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By M. I. Panayotova

Some of effluents released by copper smelting plants are highly acidic (pH = 0~1) and contain arsenic and copper in relatively high concentrations (10~20 g/L). Usually arsenic is removed by precipitation with different reagents, such as lime, iron salts, calcium salts, aluminium salts, etc. Precipitates (often voluminous) that require further handling are formed and copper and other valuable components are lost. A method is presented for copper and arsenic extraction from acidic effluents. Effluents are treated in specially designed closed electrochemical cell without chemicals? addition. Gases formed are collected and treated for decomposing the eventual traces of As-bearing compounds and ensuring the environment protection. Initially copper of grade of 85 % is electro-won. Further about half of the initially available arsenic is separated as low-soluble, low volume mixture of intermetallic compounds, oxides and some elemental arsenic. At the next stage the main part of the left arsenic is immobilized as low soluble stable compound. Arsenic content in the treated acid is in the range 0.20~0.25 g/L. Acidity of treated effluent after first two stages remains practically unchanged and the solution can be re-used. Physicochemical and electrochemical processes, governing copper and arsenic removal, are discussed.

Jan 1, 2014

By Luis G. Bergh

Today, large size mechanical flotation cells of 100 to 300 m3 are used in rougher operation in different flotation industrial plants, in Chile and worldwide. However, in spite of the advances in fundamental research and the notable growing in equipment size, with more complete instrumentation systems, there are still a lack of reliable data for industrial flotation modeling and simulation to advance in better control systems design. In this work, a model of a rougher flotation circuit, based on operating variables and parameters fitted from industrial data, obtained in some previous work, is used to develop a set of logic rules in order to aid operating decisions. The simulator was first used to sensitize the effect of changing the froth depth profile on target variables, and then to find out the best profile to reject common disturbances coming into the plant. The flotation circuit simulator was redesigned to incorporate an expert system following the proposed control algorithm. Several tests were performed to evaluate the control responses to different correlated series of input variables, such as feed grade, tonnage, particle size distribution, and solid percentage. Control alternatives are discussed based on the circuit simulator. Keywords: modeling, industrial data, flotation control, mineral processing.

Sep 1, 2012

By Janne Kytökari

Controlling a wide range of minerals processes with single control system is an ordinary way to operate in mines all over the world these days. However the potential of these systems is not yet fully recognized nor utilized. The key issue is to manage the information in a way that enables automating the day-to-day tasks, quality control and safety functions. At the same time it provides means for optimization and constant improvement of processes creating a working environment where the system helps employees to do their key tasks instead of searching, modifying, and transmitting the huge number of information arising every day. The distribution of control system nodes enables the other processes to run heedless of a problem occurring in one of the sub-processes. Also the control room can be in remote location such as in large city removing the need to travel substantially long distances to plant sites every day. When all essential information is brought to the same place there is less risk for a mishap to happen due to information breaks that are often the cause of them. One of the biggest single reasons that result in production losses are break downs of machinery usually caused by normal wear, misuse, incorrect utilization rate etc. For this reason it is important to measure the condition of machines using vibration measurement and diagnostics. By moving from failure or time-based maintenance towards predictive or performance maintenance generates eventually a steady and predictable process but also results in significant long term savings. The mineral process at Talvivaara mine is based on bioheapleaching, whereby metals are leached from ore as a result of bacterial action. Bioleaching is a fairly new technology used in metals recovery. Therefore it is important for the mine to collect and analyze data from different stages of the minerals process. Talvivaara mine?s Metso DNA system has integrated machine condition monitoring and information management. These are not only necessary but also crucial in environmental conditions where the outside temperature can drop below -35°C, where ice and snow dominate the landscape and impact the equipment for four months a year and where distances between equipment can be up to 7.5 kilometers. Keywords: DCS, analyzer, machine condition monitoring, automation, remote communications, optimization, mining, metso DNA, Talvivaara

