation entropy AS is estimated as 8.95 x 10"3 kcal per OK mole using the values in Table I1 and the Zener" relation AS = PAHIT, where p is a dimensionless thermal coefficient of Young's modulus which is to be evaluated at low values of T/T,, aH is the activation enthalpy, and T, is the melting temperature of the alloy. The resulting value of AG at 1000°C is 25.6 kcal per mole. The Gruneisen constant (p = 3cup/XC,), where p is the density, is evaluated from the room-temperature data in Table I1 after calculating C, from the relation. A value of p = 8.32 g per cu cm based on the value of a. in Table I is used. The result is C, = 5.0 x lo6 erg per g, H = 2.32, and AV = 3.41 cu cm per mole at 1000°C and infinite carbon dilution. It is assumed that the activation volume is not a function of carbon concentration. The theory could be refined to consider AV a function of concentration, but due to the uncertainties in the parameters there seems little justification for this. Carbon dissolved in austenite forms a nonideal solid solution, so that in writing an equation for. the diffusivity of carbon it is necessary to take into account the change in activity coefficient with concentration. The resulting equation is16

Jan 1, 1964

By R Stead

So many ceramics look the same, but are they?In the past 20 years, there have been significant changes in the materials available, as well as changes to the supply chain, for ceramics used in wear applications in the hard rock mining industry. The biggest change in supply has been from the Chinese market, with many suppliers promoting their products as æstate of the artÆ. Some of them are state of the art, but are they all? There will be some concluding remarks in this respect.There are still some outstanding new developments coming from the more traditional suppliers and these should not be ignored. However, as an end user, how can one be sure that the product received meets the technical specifications of that material?This paper will address some of the questions on how to differentiate between different materials by giving a technical overview of the current (but not exclusive) range of popular ceramics, plus incorporating how these ceramics are used in process plant products by presenting case studies. The presentation will include technical data coupled with micrographs of various ceramics to illustrate just why they are different.It will also be shown that by careful selection of the wear material, it is possible to gain significant benefit when using superior materials in an ore processing plant. The impact of cost of the products, life, process efficiency, and reduced maintenance costs will be considered using cyclone components as an example.The properties (including the microstructures) of the various ceramics will be compared to the application in order to get some understanding of what is considered good or bad.Misra and Finnie (1982) summarised their paper, æA review of Abrasive Wear of MetalsÆ by saying:à it is difficult to give guidelines for selecting materials for abrasive wear resistance. Each application is a different one, and a design engineer has to take into account various other factors such as impact, fatigue and corrosion which are often coupled with abrasive wear. The same applies to ceramics.CITATION:Stead, R, 2013. Applications of ceramic wear materials in the gold industry, in Proceedings World Gold 2013, pp 325-330 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 26, 2013

By G. E. McElroy

As one phase of a general program of enthracite mine-fire research initiated by the Bureau of Mines in September 1935, a study of the records of past fires was considered a necessary approach to a proper understanding of present and future fires because only limited information could be obtained directly from existing active fires on account of their inaccessibility. Through the courtesy of interested operators, all available records of fires that had occurred in a large group of steep-pitch anthracite mines in the Western Middle and Southern fields of the Pennsylvania anthracite district were examined and analyzed for data on the causes, costs, behavior, and control of fires, and this report is primarily a discussion of these factors based on a close study of these particular records. Mining Conditions The records pertain to a group of mines that have contributed about 12 percent of the total Pennsylvania anthracite production and constitute a large proportion of, and well represent, steep-pitch operations in this district. Throughout the area represented, the coal occurs as a series of up to 20 parallel seams in folded slate and sandstone strata and almost entirely on pitches of 400 to 80°, with vein thicknesses of 5 to 60 feet. Practically all are old mines with histories dating back to 1850, or thereabouts, and present operations are either under or adjacent to mined-out areas extending to surface or to the saddles of anticlines. All operations are at relatively shallow depths, that is, within 1,000 feet, vertically, of the surface. Mining methods are largely a heritage of the past and embrace typical breast and pillar operations with practically no mechanized mining and with the coal shot ?off the solid.? Most of the mines are rated as gassy and are operated now on a closed-light basis. Permissible explosives are now used entirely for breaking coal, and dynamites for rock work and chute-starting blasting.

