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By D. W. Ginsberg, D. Cieplinski

"The lifetime cost of a material handling system, or any mine system, can be reduced through the application of quality engineering. Dynamic simulation is a powerful tool that can be used to enhance the experience and ingenuity of the design team. It cannot only de-bottleneck the system to improve system productivity, but also define critical design criteria to eliminate over-design and reduce capital cost. Eliminating over-design also reduces operating costs by lowering component replacement costs and by ensuring all parts of the system operate at a higher utilization and efficiency. IntroductionA mine owner’s profitability is improved when a mine is developed at the lowest lifetime cost. This cost relates not only to capital and operating costs, but also, to a great extent, on the efficiency and reliability of the operation. These factors are tied directly to the quality of the engineering which depends on the experience of the engineers involved, and their ability to apply known system information in a rational and constructive manner.It is becoming apparent that it is increasingly more difficult to deliver the quality of engineering expected and needed to provide attractive lifetime costs using traditional design methods. Historically, system information has been evaluated based on a limited amount of information to which global rules-of-thumb and the engineer’s personal experience were applied to develop design criteria. However, market forces are dictating that more system parameters be defined and that they be defined more accurately so that the most economical system can be developed. This increase in the volume of information and the need for more accurate predictions is straining, if not already exceeding, the ability of engineers to apply simple global rules of- thumb and to combine all the information in a rational, comprehensive and representative set of design criteria. Furthermore, as proposed system production rates increase beyond established industry practice, the extrapolation of the engineer’s experience becomes more difficult and increases the risk in the proposed design."

Jan 1, 1998

By J. Fox, K. Kocsis

"Planning for sustainable cooling potential requires protected space to successfully maintain chilled propylene glycol in storage until needed. Stored propylene glycol should be judiciously cared for, safely kept from the ill effects of heat, in order to remain useful for bulk air cooling. Minimizing the chilled temperature of the propylene glycol reservoir tanks means that atmospheric conditions will be monitored closely during the chilling phase. Storage facilities would maintain restricted airflow while minimizing possibilities for heat transfer during the storage phase. Sustainable cooling systems could reduce or eliminate the need for mechanical cooling if installed with favorable conditions. Storing the cooling potential from the winter months is what this new design is all about.INTRODUCTIONIn most subsurface, bulk air-cooling methods, the main source of potential cooling energy comes from cold-water applications. This paper investigates the practical use of harvested, chilled propylene glycol as the source of cooling potential. Propylene glycol is chosen as the cooling storage liquid refrigerant since its chemical make-up is intrinsically safe to fresh water supplies and will not harm underground workers should a leak occur in the closed cooling circuit. Harvesting the cold of winter is a meaningless endeavor without proper thermal planning for the storage of the cooling potential in cold refrigerant.PROPYLENE GLYCOL STORAGE RESERVOIRA new design for a closed refrigerant bulk air cooling system employing propylene glycol as the refrigerant is presented as the main design topic of this paper. Given that a deep and hot mine will need to be considered safe and productive, a cost-effective cooling system is desired in order for the mining operation to be considered sustainable. For underground mines at northern latitudes, cooling applied to fresh air is only required 3 to 4 months of the year. During winter, ambient atmospheric conditions can be harnessed and stored for use at a later time.The basis of this sustainable design uses very cold ambient air that is circulated around galvanized steel refrigerant reservoir tanks. The propylene glycol reservoir tanks are arranged in a concrete walled pit, or tank farm, excavated in bedrock. During the coldest months, the tank farm will be exposed to the open air. As the seasons change the tank farm will be covered with insulation to maintain the maximum cooling potential for use during the warmest months of the year."

