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By A. S. Robb

SAMPLING of an ore-body is one of the fundamentals in its exploration, development, and exploitation. It is carried out to determine the gold value per ton of an ore-shoot and the probable gold output of the refinery. Sampling also places any broken ground in one of two classes, ore or waste. The value and importance of correct sampling has been shown repeatedly in the past. On the other hand, instances could be given where those in charge of mines have not believed in sampling, and the result has been the same in every case-disaster. This has in all probability been due to assuming that good-looking, well-mineralized rock was ore. Sampling in some form might have averted this misfortune. In this essay, only the method of sampling and the estimation of ore reserves is treated. All titles, figures, and values are fictitious. None of the illustrations can be directly applied to any portion of the Hollinger mine, except Figures 1 and 2, which are included with the special permission of the Canadian Mining Journal. METHODS OF SAMPLING Hollinger Consolidated Gold Mines, Limited, has, from the very beginning of operations, carried out an extensive system of sampling, and the results of this sampling have completely governed the whole mining programme. The Hollinger discovery was made in 1909 and prospecting and exploration of 'the surface began at once. Four men were given jobs as samplers and they sampled thoroughly all the outcrops and all bed-rock which could be exposed to view by removing the overburden. When shaft sinking began, samples were taken at two-foot intervals. In 1912, an underground gang of six samplers was organized, and the number was increased at a rate of about two men per year as the size and extent of the workings grew. No permanent record of sampling was kept until 1919, in which year an average of 11.6 men took 28,458 samples, cutting 113,894 feet of sample. From that time until the end of 1934, the average number of samplers varied, but the total number of samples cut, and the total footage sampled, increased.

Jan 1, 1937

By Olson H, Kincaid R

The marine portion of the Pacific Basin and Rim constitutes a significant part of the world's surface in which the mineral resources are virtually undeveloped. Indications of substantial resources have resulted in speculation and uncertainty with regard to their potential in the near term. The main issues are centered on the markets for the resource materials, the technology needs for their recovery, and the possible impacts of their development on the environment. While the governments of Japan, France, the Soviet Union, India, China, and Korea are financing new programs in deep ocean mining, the US is consolidating its early leadership by the continuation of NOAA's authority under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act and the Sea Grant Act, Interior's authority under the outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, and by the development of a new Marine Minerals Technology Center within the Department of Interior's mineral institutes program, managed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The Center has a Continental Shelf Division (CSD) located in Mississippi, and an Oceans Basin Division (OBD) located in Hawaii. Research and training in the divisions is directed toward the practical aspects of mineral recovery from the nearshore and deep ocean environments with a strong bias for the OBD toward industrial and international cooperative programs in the Pacific Basin and Rim. In terms of resource development, the marine minerals in the Pacific Basin may be favored in some cases, in competition with land sources, by political and environmental considerations.

Jan 1, 1990

By P. Horrell, K. Rhodes, G. Harrison, J. Dean, D. Sammons, M. Stander

Anglo Platinum have perceived a need to increase the rate of reef development both for new mechanised stoping technology and on conventional new developing mines. The Research and Development Division of Anglo Platinum therefore initiated an experimental reef raise project with a tunnel boring machine (TBM) at Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine (BRPM). The scope of the trial was for the boring of a reef raise 340 metres in length on the Merensky Reef. The boring phase of the trial took place over six months and the average rate of penetration of the TBM was 0,47 metres/hour. TBM utilisation was 22%. The TBM used in the trial was a Jarva MK6 manufactured in 1972 and its design with its backup system was not considered to be an ideal machine for reef development. However it was the intention of the trial to prove the concept of developing with a TBM on reef. In this respect the trial was unequivocally a success. There were many problems and long delays did occur during the boring phase. Nevertheless there is every confidence that a new TBM can be designed specifically for this type of work that will achieve high rates of advance up to (say) 400metres/month and with a more flexible steering system in order to negotiate reef changes. It can therefore be expected that TBMs will be used in the future for reef development on South African platinum mines.

Sep 1, 2001

By Axel Preusse

This paper shows basic considerations about the prognosis and prediction of surface subsidence and other ground movements in the German hardcoal industry. The following case studies describe experiences collected in projects between university and industry.