Sep 1, 2012

By X. Q. Wu

Magnetization in slurry (MIS) of weakly magnetic minerals by iron ions was investigated. The magnetic seeds (strongly magnetic particles) were synthesized by ferruginous chlorides directly in slurry instead of previous preparations of magnetic seeds by finely grinding mineral magnetite or specially synthesizing them separately in an aqueous solution. In this way, the growth of the seeds and their adsorption on the minerals simultaneously take place in the same slurry. That after MIS the recovery of weakly magnetic mineral limonite in a magnetic separator increased means the formation and adsorption of magnetic seeds on the surface of iron mineral limonite. The magnetization effect was evaluated by limonite recovery at a magnetic strength of 3.500 Gs in a magnetic separator. Mineral limonite was properly magnetized in the following slurry condition: molar ratio of Fe3+ to Fe2+1:3, slurry temperature of 45 °C and pH 10.5. The selectivity of the magnetization between minerals limonite and quartz was improved by adding surfactant sodium oleate.

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. B. Zhang

China is rich in iron ore resources, but most of these ores are low-grade, polymetallic and refrac-tory ones. Furthermore, with the rapid development of chinese iron & steel industry, the comprehen-sive recovery of these ores is becoming more and more important. The tin, zinc-containing complex iron ores are typical polymetallic and intractable ones, and great reserves of them are found in China. At present, they have not been efficiently utilized. In this paper, based on the investigation of basic physicochemical properties of the tin, zinc-bearing iron concentrates, taken from a mineral processing plant, the mineralogy reason that these concentrates are so intractable and refractory is found out, using advanced microscopic testing methods, such as optical microscope (OM), Scanning Electronic Microscope (SEM), X-ray diffrac-tion (XRD), etc. It is found that the symbiotic relationship of iron, tin and zinc metallic minerals are very complicated, and magnetite in the concentrate is closely symbiotic or enwrapped by fine cassi-terite and sphalerite. So it is difficult to separate tin and zinc completely from the iron concentrates by simple regrinding and physical separation method. This investigation provides theoretical guid-ance for developing new approaches for utilizing these concentrates.

Jan 1, 2014

By Matti Kongas, Kari Saloheimo, Antti Remes

"The paper studies the control performance of the flotation process as a function of the measurement accuracy and sampling frequency of an on-stream XRF analyzer, using a simple dynamic model. An additional aim is to assess how the economical result of a mineral flotation process depends on the quality of process control based on the on-line elemental assays.An on-stream XRF analyzer measures the concentrations of slurry lines in a continuous cycle from several process points. The control performance depends on the analytical accuracy and sampling frequency of the concentration measurement. With a long cycle time, the state of the process changes before a new measurement becomes available. With short measurement times the statistical variance of the counted X-ray pulses increases, increasing the random error in the analysis. In addition, the measurement accuracy depends on the concentration of the component to be measured from the slurry.To quantify the effect of analysis error and frequency to process control, a simple dynamic process model is created in the Matlab environment. Data from a copper flotation circuit is used as a test case. The process model comprises a first order reaction equation and the grade-recovery -relationship estimated from process data. The control was modeled using the control strategies implemented into a rule based advanced control system.The economical performance of the control was studied by calculating the overall net smelter return at various analyzer parameter combinations. The economical performance of the process declines strongly when the sampling cycle is increased. In studied case the sample measurement time did not have a significant effect on the results. The economical performance of the simulated process corresponds to an almost uncontrolled process when sampling cycles longer than 40 min are applied."