Jan 1, 2019

By Deborah A. McCombe

"One of the cornerstones of NI43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects is the technical report. The purpose of the report is to provide a summary of the scientific and technical information concerning mineral exploration, development, and production activities on a mineral property that is material to an issuer. The reports must be prepared in accordance with NI43101 and Form 43-101F1 Technical Report and the information must be current as of the date of the filing of the technical report. As these reports provide important information to the investing public, qualified persons preparing these reports should, as much as possible, write in plain, simple language that can be easily read and understood by people who are not geoscientists or engineers. So let’s review some of the common deficiencies with technical reports. Non-current technical report Some of the factors you should consider when determining if your previously filed technical report is still current are as follows: •,Is there new technical information on the property, such as drilling, assays, metallurgical testwork? •,Have you made changes to key assumptions, parameters relating to mineral resources or mineral reserves, or economic analysis? If you have completed the previously recommended work, are your recommendations still current? Similarly, are your report recommendations consistent with what you are telling your shareholders or disclosing in the use of proceeds in your offering documents? For example, if the recommendations in the report consist of further exploration and metallurgical test-work prior to completing a preliminary feasibility study and you have completed the proposed work and are now raising money for a final feasibility study, the report is probably not current."

Jan 1, 2003

By M. Somppi, D. Weirmeir, Z. Yamak

"Milling operations commonly employ activated carbon to capture complexed gold from lixiviants in leaching processes. As the carbon moves through pipes, pumps, vessels, kilns and other processes in the gold leaching circuit, this consumable may experience losses by various mechanisms like attrition, breakage, and rupturing. Whenever possible, capturing the fine gold-bearing carbon portion of this stream could provide value to milling operations at low capital cost and manageable financial risk. Identifying, testing, and validating the successful payback of a low-tech flocculant system is described. However, the work more closely explores a Monte Carlo risk-based methodology for understanding the potential payback of this project at various confidence levels – an approach that many improvement projects can follow where some level of uncertainty exists.INTRODUCTION Gold milling operations commonly employ activated carbon to adsorb gold from solutions. Normal handling causes the carbon particles from this material to abrade, break, rupture to a size that becomes too small for further use in the process. Operations often concentrate on capturing the fine particles because gold is associated with the carbon and this metal content can be a valuable revenue stream for toll processing. However, the small particle sizes become difficult to separate from the process and can ultimately leave the facility in the waste stream. Hence, operations often place a great deal of care in capturing as much fine carbon as possible by a variety of methods including using screens, settling tanks, and chemical methods. Retrofitting a circuit to capture more carbon fines is common but can expose the operation to financial risk. Approaching this potential improvement by leveraging a Monte Carlo methodology can be effective in understanding the risk and the associated payback of a project at various confidence levels. This method provides a strong framework for capital go-no-go decisions and the structure to validate the potential project success before implementation."

Jan 1, 2019

By J. Kramer, T. Hartmann

In the Hydrometallurgical processes, the presence of the so-called “crud” is a constant challenge in solvent extraction. Crud is a stable emulsion which forms along the interface between the aqueous and organic phase. The spread is influenced by the following parameters: first, wind blows the dust and impurities into the open sedimentation tanks. Second, the undissolved solids such as sand transported in the PLS causing problems in conjunction with incorrect agitator design. The crud fraction can decisively impact the efficiency of the hydrometallurgical extraction because the phase interface can constitute a large fraction and the sedimentation tanks cannot react flexibly to it. In the downstream process of the seriesconnected sedimentation tanks, they are thus all contaminated with crud. At the same time, the necessary mass transport is significantly impeded at the phase boundary between organic phase and aqueous phase due to the crud formation. The transfer of the organic phase into the electrolysis cell can result in a “burnout” of the cathode. The carry-over of this electrolyte into the extraction can cause problems with the pH regulation. The carry-over of the organic components into the raffinate also leads to contamination of the leaching circuit. The continuous treatment of the crud with a 3-phase decanter centrifuge is extremely effective in combating this problem. This technology splits all three phases from each other and they are consequently continuously separated. All subsequent process steps exhibit a stable, uniform effectiveness. The main advantage for the customer is that fluctuations in the process are eliminated and the organic phase can be recirculated back to the extraction. The recycling of the solvent alone justifies the investment in less than 6 months as examples from South Africa and Chile show. To operate solvent recovery in daily operation fully automated online at the optimum limit, the decanter centrifuge is equipped with a concentration-dependent pond adjustment called DControl®. By this means, we can guarantee our customers the maximum possible solvent recovery and minimise the solvent costs in this process step. This system is presented in detail in this paper.