Jan 1, 2000

By J. Lorengo, C. H. Bucknam

"Standardization of the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICPMS) method for gold in cyanide solutions was undertaken to provide a more sensitive method to quantify the gold content than the atomic absorption method standardized in 1994 (E1600). The gold concentration range covered is from 0.001 mg/L Au - 0.3 mg/L Au (0.00005 toz/t Au – 0.009 toz/t Au). Interlaboratory testing was carried out with the assistance of the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) International on two committees to determine the within laboratory and between laboratory reproducibility. Three barren solutions from metallurgical operations were measured in triplicate to satisfy statistical requirements for Committee E1 on Analytical Chemistry of Metals, Ores and Related Materials. A synthetically prepared matrix representing the metallurgical processing solutions was used to prepare Youden pairs to satisfy the requirements of Committee D19 on Water. Results of the standardization program are presented. INTRODUCTION Analysis of process solutions for gold concentration requires accurate and sensitive analytical methods in order to manage process control and metallurgical accounting. Flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry (FAAS) has been the work horse of the assay lab for this duty for decades. In 1994 the FAAS standard method was approved by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) (1). Six process solutions were collected and preserved by measuring the pH and adjusting to greater than pH 10, if necessary. Duplicate solutions were provided to eight laboratories in random order for analysis by FAAS covering the gold concentration range of 0.19 µg/mL (0.006 toz/t.) to 10.7 µg/mL (0.312 toz/t). A high precision method was used, which involved bracketing the sample with the higher and lower standards nearest to its concentration repeating readings three times and averaging the results. The optimum precision for the FAAS gold method was found to be at the 1.00 µg/mL (0.029 toz/t) and lower scope limit 0.3 µg/mL (0.009 toz/t) gold concentration. Since tailings solutions typically have concentrations below the lower scope limit, use of ICPMS was developed at Newmont USA Limited (Newmont) to assay the lower range solutions."

Jan 1, 2016

By Charles A. Ramsey, Kathleen S. Smith, Philip L. Hageman

We developed a statistically based strategy for sampling the surficial material of mine-waste dumps for use in screening and prioritizing historic dumps on abandoned mine lands. This sampling strategy entails the collection of a representative composite sample from individual dumps and allows for regional or watershed-based assessments. One 30-inment dump-composite sample collected using this sampling strategy contains as much information, relative to average value, as 30 individual grab samples at 1/30 of the analytical cost.

Jan 1, 2000

By J. A. M. van Liempt

Since the discovery of von Laue, that a crystal forms a natural grating for X-rays, our knowledge of the structure of solids has gone forward with rapid strides. This progress is not only of purely scientific interest, but has also yielded direct technological results. One of the most valuable results is the broadening of our knowledge of the structure of pure metals and alloys. To promote these studies it is often desirable to have at our disposal pieces of metal consisting of one single crystal. As is so often the case in the natural sciences, we obtain the best results by making our earliest experiments on pure, simple materials and avoiding unnecessary complications. The Cryogen Laboratory at Leyden followed this method with much success, because the work was done at such low temperatures that the heat movement of the atoms was almost absent. Similarly we can simplify the studies of metals by leaving out of consideration the influence of the grain boundaries and the mutual influence of the crystals by using unicrystalline instead of polycrystal-line metal. Methods of making single crystals have been scientifically studied during the past few years. Some methods were already known in the arts, but these have been improved and new methods have been developed. The methods for making metallic single crystals may be divided into the following groups: A. From the liquid state B. From the gaseous state C. Electrolytically D. By recrystallization in the solid state Method A 1. Tamwmnn's Method1—Tammann succeeded in making bismuth single crystals of a maximum length of 20 cm. by undercooling the molten metal 0.1 to 0.3' G. below its melting point in glass tubes of a maximum

By Thomas E. Shumka

ASTM E2905 describes a two-part standard for electromagnetic methods for preparation and examination of ring gear teeth in the mining sector for SAG and Ball Mill ring gear drives, including pinions? particularly on the addendum, dedendum, and root areas. This practice addresses the need to detect surface breaking flaws electronically and to have the ability to accurately size any surface breaking cracks found on cast and forged SAG and ball mill ring gear and pinion teeth faster and more effectively than other methods. Eddy-current surface arrays are seeing increasing use throughout the industry for the detection of surface breaking flaws in conducting materials. Example applications include examinations of pipelines, bridges, engines, aerospace structures, and any conducting material for surface breaking flaws including cracks. In addition, model-based methods are being used to size cracks accurately found in the addendum, dedendum, and the root of SAG and ball mill girth gear teeth. As visual interpretation of a surface breaking discontinuity on gear teeth is the normal analysis, the colors and 3D images that are provided with this technique, help with visualization and therefore are absolutely invaluable in such circumstances. This practice will help to standardize the use of this nondestructive testing approach.