Jan 1, 2003

By Klaus M. Hahn, Hermann Wotruba, Bernd G. Friedrich

"Due to an increasing demand for nickel and cobalt and the depletion of nickel sulphide deposits worldwide, the production of ferronickel from lateritic nickel ores becomes more significant. About 60 percent of nickel reserves are present in laterite deposits. Common production methods like acid leaching or smelting operations implicate high material and energy consumption. Physical processing methods are also not efficient, because of the fine microstructural intergrowth of the minerals carrying valuable elements such as nickel and cobalt. Due to the high energy consumption of metallurgical treatment of lateritic nickel ore (nickel grade: 0.8 - 3.0%, Co: 0.05 - 0.15%), the separation of waste material (about 75 - 85%) before the metallurgical treatment is desirable. Therefore, an alternative process has been developed, combining a pyro-metallurgical pre-treatment with selected mechanical processing methods. The developed process consisted of a selective pre-reduction and non-selective segregation of the contained metal phases in the first stage. By this, the properties of the metal carrying minerals were changed and could become subject to concentration by means of fine beneficiation processes afterwards. The parameters of the pre-reduction and segregation were varied and the pre-treated samples were examined concerning their efficiency of metalization grade and metal grain size. This paper describes the investigation of pre-treatment methods of a lateritic nickel ore. The pre-treatment and possible subsequent separation methods were examined with regard to the recovery of the valuable elements. Metalization grade was around 80% for both Ni and Co with metal phase grain sizes below 20 µm. Scanning electron microscopy revealed distribution of new metal phases not only on the reducing agent, but also on the “slag” material.INTRODUCTION Nickel laterites are characterized as strongly weathered regoliths with several zones containing reserves of nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co). These laterites are formed on serpentinites and ultramafic rocks under climatic and/or tectonic conditions that have changed over time (Butt & Cluzel, 2013). The formation of Ni laterites is influenced by numerous geological and environmental factors. In general, there are three ore types named according to the dominant Ni hosting minerals: oxides, hydrous magnesia (Mg) silicates and clay silicates (Butt & Cluzel, 2013). The most Ni laterite deposits contain two of these ore types, usually an oxide zone and an either clay or Mg silicate zone. Distribution of these principal deposit types, their average Ni-bearing phases and mean Ni grade are shown in Table 1. A schematic profile of the different deposits based on the development on serpentized ultramafic rocks is given in Figure 1 (Butt & Cluzel, 2013)."

Jan 1, 2018

By Kwang Soon Moon

Liquid ? liquid reactions such as solvent extraction in hydrometallurgy and BTX extraction in petrochemical industry has long suffered from the long retention time mainly due to the limited interfacial area caused by the immiscibility between water and oil phase, requiring typically very large perfect mixer type reactors and tall adsorption towers. A novel spray reactor for immiscible liquids; that is the KISEI Nozzle Reactor (KNR) was introduced, enabling the drastic increase in the interfacial area between the reacting immiscible liquids. Various spray mechanisms were applied in materials processing, e.g. spray drying, powder metallurgy, and aerosol industry, but not in hydrometallurgy. The KISEI Nozzle Reactor(KNR) was fully developed and used in production of biodiesel from the immiscible triglycerides and methanol. An experience with a full production plant facility is briefly discussed in the current paper. With the fog-like methanol spray in oil medium, the trans esterification reaction was almost instantaneous, and transformed the traditional batch trans esterification process into a continuous production process. And above all, with no moving parts in the KISEI Nozzle Reactor (KNR), the process requires minimal operation and maintenance costs. Keywords: immiscible liquids reaction, nozzle spray reactor, continuous biodiesel reactor, hydrometallurgy, organic extraction, micro emulsion

Sep 1, 2012

By Ayumu Tokumaru, Shuji Owada, Gangfeng Liu

"Several million spent catalytic converters are disposed annually worldwideandeach containing about 0.5-1g ofplatinum and 1-2g of all the platinum group metals (PGMs), then,it is fairly significant to recover PGMs from the spent automobile catalyst. The PGMs’ recovery is a proven technology, including pyro-and hydrometallurgicalmethods, and the highestrecovery can achieve approx. 98 wt.% by acid-leaching method, but theserecyclingtechnology seems to be too highlyenergy-consuming. SincePGMs aredistributed only in coat layer in spent catalyst, it is of great significance to enrich the coat layerwith some physical methods as a pretreatment.In this paper, according to the double-deck structureof the catalyst andthe different properties of the two main compositions, alumina-ceria phase of coat layer and cordieritephase of substrate, the concentration of the coat layer was investigated by combiningthree kinds of physical separation technologies, heating-quenching, crushing and surface grinding. In the first stage, thermal stresscouldgeneratebetween the two phasesby thermal expansion difference,to producefracturesin the thinnest part of coat layerand micro-cracksin coat layerand at the interface of coat layerand cordierite substrate. The second stage of crushing, by jaw and roll crushers, could break dominantly the coat layer and the third stage of surface grinding, carried out by attritor, promoted further separation and concentration of coat layer fromthe substrate.We also improved the attritor grinding by adding a new lift-arm to the cell for achieving better mobility of sample particles in the selective surface grinding."