Jan 1, 2012

By J. K. Gowans

The Research and Design group of the Project Development Division (PDD) of Placer Dome Inc. includes metallurgical, electrical, civil and mechanical engineers. They provide metallurgical research and conceptual flowsheet development, feasibility concepts for the processing and ancillary facilities, and manage the detailed design of the facilities once approval has been given to a mining project. This paper describes how this group works, within the Project Development Division, to help develop feasibility studies with the Evaluations Group, manage detailed design, and provide support for the Construction Group. The paper briefly reviews the history and growth of the group and describes how it is evolving. The role of outside engineering firms and how they are incorporated into the division’s objectives are also discussed. The paper highlights the differences between Placer Dome’s Project Development Division and other mining groups, and why this approach fits the way Placer Dome does business.

Jan 1, 1998

By K. Matsuura, M. Ohno, T. Tokunaga

"Recently, weight saving of automobiles has been strongly required to solve the global environmental problems. Mg alloys are one of the promising candidates as a new material for automobile components. However, the application of the Mg alloys is limited due to their poor corrosion resistance. In the authors’ preliminary study, an Al/Mg/Al clad sheet was fabricated by hot extrusion and subsequent hot forging. The clad sheet exhibited a high corrosion resistance and excellent super plasticity. More specifically, the elongation of the clad sheet was as high as 550%.Importantly, despite that the elongation of Al itself was only 40%without cladding with Mg, the ductility of Al was greatly improved in the form of the clad sheet. In the present study, in order to clarify the mechanism of the superplastic deformation of the Al part in the clad sheet, the microstructure evolution of the Al during the tensile de formation is investigated. The tensile tests were conducted at a temperature of 573 K and at a strain rateof1.0×10-3s-1. The Al exhibited fiber-type texture at the beginning of the tensile deformation, and brass-type texture after the elongation of 50%.INTRODUCTIONMg alloys have been gaining attention because of their excellent properties e.g. light weight, good recyclability and high electromagnetic shielding. However, their practical applications have been limited due to their poor corrosion resistance. In the authors’ previous study, in order to solve this problem, Al coating on Mg alloy by hot extrusion has been proposed, and the Al-coated Mg alloy plate was fabricated(Tokunaga, Matsuura, &Ohno,2012). The plate was hot-rolled and an Al/Mg/Al clad sheet was fabricated. No cracks or debondings were observed at the Al/Mg interface. The sheet exhibited a high corrosion resistance in a comparable level as pure Al. Also, the sheet exhibited a large and uniform elongation of 550%in a tensile test at a temperature of 573 K and at a strain rate of 1.0×10-3s-1without any breakings or debondings of the Al part(Tokunaga, Matsuura, &Ohno,2014).Mg alloys have been known to exhibit a superplastic characteristic when the grain size is small. However, it is known that the pure Al does not generally exhibit the super plasticity. As mentioned above, the Al-coated Mg alloy sheet exhibited 550% of elongation in the authors’ previous study (Tokunagaet al., 2014). However, the pure Al itself showed only 40% of elongation, while the Mg alloy itself exhibited 800% of elongation. Thus, it has been demonstrated that the pure Al was super plastically elongated when it was bonded with the Mg alloy. Generally, deformation mechanism of the super plasticity of the Mg alloy is known as a grain boundary sliding. On the other hand, the mechanism of the superplastic elongation of the pure Al is still unclear. The purpose of the present study is investigation of the deformation behavior of the Al part in the Al/Mg/Al clad sheet during tensile de formation."

Jan 1, 2018

By A. L. Irwin

THE disposal of tailing or waste material, which is generally a very large proportion of the ore treated, is a major problem in the location and operation of any concentrating enterprise and especially so where the life of the operation is expected to continue for many years. Many factors need to be taken into consideration in the selection of a tailing site, chief among which are economical handling of the material, subsequent re-treatment of the tailing, and precaution against stream pollution by waste water. The final location of many mill sites bas been governed largely by the selection of a sui table area for tailing storage. The Sullivan concentrator of the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company is situated about three miles from the Sullivan mine at Kimberley, B.C., and one of the deciding factors in its location at this distance from the mine was the availability of a suitable area in which tailing could be deposited. In view of the indicated long life of the property, a far-sighted policy bad to be adopted in the matter of tailing storage, for not only would it be necessary to accumulate a huge tonnage of finely ground material, but also reclamation for iron recovery at some future date bad to be considered. Some idea of the extent of the problem may be grasped when it is noted that, by the end of 1938, over 18,000,000 tons of tailing bad been impounded in an area of some 200 acres.