Jan 1, 1938

By T. N. Andersen

The history of gold and silver analyses shows an interesting duality. On one hand, classical chemical and instrumental methods have evolved to meet changing needs, but on the other hand, the age-old and somewhat empirical fire assay has remained a popular tool. Inasmuch as gold and silver generally have been present in ores at low concentra¬tions, methods have been challenged by a need for sensitivity and selectivity coupled with reasonable assay time. A progressive increase in the importance of low grade materials as ore sources has led to the need for improved methods. Assays of these materials are required for process control and accounting in operating plants as well as for guiding research and development activities. The analytical response to these needs is evidenced by numerous reviews published through 1977-¬e.g., cf Kolthoff and Elving (1966), Beamish and Van Loon (1966, 1972, and 1977), Young (1971) , Mallett (1970), and Sen Gupta (1973). In this paper we present a brief sketch of the history and status of various gold and silver methods. A more detailed summary of atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) is Given, as this method has gained in popularity more than other assay methods. AAS methods currently in use are summarized and discussed briefly. This paper is not meant to be a detailed review, as are the above mentioned publications. Rather, we borrow from those works and more recent papers to report trends in gold and silver analyses (particularly in AAS). Also, we discuss some selected poten¬tial problems, and problems that have been experienced by this laboratory.

Jan 1, 1981

By Horace T. Reno

This information circular surveys the iron are industry of the world. It presents a comprehensive statistical record through 1970 of the U.S. iron ore industry and world trade patterns. The supply position of the United States and the other principal industrial countries of the world are summarized; detailed information is given on iron are production, consumption, imports, exports, mine capacities, substitutes, properties, and uses. There is a generalized discussion of the technology of mining and smelting iron ore, with a selected bibliography on the current state of these arts. The circular contains a summary economic account of world iron are resources, and discussions of the structure of the domestic and principal foreign mining industries, iron are mine employment and labor productivity, research and development, legislation, government programs, and strategic factors.

Jan 1, 1973

By T. Lane Carter

BEFORE describing the experience with the Chinese on the Rand and the work they have accomplished, it will be necessary, sary, first, to give a brief account of labor-conditions in the Transvaal since the war, and then to show how the necessity of importation of labor arose. As is well known, the Transvaal mines are run on the dual system of labor-that is, the rough work is done by colored laborers under the superintendence of white men. From the start of mining operations in South Africa there has been the cry of shortness of native labor, due in great measure to the failure of Kaffirs to work continuously in the mines. While he works, the Kaffir is a satisfactory laborer, but his period of service is short, averaging about nine months. People unacquainted with the Kaffir have maintained that, by offering a higher wage and better accommodation, better results would be obtained from the native workers, but an increased wage simply aggravates the trouble. The Kaffir's wants are few. While at work he spends little of his money, and before long has sufficient capital with which to buy wives and become a gentleman of leisure. Doubling the wage of the Kaffir means that he acquires a competency in half the time, so that his period of service is correspondingly reduced. In 1899, before the war, there was always a cry about the scarcity of Kaffir labor. The highest number of natives at work was in July and August, 1899, when nearly 100,000 were employed. At the outbreak of hostilities the Kaffirs were scattered far and near, many doing well during the war by working for the military authorities. On the, resumption of mining operations on the Rand a serious mistake was made. Based on past experience, it was argued that if the whole industry decided to start anew with

Sep 1, 1908

International tenders for contract mining opportunities require the Contractor to make an assessment of risk for an operation with a life span of up to twenty-five years usually based on data made available by the Client. This paper seeks to address how the Contractor assesses the data and quantifies the risks associated with the project. The areas of risk are common to most projects, but in the--Lontractor's case, risk assessment is carried out on the Client's data base and within a compressed time frame of usually less than six months. Incorporation of that risk assessment into the contract documentation is also discussed. Practical examples are given in a number of areas.

Jan 1, 1986

By Harry Verakis

Flyrock is the second leading cause of all blasting related injuries in surface coal, metal and nonmetal mining operations. It is also a primary cause of property damage, monetary losses and “near misses.” For the period 1978 to 2008 flyrock accounted for 11.6 percent of all blasting-related injuries in surface coal, metal, and nonmetal mines. A large amount of published material has been published on the safety hazard of flyrock, on ways to predict how far rock will travel from a blast, as well as ways to protect mine personnel and neighbors from flyrock. However, flyrock incidents continue to occur resulting in fatalities and “near misses” that could have caused fatalities. It was only good fortune in some instances that no one was in the mine's parking lot or other unprotected area when flyrock rained down or in harm’s way when a large rock punched a hole in the roof of a building or other structure.