Jan 1, 2014

By Paul Gottlieb

This paper reviews the status of automated applied mineralogy today and describes the history and fundamental theoretical and practical bases underpinning the development of automated systems. Details are given of the technical challenges that were faced in creating the new technology and in applying it to a range of applications. In recent years, automated mineralogy has become established as an essential enabling technology for the reliable acquisition of statistically sound comprehensive mineralogical and metallurgical data. This has had a revolutionary effect on the industrial use of such data in the study of geology, mining and mineral processing. Previously, using manual methods, it was not feasible to attempt this work because the large data sets required could not be assembled in a realistic timescale. There was a reliance on individual expert mineralogists and this was not scalable. The speed, reliability, detail and repeatability of the modern automated measurements has now made this type of analysis routine. Automated Applied Mineralogy has come of age! More than 100 systems have been installed around the World. Automated mineralogical analysers such as QEMSCAN® were originally developed as diagnostic metallurgical tools to improve mineral processing plants using samples drawn from plant surveys, bench and pilot-scale tests. They were used mainly for the assessment and auditing of size fractions of mill products, such as concentrates and tails. Subsequently, they began to be used for concentrator design and optimisation where ore characterisation was used to help understand the relationship between the feed ore and its subsequent behaviour in the plant. They are now widely used to measure exploration cores and drill chips from drilling programs to predict eventual metallurgical performance. Ore samples can be classified into metallurgical, as well as geological types, by combining mineralogical features in the ores with metallurgical properties related to grade control, separation, comminution, flotation and leaching behaviour. Three-dimensional block models of ore deposits are now being created based on processing response in addition to geological and mining properties. The development of automated systems began in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There were many technical challenges. Mathematical theories of randomness, sampling theory, image analysis and stereology were developed to ensure sample representivity so that meaningful information could be obtained. Sample preparation, presentation and measurement methods were developed to ensure that the random sampling was preserved during the measurements. Methods of automatic measurement and mineral identification evolved from the use of electron microscopes, fitted with backscattered electron brightness and energy dispersive X-ray detectors. Operational procedures were required to ensure that these instruments could accommodate a large number of samples and operate unattended for long periods of time. The new technology was progressively applied to a range of commodities and applications and new analysis methods, such as liberation measurement, were needed for metallurgical interpretation of mineralogical data.

Jan 1, 2014

By O. A. Bascur

It is difficult to analyse the economics without an integrated view of mine transactions, stockpile inventories, process flows and assays. The lack of integration of mining and metallurgical information with sufficient detail to analyse and act is a problem. However, to take action requires real time information from manufacturing assets, corrected for gross errors from trucks, shovels, conveyors, faulty sensors, bad instrument calibration. Validation methods use process models to identify inconsistent information in the case of corrupt actionable information. This paper presents new strategies that transform the data into business information for continuous improvement and optimization. This technical presentation will review recent implementations enabling large metallurgical complexes to improve their data quality for overall production and energy management. A competence center emerges as an enabler for implementing operational intelligence. The evolution of Web services to troubleshoot plant information and to collaborate at the enterprise level is presented.