Jan 1, 1939

By J. W. Reynolds

This paper describes the function of the research and development department of a large mining organization and the benefits which can be derived over the years. Examples are given of work done in rock drilling, ventilation, noise control and the development of backfill stowing machinery.

Jan 1, 1970

By Lanny Pasternak

"This article is directed at plant production, engineering and maintenance personnel. Seldom does any industrial operation take the time to study the costs involved in the generation of what is probably their most expensive plant utility energy source.IntroductionIn the typical industrial plant in Canada, a 200 hp, 900 cfm, air compressor costs about $60,000* per year to operate (Fig. 1). In 1989 when BC Hydro embarked on their industrial energy management program Airflow Energy Ltd. were asked to spearhead the “Efficiency Compressed Air” portion of that program with a mandate to perform onsite overview surveys and physical hands-on testing of some 300 selected industrial plants throughout British Columbia for compressor efficiencies and wasteful air leaks (Fig. 2). The program duration lasted until 1995, during which time a tremendous amount of data were amassed relating to equipment types, clients’ operating habits, end-use applications and operating costs.During the past six years, Airflow Energy also performed somewhat similar surveys but on a smaller scale in Alberta, Ontario, the United States and the Republic of China. It was no surprise to find some inherent equipment concerns related to efficiency as well as neglected energy wasteful air leaks, so British Columbia was not alone and the problems appear somewhat universal."

Jan 1, 1996

By C. J. Sullivan

Many metalliferous ?provinces are co-extensive with particular groups of sedimentary, volcanic, or :basic plutonic rocks. Deposits may be truly syngenetic (Rand, Rhodesia-Katanga, Mans-field, Blind River, White Pine); re-. concentrated by circulating waters (Colorado Plateau, Red Bed Coppers) ; or re-concentrated thermally during metamorphism and granitization (most uranium and lead-zinc provinces ?and some copper and gold provinces). Basalts may yield important cop-per provinces when folded and re-heated. Granitization of basalts which have not reached the chlorite-carbon-ate phase of metamorphism may produce copper provinces. If they reach ?the chlorite-carbonate stage, granitization may result in a gold province. Copper and copper-nickel provinces may result if gabbros are granitized, and a ?similar alteration of per-idotite may result in asbestos or nickel ores. Many similar associations are known. Granite is not a source of ore, but a result of heat. A classification of ?ore with respect to source rocks is of greater prospecting value than are classifications based on magmatic differentiation and hydrother-mal solution theories. Volcanic centres are important ore foci because the thermally unstable metallic sulphides may be concentrated here by a distillation process. The ores found in the hot spring deposits, viz., mercury, mercury sulphide, sulphur, and the compounds of ?antimony and arsenic, are not those which are soluble in water at low temperature (epithermal sub-division of hydrothermal class), abrut those which are unstable thermally at comparatively low temperatures . Water is one of the most common thermally unstable minerals, and generally accompanies the thermally activated ore-forming sulphides.