May 1, 2013

By Jorge Nelson Rivera Guillén

Dado el alto consumo de cobre, zinc y platino en la industria minera a nivel mundial, se genera un desabastecimiento de cobre, aluminio, fierro, plomo y zinc a fines del siglo XIX. En ese sentido, la sociedad debe cubrir sus necesidades con minerales de la plataforma continental. En ese sentido, el presente texto describe la importancia del oro por su valor intrínseco como medio de cambio y atesoramiento en el respaldo económico que todas las naciones desean adquirir. Asimismo, refiere la provincia polimetálica aurífera del Perú, la generación de distritos y provincias metalogenéticas auríferas andinas y la metalización polimetálica aurífera de la franja occidental del Perú.

Feb 1, 2016

By Halbert Powers Gillette

From the known laws of physical chemistry I believe it can be shown that progressive mass movement of water solutions in channels has seldom been the means of ore-concentration in veins. It is my purpose in this paper to show that the force known as "osmosis " has been the principal factor in ore-formation. Convection-currents have doubtless supplemented osmosis, and the two working together have been the agencies that have gathered the scattered particles of rare minerals into the larger masses which are called ore. Osmosis is commonly thought of as a vague, feeble force

Jan 1, 1904

By Stavros A. Argyropoulos, Henry H. Hu

"The assimilation of exothermic additions in liquid metals exhibit an array of unique coupled heat, mass and momentum transport phenomena. These phenomena are further complicated by the presence of a moving boundary.This paper describes a) A mathematical model which simulates the complex phenomena, and b) An extensive verification of the mathematical model. The SIMPLER algorithm was employed to solve numerically the pertinent partial differential equations. The computational results indicated that the exothermic heat of mixing led to a rapid increase in temperature around the moving boundary, which produced an enhanced convective flow in the liquid phase. The intensification of fluid flow around the moving boundary resulted in an acceleration of the melting process.Verification of the model was carried out in two contexts. The first was, in a low temperature physical model consisting of ice immersion in different sulfuric acid solutions. In this physical model, both temperature and velocity measurements were carried out. The model results were compared with experimental measurements and they were found to be in excellent agreement. The second context employed high temperatures, involving the assimilation of silicon in high carbon liquid iron. The model was also applied to predict fluid flow, heat and mass transfer for these high temperature experiments and a good agreement was obtained.In addition new dimensionless heat transfer correlations that quantify these complex phenomena will be presented."

Jan 1, 2001

EDWARD HART*, Easton, Pa. (written discussion?) .-In 1895 I visited the chemical plant of the Messrs. Chance at Oldbury, England, under the guidance of Mr. France, the manager. In the stock house I saw a pile of coal brasses with adhering coal and said to Mr. France, "I should think you would get dark acid." "Yes," he replied, "our acid has always been rather black. and our customers have grown used to it. Some time ago we ran out of brasses and could get only Spanish pyrite. Our product became white and the customers began to complain, so I put a little sugar in each carboy." E. A. HOLBROOK,* Pittsburgh, Pa. (written discussion?).-Mr. Davis says, "A very large tonnage of pyrite is annually being thrown in the waste in the coal mines of this country." This quantity is much larger than is generally realized by people not intimately associated with coal mining. At the beginning of the war this country seemed threatened with a short-age of pyrite. The U. S. Bureau of Mines conducted a general investiga-tion of the pyrite resources of the country in order to ascertain what material was commercially available. The general pyrite investigation was in charge of H. A. Buehler, with the subsection on coal pyrite in charge of E. A. Holbrook.

Jan 10, 1919

Newmont Waihi Gold operates the Martha Mine open pit at Waihi, New Zealand and is developing the Favona Underground Project two kilometres to the east. The Company is exploring the Waihi district under eight exploration permits totalling 6300 hectares.   Martha Mine is scheduled to close in late-2006. The Company has instigated and funded a significant programme of community consultation to mitigate the effects of mine closure on the community and enhance effective participation in the selection and provision of appropriate community facilities post mining.   This paper provides an overview of current issues and future developments.