Jan 1, 2014

By V. V. Trusova, Shiyrav Gandandorzh, K. V. Fedotov, V. A. Domracheva

"In Russia, 1.1 million tons of mercury-containing waste are stored. The amount of mercury in soils and heaps of industrial enterprises is estimated at 3000 tons; in dumps, concentration tailings, sludge dumps of the gold mining industry up to 6000 tons have been accumulated. Mining is one of the main sources of mercury emissions in the natural environment that poses a real threat to the natural environment. At present, the process of amalgamation is prohibited and not applied in gold extraction. The application of amalgam technology in gold mining led to the accumulation of highly toxic products in the form of gold-bearing amalgam and metallic mercury, with a mercury content of dozens and even hundreds of times greater than the maximum permissible concentration for soil (1). Therefore, mercury-containing tailings constitute an ecological hazard to the environment. According to published data, at waste storage sites of industrial enterprises, up to 50 tons of mercury enter soil annually, and up to 3.5 tons pollute the air. At the same time, mercury-containing waste due to the reduction of the country's mineral resources is an additional source of mercury. Therefore, it is necessary to recycle mercury-containing waste. INTRODUCTION Paperobjective: demercurization of technogenic raw materials (amalgamation tails, discharge outlets of tailing dumps) to be recycled. Under natural conditions, the mercury usually migrates in the form of three most common compounds: elementary mercury (Hg); mercuric mercury ion (Hg+2); methylmercuryion (Hg (CH3) +. Chemical compounds Hg (II) are found in natural conditions much more often than Hg (I).The authors propose to conduct demercurization of technogenic raw materials (mercurial tailings) in two stages. At the first stage, the mercury in the form of small balls, the finest particles (drip mercury) can be extracted by applying the gravitational method. We propose a method for centrifugal processing of crushed waste in the apparatus of Itomak company, Novosibirsk, as the basis of the technological process for mercury recycling. The extraction of metallic mercury out of mercury-containing waste into commercial products, according to the technological characteristics of the Itomak apparatus, reaches 86.0% (2, 3). At the second stage, the extraction of mercury out of technogenic raw materials is performed applying a sorption method and using carbon sorbents based on fossil coals. Hard coal of the Kuznetsk Basin has been already used for industrial production of active carbons (carbon sorbents) of the KAD-iodine type, which is one of the prerequisites that determine the choice to use it for the aims of this study."

Jan 1, 2018

By S. M. Wen

In mineral processing, the settling of mineral particles in water, the flow of ore pulp, the dewatering and filtering of concentrates and so on, are related to the pulp viscosity. While the interaction between mineral particle surface and water affects directly the pulp viscosity. Therefore, it is of great value to the development of mineral processing theory to research the effect of mineral particle surface on the water viscosity in boundary layer. In micro-fluid, the effect of mineral particle surface on the water molecules in boundary layer can not be ignored. The water viscosity in boundary layer and the effect of the nature of mineral particle solid surface on the viscosity are analysed based on the deduction of attraction potential energy formula of mineral particle surface to the water molecules in boundary layer. The results show that the attraction potential energy of mineral particle surface to the water molecules in boundary layer is determined by the properties of solid molecules and fluid molecules and varies inversely as the third power of the distance from mineral particle surface. The water viscosity in boundary layer consists of the viscosity of free water and the additional viscosity resulting from the attraction of mineral particle surface. The increment of the viscosity caused by the attraction of mineral surface is µs. This additional viscosity is also inverse ratio to the third power of the distance from mineral particle surface. The greater the dipole moment, the polarizability and the ionization energy of mineral particle solid surface molecules are, the higher the attraction potential energy of mineral particle surface to the water molecules and the water viscosity in boundary layer are. The thicker stationary water boundary layer is d0. The higher the µs is, in other words, the greater the attraction of solid surface to water molecules is, the thicker the stationary water boundary layer becomes when free water viscosity is constant.