Jan 1, 1957

By E. Hinton, L. Bloomquist

"This paper describes a guidance system for autonomous underground mining vehicles, which does not require any infrastructure or inertial positioning systems to aid the guidance process.BackgroundINCO Limited mines approximately ten million tons per annum through 12 operating mines in the Sudbury, Ontario, area (Fig. 1). With challenges from operating in a cyclical marketplace as well as new technologies making alternative nickel ores more competitive to refine, the Mines Research department embarked on a strategy that pointed toward automation as a tool to help the company become even more economical in mining.The mining industry has been looking for ways and means to mine orebodies more and more inexpensively. Automation and the lessons learned from manufacturing had a great influence in the direction of research at INCO Limited over the past ten years. Guidance systems have evolved over the years but the majority of commercially available systems rely on some form of infrastructure. This, in part, has caused some resistance from operators to install and maintain automated or semi-automated systems for guidance of underground machinery.Internal industrial studies cited travel time to and from the workplace as one of the major time sinks in the shift of underground miners. Depending on the mine, it may be as much as two hours moving in and out of an area. Some work areas have accommodated this by having “hot changes” at the work place. However, at some point in time, there are two people tasked with the same job and on site at the same time to make this overlap occur.Tele-operation of underground hard rock equipment eliminated this overlap and also provided a comfortable environment in which to work. By taking advantage of the communications network installed, the miners proved that they could operate three machines with relative ease. This was accomplished by a vision-based, “painted line,” autonomous guidance system termed the light rope system.With a few years’ experience with the system, some issues have arisen, including the cost of the rope itself (Fig. 2).The vehicle’s route is limited to the paths defined by the light rope, and a system of switching power to the light rope to select different routes is required. The rope itself is subject to damage from nearby blasts. Also, the system offers no obstacle detection; the vehicle may be switched off as a means of shutting the machine down thus protecting personnel in the area."

Jan 1, 2001

By Roberto Pena, Cristhian Morales, Darwin Morales, Veronica Cambiaso

"This article makes evident the shortcomings of the current operation of oxygen pipes as well as the damages they cause and why they cause them. When focusing on the causes and effects of these drawbacks, it was possible to develop a new family of thermal lances that could pierce a taphole with the precision of a drill but with the capacity to complete the whole operation. Although efforts have been made to replace oxygen pipes since they are annoying, dangerous and inefficient, nobody had worked to improve the way the traditional oxygen pipe taps/perforates the furnaces and reactors tapholes. In fact, developments made in drills and robotic arms, have failed to replace the oxygen pipe, which despite their negative side effects have been used for more than a century. Observation and theory were key to radically transform this humble tool into a dependable and efficient support in the operation. A good news that it is worthwhile to share for the benefit of all of us, passionate about the world of pyro metallurgy.INTRODUCTION Normally, reports and papers prepared for conventions, symposia or other technical events related to metallurgy aim to relevant topics in the operational field, probably because in them lay the scale economies every company pursues. We intend to give relevance to a matter normally disregarded in operations, but that unmistakably vital: if the furnace or reactor cannot be bled, the pyrometallurgical process will not be completed. Besides, if the tapping task is difficult or is long delayed, the availability of the furnace will be reduced. Consequently, there will be a waste of energy and workers will be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation as well as to work overload and physical injuries Apart from these basic effects, in tapping operations where oxygen pipes are used, we can see serious damages in the smelting furnace, especially in the taphole components such as refractory bricks, taphole jackets and water cooled plates. This paper intends to show that taking care of the tapping task can significantly upgrade not only to the tapping operation itself, but also the whole plant productivity."

Jan 1, 2017

By Robert E. Wood

Engineers have known for some time that the efficiency of filtering iron ore concentrate slurry can be significantly improved by pre-heating the slurry ahead of the filters. However, heating such large quantities of dense slurry by conventional means has proven to be inefficient and high-maintenance. Recently though, submerged combustion was considered by Altos Hornos de Mexico SA (AHMSA), an integrated steel producer in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, as a means of pre-heating their iron ore concentrate. The company toured many iron ore facilities in Brasil and Labrador, reviewing their heating processes, and concluded that submerged combustion could provide a competitive advantage through operational efficiency and lower capital cost than steam boilers. Inproheat was retained by the company to design and manufacture a SubCom slurry heating system to heat 403 m3/h of iron ore concentrate slurry from 25°C to 60°C. The 60GJ/h SubCom system consists of five natural gas combustion chambers mounted in an iron ore concentrate storage tank. The system features a heat recovery unit whereby the exhaust gases are used to preheat the incoming slurry stream, giving the system an overall thermal efficiency of 95%. As a result, the steel company expects to realise significant improvements in filtering efficiency which will enable them to increase the capacity of their pelletising plant without installing additional filters.