Jan 1, 2011

By F. N. Siddiquie, Mohd Shaif, Rajiullah Khan, Juned Alam

Manganese ore bodies of Banswara Mn belt were classified into stratiform and stratabound types, based on their mode of occurrence, distribution, and their chemical characters. These ore bodies generally composed of braunite, pyrolusite, cryptomelane/ psilomelane, wad, etc. The stratiform-type Mn ore bodies are conformable with the associated host rocks (Mn phyllite, etc.) and occurred in the form of layers, bands, etc., which are variable in their shape and size. These ore bodies are also strongly folded with the enclosing host rocks. The others, which are stratabound-type Mn ore bodies, also showed an intimate association with the associated host rocks. These types of ore bodies occurred in thin layers, pockets, lenses, stringers, etc. The classified ore bodies are confined with Kalinjara formation of Aravalli Supergroup of Paleoproterozoic age. The ore bodies are structurally controlled and well associated with phyllite, schist, limestone, quartzite, etc. The stratiform-type ore bodies constitute a marginal to low Mn grade and are also characterized by lower Mn content (26.19–39.24%) along with the Mn/Fe ratio of 7.16–12.23, while the stratabound-type Mn ore bodies are rich in Mn (35.92–49.64%) along with the higher Mn/Fe ratio of 14.15–23.97. However, the poor Mn grade along with high siliceous impurities of Banswara Mn deposits is subjected to them for intermittent mining activities in the past and, consequently, did not attract the scientific and industrial community for the evaluation of these resources. Therefore, the authors attempted this study in a scientific and systematic manner (mode of occurrence/distribution and possible methods for evaluation/exploration) to evaluate the potential of existed and newer Mn deposit resources in the Banswara Mn belt. The whole findings would be very much helpful for exploration/ mining geologist along with other concerned, to completely evaluate these Mn deposits in the future.

Aug 16, 2021

By Rolf Andreas Lauten, Yanhong Wang, Yongjun Peng

"In mineral flotation, bentonite as a kind of clay mineral imposes deleterious effects on the flotation of valuable minerals, possibly through its ability to increase the pulp viscosity. A higher viscosity lowers the amount of froth and affects the bubble-particle collision frequency. A previous study found that adding gypsum to a bentonite-ore mixture lowered the viscosity, possibly by inhibiting the formation of interconnected network structures. In this study, sulfate as an anion with different types of cations, Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ were used to reduce bentonite viscosity and to improve flotation performance. It was found that at the same concentration, MgSO4 was the most effective salt in reducing bentonite suspension viscosity, while CaSO4 was not as effective likely due to the lower solubility of CaSO4. Na2SO4 and K2SO4 reduced bentonite suspension viscosity at high concentration. Flotation kinetics of ore blended with bentonite was increased with increasing the electrolytes concentration, which generally correlated with the reduction of bentonite viscosity. Meanwhile, significant discrepancies were found between flotation results and rheological measurements in the presence of monovalent ions. It is indicated that the morphology of bentonite aggregates in electrolytes solution is likely to influence the hydrodynamics in the froth zone.INTRODUCTIONClay is present in many ore bodies as a gangue mineral. Presence of clay presents several challenges in the processing of valuable minerals. They are soft compared to valuable minerals, which means that during grinding of the ore, clay particles are likely to obtain a smaller particle size than the valuable mineral. Often clay particles may be within the colloidal size domain (<20 µm). The smaller size increases the probability of entrainment in the concentrate. Another challenge is their anisotropic charge distribution, where depending upon the pH, edges (E) and faces (F) carry charges of opposite sign. This facilitates formation of aggregation structures that may impede percolation of bubbles through a froth, but also increase the viscosity more than expected from the mere change in volume fraction. In addition to lowering the froth mobility, a high slurry viscosity will have implications for the gas dispersion in the flotation column as it affects the dispersion of the suspended particles, and it modifies the bubble-particle collision rate and attachment efficiency (Bakker, Meyer, & Deglon, 2009; Shabalala, Harris, Leal Filho, & Deglon, 2011). A pragmatic approach to this problem is to blend high clay ore with ore of lower clay content, reducing the overall clay concentration. Alternatively, one may lower the solids content of the flotation slurry to counteract the viscosity-building properties of clay. While feasible, this approach has the disadvantage of increasing required flotation volume, and it also affects the properties of the froth. Thus, there are currently limited options in lowering the impact of clays and their tendencies to increase viscosity in flotation slurries."