Jan 1, 2014

By Alejandro Yañez, Martta Nousiainen, Rodrigo Grau

"Gas dispersion plays a fundamental role in froth flotation. Gas dispersion in flotation is quantified by using four properties: gas velocity, bubble size, gas hold-up and bubble surface area flux. Gas dispersion measurements were conducted in three flotation cells: TankCell 1, TankCell e300 and TankCell e500. The measurements reported in this paper were carried out exclusively in two-phase systems using only water and air at frother dosages exceeding the Critical Coalescence Concentration (CCC) in order to prevent bubbles from coalescing. The measurements conducted in TankCell 1 and TankCell e500 were conducted by Outotec specialists, whereas the characterization of TankCell e300 had been conducted earlier in 2008 by a team from McGill University. When working in two-phase systems and under non-coalescing conditions, gas dispersion characteristics measured in different scales can be compared directly. The measurements conducted in TankCell e300 are taken as a base line in order to compare the performance of TankCell e500, whereas TankCell 1 is a pilot-scale flotation cell which is used in rotor testing. The gas dispersion properties in TankCells were found to be affected by the air flow rate and rotor tip speed. Bubble sizes (d32) measured on the three-size scale seem to be within the same range of 0.6 mm to 1.6 mm. It was noted that the bubble size was influenced by rotor tip speed and gas velocity. In general, as the rotor tip speed increased, the bubble size decreased and as the gas velocity increased, so did the bubble size. The rotor tip speed also has an impact on the hold-up; in general, as the rotor tip speed increased the gas hold-up also increased but the influence of air flow rate on gas hold-up was greater. Bubble surface area flux was found to vary between 40 and 85 1/s. As the gas velocity increased, the bubble surface area flux also increased."

Jan 1, 2014

By E. Guerrini, M. Maccagni, J. Nielsen

"The solution for the treatment of the EAFD has not yet been fully achieved. Some of this dust has still not found an appropriate final destination. Large consortium treatment plants are quite expensive both in terms of investment and operating cost. Meanwhile, the tolling expenses for steel production companies are becoming very important, causing them to look for alternatives. Some steel plants are looking to close their production loop by internal treatment of their dust. Some years ago, Engitec began studying the coupling of the EZINEX® Process, an ammonium chloride electrolysis to recover the zinc contained in the EAFD, with the INDUTEC® Process, a pyro process based on an induction furnace that can convert EAFD into a C.Z.O. similar to the Waelz oxide. The combination of these two processes provides an alternative to the existing treatment options and is particularly interesting for relatively small capacities. In this paper, we would like to give the latest update about these two processes and their possible integration INTRODUCTION Zinc is contained in numerous wastes and secondary raw materials that can be thought of as high zinc concentrate mines. This is a very interesting source of Zn that is typically easily exploitable. Unfortunately, only a portion of these materials are currently processed to recover the metal value, while stabilized or unstabilized landfilling is often the final destination. Pyrometallurgical processes are mainly used to convert the zinc into crude zinc oxide (CZO). The various processes are very similar and characterized by the fact that the zinc bearing materials are usually submitted to a thermal treatment [1] in which the zinc is reduced, vaporized and re-oxidized producing CZO. This material not only contains zinc oxide, but also relatively high concentrations of heavy metals. Many potential CZO sources, such as electric arc furnace dust (EAF), galvanizing ashes, brass foundry and converters fumes also contain chlorides, fluorides and alkali metals that will transfer to the CZO. The classic example is the Waelz oxide [2]. This CZO is an intermediate product that must be transformed into zinc salts or zinc metal. Until now, the conversion to zinc metal is done through two main processes: the sulphate leaching and electrowinning system and the Imperial Smelting Process (ISP). ISP is facing a crisis for technical and economic reasons that has led to the closing of most of the existing plants. In any case, before being fed to one of these two processes, the CZO must be treated to eliminate or reduce some of the contained impurities. In particular, the halides are most harmful to these processes."