May 1, 2010

This paper details a brief history of the Australian gold industry from the 1980s gold boom to the present day, highlighting an industry characterised by innovation in plant design and junior companies prepared to "have a go", in contrast to the conservatism of many larger mining companies. Design flexibility, the innovation of new processes, the preparedness to exchange "process know how" and technology singularly differentiated the gold industry from other sectors during the 1980s to the present. The introduction of two stage crushing, semi autogenous (SAG) milling, and pebble crushing, mill innovations, carbon in pulp (CIP) and carbon in leach (CIL) and the North Kalgoorlie screen etc were all exciting changes in the industry.

Jan 1, 2011

By P. Dauphin

"CANMET’s Mining and Mineral Sciences Laboratories have developed the Canadian Mining Technology Network (CMT-Net), a website to provide industry with up to date information on technologies in several areas. This paper gives background on the Mineral and Metal Processing sector, describes the steps leading to the development of the websites strategy and gives a tour of CMT-Net. IntroductionThe government of Canada is developing a strategy aimed at fostering the development of value-added activities in the area of mineral and metal processing (MMP). Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and Industry Canada will partner in delivering on this strategy. Instrumental in defining the main thrusts of the value-added strategy was a series of consultations held across Canada with representatives of companies and organizations active in the sector. The objective of the consultations was to identify barriers to the development of activities which add value in the sector, as well as point to positive factors.Following the consultations, a discussion paper was produced, “From Mineral Resources to Manufactured Products: Towards a Value- Added Mineral and Metal Strategy for Canada” (Natural Resources Canada, 1998). The paper reviews the sector’s structure and main statistical information, lists some of the positive factors and barriers to value-added activities and defines a new partnership between industry and government that will lead to more valueadded activities. The main objective of the paper is to serve as a discussion document between stakeholders during the development of the strategy."

Jan 1, 1999

By C. E. Cairnes

The Slocan mining camp in Kootenay district; British Columbia; has long been noted for the great number of its silver-bearing deposits; and for the success that has; in many instances; attended their development. The orebearing area lies east of Slocan lake and mainly within a radius of 6 to 8 miles of the mining town of Sandon. Within this limited area 135 or more properties have shipped ore in quantities of from 100 tons or less to more than 500; 000 tons; and with a total value in silver; lead; and zinc ranging from a few hundred dollars to well over $10; 000; 000. Of the three metals; silver has easily ranked first in value; with lead second and zinc third. Zinc production; however; made slow progress in the early years; and with . the exception of the Lucky Jim mine; and a few others where high-grade ore could be readily hand-sorted; was a detriment to the silver-lead ores until improved methods of separation enabled it to take an important place in the mineral production of the Slocan.

Jan 1, 1954

By Shuai-Jun Li, Xia-Ting Feng, Xian-Jie Hao

"The anisotropy of rock is of great importance to the rock engineering. To investigate the anisotropic character of slate, the rock samples of slate under different confining pressures and bedding plane angles was conducted on the MTS. The results indicated that the relationship between bedding plane angle and elasticity modulus, friction angle, cohesion and strength was shown as U pattern. The minimum value of them is located from 30°to 45°.In addition, the elasticity modulus and Poisson's ratio increase with the increasing confining pressure. The slate behaves brittle failure both in the uniaxial and triaxial compression. The failure pattern of uniaxial compression is generally tension failure, and triaxial test usually shows shear failure. The failure angle decrease with the increasing of confining pressure.INTRODUCTIONThe anisotropy of rock is that loading in different orientations the rock has different mechanical properties. The anisotropic property of rock is always an important problem in rock engineering (Hoek E. & Brown E. T., 1980). J. C. Jaeger (1960) first presented that transverse strength criterion for sliding fracture on joint surface. Later he revised rock parameters to anisotropy empirically for isotropic Mohr- Coulomb criterion. His main idea is revising cohesion according to loading direction (J. C. Jaeger, 1971). Then, many scholars study a lot on transverse strength criterion. E. Z. Lajtai (1969) considered the influence of connecting rate in all directions in joint groups for shear strength in intact rock; R. Mclamore and K. E. Gray (1967) referenced the theory of J. C. Jaeger. They not only revised cohesion also revised friction coefficient. Y. M. Tien (2000, 2001) made further study on the influence of connecting rate in joint group to transverse strength. R. Nova (1980) studied on the variation of strength when rock specimens in triaxial pressure and complex stress paths. O. Cazacu(1998) put forwards a new anisotropic strength criterion for analyzing rock strength. S. Pietruszczak(2000) introduced fabric tensor for characterizing inner seismic structure and he built an anisotropic strength criterion containing the invariants of stress tensor and seismic fabric tensor."