Jan 1, 2004

By C. R. Kuzell

The Editor desires to call attention to the charts in the paper of the above title which were published in the August Bulletin on pages 2190 and 2191. It was impracticable to include in the Bulletin. charts of sufficient size to be used as working diagrams for the direct determination of operating values, but the Institute is prepared to furnish copies of these charts on a large-size scale, at a moderate cost, to those who desire to have them for this purpose. CORRECTIONS Page 2185, line 3. For "is accessory apparatus" read "in accessory. apparatus." Page 2188. Substitute for lines 11 and 12: Nitrogen, oxygen, carbon monoxide, Cp = 6.50 + 0.0010T Hydrogen, Cp = 6.50 + 0.0009T

Jan 9, 1914

By Natalie White, Joel Asp, Allyz Kramer

"Minnesota has robust reclamation standards and have proven results in the taconite mining industry. Reclamation of overburden spoils, lean ore spoils and fine tailings from taconite production has generally been successful on the Iron Range, using a low input standard reclamation practice. Success at reestablishing vegetation on these landscapes is likely due to fairly favorable chemical and physical properties (e.g., few limitations due to acidic generating materials, metal toxicities and water and nutrient holding capacities). However, coarse tailings reclamation has proven more difficult, presumably due to lower nutrients and challenges with moisture holding capacities. Research efforts conducted since 1990 have struggled to develop a reclamation strategy for coarse tailings that meets the Minnesota Mineland Reclamation Rules, Chapter 6130. However, new breakthroughs in scram mining technologies are producing fine and coarse tailings that have not been encountered nor reclaimed in northern Minnesota. Scram mining in Minnesota is defined as those mining operations that produce natural iron ore concentrates. Innovative research is underway to investigate and determine successful reclamation strategies to reclaim scram mining tailings from these scram mining operations. The research program is conducted through collaboration with SEH, Prairie Restorations, Inc. (PRI) and Mining Resources, LLC with funding support from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Laurentian Vision Partnership minescapes grant program.The research program was divided into three phases:Phase I. Bench-scale testing to identify successful treatments to reclaim and restore scram tailings through evaluating surface soils amendments, viable seed mixes and plant germination, growth and densities. Phase I was completed in early 2015.Phase II. Field-scale pilot trial to test larger scale effectiveness of the treatments deemed successful in Phase I and test various vegetative assemblages and planting techniques focused on the unique challenges with scram tailing basins. Phase II was completed in late 2016 with a summary monitoring report.Phase III. Produce a technical report of results for the research undertaken in this study, as well as compile prior reclamation results used during previous Minnesota iron mining reclamation projects on tailings basin applications. Phase III was completed in 2017 with a summary monitoring report and recommendations."

Jan 2, 2018

By M. R. Geer, H. F. Yancey

John Grifien (Pittsburgh)—I wish to congratulate the authors on this paper, which, I am sure, will promote a clearer conception of the various criteria which have been advanced as measures of coal-cleaning performance. Their clear descriptions of the more important criteria that have been advanced and explanations of their meaning and application have been sorely needed and, if widely promulgated and followed, should remove much of the confusion which, heretofore, has been evident. I suggest that much of this confusion has also arisen from lack of common agreement as to the exact meaning of the words and terms used in our discussions of this subject. I am sure I have been equally guilty in this respect and suggest it is time that we select a committee to study vocabulary as well as criteria, so that common understanding and agreement can be had. Thus, I suggest, that the title of this paper should have used the words "coal-cleaning performance" and not "coal-washery performance." My understanding is that "washery" refers to a complete plant and it has additional functions to that of coal-cleaning, such as control of size, moisture, etc. Also, I do not agree with the authors that the formulas given in their paper, the Fraser and Yancey formulas, are necessarily the only ones that can be called efficiency formulas. When a dictionary is consulted one realizes that the words "efficiency" and "efficient" have not precise meanings but only very general ones and must be further defined for each particular use, if they are to have any precise meaning. To my mind, the first of the Fraser and Yancey formulas given should never be used as expressing "efficiency" alone but only by the fuller phrase which truly expresses the kind of efficiency it states, which is "coal recovery efficiency." For complete clarity we then need only define "coal" for the particular circumstances under which the formula is used. This would recognize the fact, fully explained by the authors, that the limits in coal qualities imposed by the market have imposed a factor—and a variable factor—which has influenced any answer obtained by this formula. Such a procedure makes it entirely practical and logical to use the values of any of the qualities of coal—ash, sulphur, phosphorus, specific gravity—or a combination of them to define what is coal for that particular use of the formula. Further, it is clear to me that the criteria to be used must be dictated by the objective in view and the use for which the data are obtained. The authors clearly point out that the Fraser and Yancey coal-recovery efficiency formula is influenced by three factors, "one is determined by the coal, one is dictated by market or use conditions, and one is an inherent characteristic of the cleaning unit itself." The formula which uses the inverse of misplaced material as a measure of efficiency is also a coal recovery efficiency formula and is influenced in like manner by these three factors. As the authors point out, both are useless in obtaining data which enables a direct and valid comparison of the performance of a given cleaning unit on two coals where the other two factors vary or of the performance of two or more cleaning units of different types unless the values of the other two factors are identical. Much of the confusion in our discussions of and literature on coal cleaning has come from failure to understand clearly this fact. Many such comparisons have been made from which erroneous conclusions have been drawn. I am, therefore, particularly glad to see the authors' emphasis on 4?-1e criteria which indicate the "sharpness of separation. I feel that these are the essential criteria