Jan 1, 2018

By E. Guerrini, M. Maccagni, J. Nielsen

"The solution for the treatment of the EAFD has not yet been fully achieved. Some of this dust has still not found an appropriate final destination. Large consortium treatment plants are quite expensive both in terms of investment and operating cost. Meanwhile, the tolling expenses for steel production companies are becoming very important, causing them to look for alternatives. Some steel plants are looking to close their production loop by internal treatment of their dust. Some years ago, Engitec began studying the coupling of the EZINEX® Process, an ammonium chloride electrolysis to recover the zinc contained in the EAFD, with the INDUTEC® Process, a pyro process based on an induction furnace that can convert EAFD into a C.Z.O. similar to the Waelz oxide. The combination of these two processes provides an alternative to the existing treatment options and is particularly interesting for relatively small capacities. In this paper, we would like to give the latest update about these two processes and their possible integration INTRODUCTION Zinc is contained in numerous wastes and secondary raw materials that can be thought of as high zinc concentrate mines. This is a very interesting source of Zn that is typically easily exploitable. Unfortunately, only a portion of these materials are currently processed to recover the metal value, while stabilized or unstabilized landfilling is often the final destination. Pyrometallurgical processes are mainly used to convert the zinc into crude zinc oxide (CZO). The various processes are very similar and characterized by the fact that the zinc bearing materials are usually submitted to a thermal treatment [1] in which the zinc is reduced, vaporized and re-oxidized producing CZO. This material not only contains zinc oxide, but also relatively high concentrations of heavy metals. Many potential CZO sources, such as electric arc furnace dust (EAF), galvanizing ashes, brass foundry and converters fumes also contain chlorides, fluorides and alkali metals that will transfer to the CZO. The classic example is the Waelz oxide [2]. This CZO is an intermediate product that must be transformed into zinc salts or zinc metal. Until now, the conversion to zinc metal is done through two main processes: the sulphate leaching and electrowinning system and the Imperial Smelting Process (ISP). ISP is facing a crisis for technical and economic reasons that has led to the closing of most of the existing plants. In any case, before being fed to one of these two processes, the CZO must be treated to eliminate or reduce some of the contained impurities. In particular, the halides are most harmful to these processes."

Jan 1, 2018

By Vladimir Grujic, Milorad Grujic, Ivan Djurkovic, William Riggs

"In this paper, we have studied efficiency of different chemical structures of frothers on copper ore Majdanpek. The goal was to find out the best suitable chemical structure, which allows good bubble formation, size and interaction, forces on mineral surface. The particle size distribution was between 10 and 100 µm. Our research was oriented on three groups of frothers: alcohols, poly glycol ethers and poly glycols.We also used different collectors based on similar or less similar alcohol group in chemical structure as in frothers, expecting higher stability of air bubble in contact with copper minerals. Minimal potential energy was determinate in the hydrodynamic conditions for different particle sizes. It was founded that it is proportional to air bubble volume on 0.88° and contra proportional to the kinematics viscosity of pulp.Analyzing the results, we find out that poly glycols decreased surface tension the most. Also, it increased amount of coarser particles to the top of pulp. This group is less sensitive to pH value compared to the others too.From the class of frothers with higher efficiency in flotation process, we pointed OrePrep X-75 and X-133 as frothers with expressive frothing characteristic in the alkaline and low alkaline circuits. Special suitability of those frothers for floating copper minerals makes their hetero polar molecules with more than one hydrocarbon radicals connected to one polar group. However, those froters have no nether high or low solubility and are non-ionization. Those froters indicate some small collecting characteristics too. In dispersion systems, those two frothers make two types of bubbles: smaller di < 1.2 mm; V = 0.0008 cm3 and middle di < 16 mm; V = 2.2 cm3 (di – Bubble diameter, V – Bubble volume). Transportation speed of air bubbles it is possible to calculate based on equation: ?s = 27.5 * di 1.4 cm/s. Distribution of free surfaces for chalcopyrite is average 80% in the class –74µm +10µm and 20% in the class -10µm. If we get all class sizes, we find that recovery (R) depends from the time by equation:"