Jan 1, 2015

By L. Narhi, K. Haavanlammi

"Approximately two thirds of annual nickel production is used as a raw material in the making of stainless steel, and about 60% of these nickel products are in the form of metallic nickel such as nickel cathode or briquettes. In the stainless-steel production process nickel is blended with iron and chrome-based raw materials, and metallic nickel is typically only required for final steel fine-tuning. Outotec offers a new FeCrNi technology to enhance the nickel value chain for stainless steel producers. This involves the use of an HPAL-based intermediate nickel product (e.g., mixed hydroxides or NiO) as raw material in the Outotec FeCrNi process, for the production of a FeCrNi Master Alloy. The new process, designated as the FeCrNi process, offers multiple benefits compared to existing technologies such as: higher tolerance for impurities in the HPAL intermediate product, avoiding the need for further nickel refining, and the improved recovery of all metals in the FeCr process. The complete new FeCrNi value chain is based on proven technologies such as HPAL and the Outotec FeCr-process. This new innovative and promising value chain offers improved efficiencies for the HPAL based nickel production process combined with excellent sustainability aspects.INTRODUCTION In today’s global economy there is a constant need to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the metals production. The requirements for modern metal refining are tightening and cost efficient, safe and sustainable operation is the precondition for all investment. Outotec is offering now a novel way to combine FeCr and Nickel production to create a completely new value chain to source nickel to stainless steel. BACKGROUND Nickel The current nickel mine production is in the level of 2,000 tons annually and it is split 44% from sulphide based deposits and 56% from laterite deposits (Figure 1). Most (40%) of the nickel is refined to pure nickel metal whereas other products are FeNi (19%) and Nickel Pig Iron NPI (20%) (Roskill). The remaining part, roughly 21%, is nickel chemicals and intermediates. Most of the new investments in nickel are in the direct shipping of laterite to produce nickel pig iron. HPAL process is considered in few projects but no major HPAL projects have been started since the Ambatovy plant in Madagascar. Ambatovy reached the commercial production in 2014. The main primary nickel used is stainless steel manufacturing. In the year 2016 about 68% (~1,360 kt) of primary nickel production was used in stainless steel."

Jan 1, 2017

By S. Kapusniak

Specialist Machine Developments (SMD) is a design and manufacturing company involved in the design of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV?s), ploughs, trenchers and mining machines for use in submerged environments. Established in 1971, the company has made over 500 vehicles for subsea use. These range in size from small remotely operated swimming vehicles with a weight of less than a tonne to heavy duty seabed crawling machines with a weight of up to 310 tonnes (in air). Primarily, these machines have been designed for offshore vessel-based applications, but the machines are equally suited to other submerged mining applications onshore. Many onshore deposits can technically and theoretically be mined using currently available submerged mining ROV technology. Similar equipment to that in use subsea could easily be fast-tracked into use to extend the life of opencast mines facing severe hydrological problems. It could also easily be used to mine vertical ore-bodies where the stripping ratio has become uneconomical due to increasing depth. In some cases mining ROVs could even be suitable for use as the primary extraction method for a new mine. Exploration and extraction techniques used in oil and gas gradually developed and moved from land to offshore in the middle of the last century. Are we about to witness a similar shift with other minerals? This paper describes the design concepts of submerged mining equipment, targetted subsea mineral deposits, the suitability of submerged mining ROVs for onshore deposits, limits to their application and parallel research and development activities which will help to accelerate the use of such equipment in the emerging submerged mining sector.

Aug 1, 2013