Jan 1, 1952

By Kenneth N. Han, Yichang Guan

The dissolution behavior of metals from Au/Ag/Cu-alloys has been studied using rotating disc electrodes in solutions containing acids, cyanide, and ammonia. Electrochemical methods as well as leaching tests were adopted in this study. The results showed that there was no galvanic effect on the dissolution of metals from homogeneous alloys. In aerated cyanide solutions, the dissolution of gold, silver, and copper from their alloys was partly controlled by surface chemical reaction, but largely by mass transfer. On the other hand, the galvanic coupling effect played a very important role in heterogeneous alloy systems.

Jan 1, 1995

By P. Taskinen, A. Jokilaakso

The Flash Smelting Process for copper and nickel production has been one of the most successful new metallurgical process developments in the 20th century. The experimental data from laboratory scale investigations of studies has produced information and insight into the reaction mechanisms and kinetics of the flash reactions of copper concentrates. Advanced computer models coupling chemical reactions with a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software became possible with the development of commercial CFD software together with increased computing power. Currently, there are both experimental and CFD modelling, including also CFD–DEM coupling (Discrete Element Method), studies ongoing for investigating the kinetics of matte – slag reactions in the flash smelting furnace (FSF) settler. The ultimate goal of the modelling work is to develop a comprehensive FSF model for studying the behavior of changing raw materials, both primary and secondary, and distribution of their elements between the matte, slag, and gas phases. The use of User-Defined-Functions (UDF) is one way to digitalize metallurgical knowledge and experimental information to be used for supporting process experts and development of artificial intelligence applications in metallurgy. In this paper, a review of the development of the FSF reaction shaft modelling and experimental investigations, and the current work for the settler reactions’ experiments and modelling are presented. INTRODUCTION The Outotec Flash Smelting process (Bryk, Ryselin, Honkasalo, & Malmström 1958) has been used in the copper and nickel industry for 70 years with continuous support from experimental investigations by many research groups in academia, among others Jorgensen and Segnit (1977); Jokilaakso, Suominen, Taskinen and Lilius (1991), Chaubal and Sohn (1986), Kim and Themelis (1986), and in industry Mäkinen and Jåfs (1982); Kojo, Lahtinen and Miettinen (2009); Tuominen, Pienimäki and Fagerlund (2016). It has been developed also for pyrite and lead smelting (Asteljoki, Sulanto & Talonen, 1984). A schematic illustration of the FSF and other main parts of the process is depicted in Figure 1. Also, two and three dimensional physical water or gas models have extensively been used in product and process development (Lilja & Rajainmäki 1995). During the recent decades, computer based models have increasingly been adopted in the FSF research and development (Ahokainen & Jokilaakso, 1998); Ahokainen, Jokilaakso, Taskinen & Kytö, 2006; Hahn & Sohn, 1990; Jorgensen & Elliot, 1992; Zhou, Zhou, Chen & Mao, 2014; White, Haywood, Ranasinghe & Chen, 2015) to name a few, but also in supporting engineering and sales of the technology (Miettinen 2017). Even though the reactions of the sulfidic concentrate particles have been included in the reaction shaft modelling, the complete FSF model with both gas-solid/drop and molten slag/matte drop has so far been and still is too demanding for today’s computer hardware.