Jan 1, 2003

By J. K. Qu

As one of the key inorganic chemical industries, the chromate chemical industry has spawned extensively public concerns due to the resulted environmental pollution. The cleaner production technology for chromium compounds bases on sub-molten salt medium developed by the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences has greatly decreased the reaction temperature and energy consumption, significantly in-creased the utilization ratio of the chromium element, and successfully achieved the comprehensive utilization of chromite resources and zero emission of chromium-containing residue. The separation process of production is the most important components in the cleaner technology. In this work, we studied two parts: the first is the removal of SiO2, Al3+ from the system and the recycling utilization of alkali metal medium through adding Ca(OH)2 and CaO; the second is to get more pure K2CrO4 crystalloid and remove K2CO3 from KOH solution through evaporation to prepare raw material for manufacturing Cr2O3 and get 50%(wt) KOH. The results obtained show that Ca(OH)2 can remove Al3+ more than CaO and has lower caustic ratio than CaO when they were added 110% of theoretic quantity. The optimal pure K2CrO4(96%) can be gained at 45 Celsius degree in 30% KOH solution and K2CO3 in 50% KOH solution could be decreased to 3.5%(wt) at 40 Celsius degree. And then K2CO3 can be causticized with adding Ca(OH)2 to recycle potassium alkali. The impure material can be re-moved and suitable raw material for manufacturing Cr2O3 can be gotten and reaction medium can be also recycled in this process technology, realizing cleaner production effectively.

Jan 1, 2014

By J. Temuujin

Mongolia has some of the world?s largest coal reserves with an estimated total coal reserve of over 150 billion tonnes. At present, over 90% of Mongolian electricity is produced by combined heat and thermal power stations. The main coal deposits used for Central power system&apos;s power stations are Baganuur, Shivee-ovoo lignite type coal and Shariin gol bituminous coal. In Mongolia almost 600,000 tonnes of coal combustion by-products are disposed of in waste ponds. In this research, we have thoroughly characterized Mongolian coal combustion by-products including fly ashes sourced directly from thermal power stations and ash retrieved from ponds. It was determined that fly ashes generated from Baganuur and Shivee-ovoo coal deposits are class C, while ash from Shariin gol coal is class F (according the ASTM C618). All ash products were characterized by chemical, mineralogical, granulometrical, porosity, FE-SEM and radiation methods. Fly ashes sourced directly from power stations were found to be more suitable for manufacture of geopolymers for building materials application and zeolite synthesis than ashes retrieved from ash ponds. The adsorption and porous properties of zeolitic compounds were measured and found to be suitable for adsorption of Cr6+ from simulated tannery waste water. Keywords: coal, coal combustion by products, synthesis, geopolymers, zeolitic compound

Sep 1, 2012

By Pejman Oghazi

During the last decade the output of mining companies has increased rapidly. The key driver is the increase in demand for raw materials in the developing world, and thus this demand has driven up ore prices. From the time when the Raw material group (year 2000) started to introduced their index, it was set to 100 points. Today, year 2011, the index is over 400, which means that ore prices have quadrupled since then. Mine companies have to go deeper in the mines to access the ore bodies to increase the mine capacity and to be able to respond to the market. By going deeper in the mine, there will be new challenges that have to be considered. One of these challenges is how to handle the mine water that is produced in the mine. The water has to be moved to the surface in order to keep the mine from flooding, and this causes more challenges. One solution is to pump the mine water up to the surface without treatment; however, this causes considerable pump wear and the water will still require treatment on the mine?s surface. Another solution is to treat this water in the mine before pumping it to the surface. Metso Minerals has a system solution to treat the mine water, by separating the solids from the mine water. This system reduces the erosion in the pumps and will save many maintenance hours in the long term. One other option is to use the treated water in a closed circuit and reuse it in the process. This system can be divided into three steps: Firstly, a spiral dewaterer to remove the coarse solid particles. For the next step, lamella thickener is used to remove most of the solids, and lastly tube press to handle the sludge from the underflow lamella thickeners. Keywords: mine water, mineral processing, dewatering, separating

Sep 1, 2012