Jan 1, 2016

By Rodríguez M. Esperanza

The efficient performance of Pachuca tanks is strongly linked to the suspension of mineral particles, which results from the motion of the liquid caused by injected gas rising, in general, through a central draft tube. This study reports a computational investigation on the effect of operating and design parameters on the suspension of particles. By extending the classical 2-phase drift-flux model to compute the gas hold-up, the three-phase (water-air-particles) system was simulated as consisting of a variable-density liquid plus the solid particles. These two phases were treated as interpenetrated continua using an Eulerian approach to set a turbulent recirculating flow model in 2-D and transient state. The model predicted adequately the measured critical superficial air velocity, uc, needed for maintaining particle suspensions, in pulps with 10-50 wt% solids. Additionally, the model was used to investigate the operation of industrial size reactors, obtaining results that agree well with the general trends reported in the literature, and highlighting important differences with respect to laboratory-scale reactors.

Jan 1, 2009

By F. D. Rosi, C. A. Dube, B. H. Alexander

WHEN a deformed polpcrystalline metal is heated to a sufficiently high temperature, a recrystallized structure develops which consists of small, essentially stress-free grains. This transformation is referred to as primary recrystallization. Under certain conditions, on prolonged annealing of the specimens, a type of grain coarsening occurs in which a small number of grains commence to grow at various points by devouring the neighboring finegrained primary structure, which, in itself, exhibits a marked stability toward normal grain growth. This grain coarsening process has been referred to by Burgers&apos; as "secondary recrystallization" or "exaggerated grain growth." Although much work has been done on recrystallization and growth processes, present knowledge of the factors which determine the occurrence and growth of secondary grains is inadequate for the advancement of a theory which accounts for the observed characteristics of this recrystallization phenomenon. In this respect, it would be important to make measurements of the velocity of growth of these large secondary grains. The early work of Feitnecht2 on aluminum showed that the size of secondary grains increased with temperature and time, suggesting that such measurements would be possible. More recently, Burgers1 found that the growth velocity of these grains in aluminum was constant over a large time interval, as is generally found for the growth velocity of primary grains in a uniformly deformed test piece.3-5 It is reasonable to expect that the determination of the activation energy of the secondary growth process might lead to a better understanding of the underlying atomic mechanism. This investigation, therefore, is one of a series primarily designed to measure the growth velocity of secondary grains at various temperatures for silver, copper, and aluminum. It is hoped that these studies along with those of orientation relationships, will establish a sound basis for theorizing as to the origin and nature of the secondary transformation. Experimental Procedure The metal used in the present investigation was high-purity silver (999.9 fine), which was supplied in the form of cold-rolled plates 0.250 in. thick. These plates were annealed at 500°C for 1 hr and then straight-rolled to a thickness of 0.04 in. in three reductions of approximately 45 pct, followed in each case by an anneal at 450°C for 1/2 hr. The 0.04 in. sheets were given a final reduction of approximately 50 pct, which resulted in a thickness of 0.02 in., thereby insuring two-dimensional crystal growth. Individual specimens of this material about 1x3 cm were used for all heat treatments, unless otherwise noted. The annealing was carried out under an atmosphere of argon in an Inconel tube furnace whose temperature was controlled to within -+2°C. Metallographic examination of the secondary transformation was accomplished by mechanically polishing the specimens on one side to approximately one half their thickness through 2/0 metallographic emery paper, and then electrolytically polishing in a solution of potassium ferrocyanide and sodium cyanide. With a current density of approximately 20 amp per sq dm, the time required to obtain a satisfactory surface varied from 3 to 5 min. Standard potassium bichromate was used to etch the electrolytically polished surfaces. A heavy etch with this solution produced a sharp contrast between the secondary grains and the fine-grained primary structure, darkening the latter while leaving the large secondary grains bright. All area measurements of the secondary crystals were made with a planimeter on enlarged tracings of the grains.

Jan 1, 1953