Jan 1, 2019

By P. Douglas, G. M. Leak, B. Mills

The sinusoidal surface relaxation technique has been used to measure the surface self-diffusion coefficient of spectroscopically pure nickel over a wide temperature range under a hydrogen atmosphere. A kink in the Arrhenius plot has been observed. In the temperature range T/T 0.98 to 0.80 (T in O K and T, is the melting temperature) the average self diffusion coefficient is given by Below the temperature T/T,- 0.80a decrease in the slope of the log Ds us 1/T plot is observed. This is associated with a diffusion process characterized by a lower activation energy (-20,000 cal mole'') and smaller preexponential term (-10- sq cm sec"). A series of experiments were carried out at T/Tm = 0.61 under a hydrogen atmosphere of higher oxygen partial pressure than for the rest of the experiments. It was found that Ds was significantly depressed due to oxygen adsorption. This evidence supports the opinion that the low temperature process (activation energy -20,000 cal mole-') is unlikely to be due to oxygen adsorption. An interesting feature of the present data is that the transition temperature (T/Tm - 0.80) is a function of orientation. For a small number of crystals of measured orientation the transition temperature was observed to be higher towards the low index (100) pole. Theories of surface diffusion are briefly reviewed and it is concluded that the present reszuts are best explained by invoking a surface roughening process. GJOSTEIN has recently analyzed available surface diffusion data for a wide range of metals. He suggested that two mechanisms were operative for fcc metals, an adatom process at high temperatures and a vacancy process at low temperatures. Results for nickel can be summarized as follows. At low temperatures (T/T, - 0.3 to 0.44) under ultra high vacuum conditions, Melmed2 measured an activation energy Q of 21 kcal mole-' using field electron emission microscopy. At higher temperatures (T/T - 0.7 to 0.9) under a vacuum of 10- ' torr, Maiya and lakel measured y as 39 kcal mole-' using the multiple scratch smoothing technique. The present work was undertaken to try to find out if two distinct processes could be observed. High temperature results give Q about 47 kcal mole-': there is evidence also for a low temperature value of about 20 kcal mole-'. These measurements were all made under a hydrogen atmosphere, in the temperature range 860" to 1412°C. Concurrent with the present study Bonze1 and jostein> have also observed a break in the Arrhenius plot for the (110) surface of nickel. These measure- ments under ultrahigh vacuum conditions using the laser diffraction technique are in excellent agreement with the work reported here under hydrogen annealing conditions. THEORY The available surface relaxation techniques include single and multiple scratch smoothing and grain boundary grooving. The processes have been compared in detail by Gjostein for conditions where surface diffusion dominates6 and Mills et al? where volume diffusion dominates. In summary the relevant points are as follows. Grain boundary grooving gives an average Ds for the two surfaces adjacent to the boundary and this can, to some extent, be simplified by using symmetrical bicrystals. This technique has been used to study the effect of environment on Ds for silver and copper.'-'' Scratch techniques yield Ds values for the small orientation range exposed by the scratches (-2 deg). The multiple scratch process is preferable because the profile rapidly becomes sinusoidal and can then be interpreted theoretically in a relatively simple way. Also corrections for mass transport processes other than surface diffusion can be introduced easily. Mullins" considered a sinusoidal profile described the wavelength of the profile. After time t the profile can be described by the equation The terms A, A', C, and B which account, respectively, for contributions due to evaporation-condensation, diffusion through the gas phase, volume diffusion through the lattice, and surface diffusion are defined as: where Ds = the surface self diffusion coefficient ys = the surface energy per unit area p = the equilibrium vapor pressure over a flat surface pa = the equilibrium vapor density over a flat surface DG= the diffusion coefficient of vapor molecules in the inert gas DM = the mass transfer diffusion coefficient which for a pure cubic metal is Dv/f where Dv is the radiotracer diffusion coefficient and f is the correlation factor H = the molecular volume V = the surface density of atoms, il2'3 M = mass of an evaporating molecule

Jan 1, 1970

By Guangdong Institute of Resources Comprehensive Utilization, Y. H. Tang, H. X. Hu, T. S. Dong, Z. H. Zhang

"A world class rare metals ore deposit in Africa belongs to a massive granite type poly-metallic pyrochlore-niobium resource. Successful project development in realizing the resource is vital to Africa’s economy and pyrochlore processing technology.The ore properties are quite complex due to the presence of varieties of valuable minerals, fine dissemination and intimate association of minerals and the relative abundance of easy-floatable minerals. The separation of pyrochlore from zircon, calcite and mica is generally considered difficult. Whilst studies have previously been conducted by several independent institutions overseas, no satisfactory process has yet been developed to date for the ore deposit—possibly due to the process designed being too complex; high cost of regents; lower performance.Based on process mineralogy study and extensive testwork, the authors have in recent years developed a new technology—“De-slime—Iron-rejection—Zircon (with calcite) and Calcite reverse flotation—Pyrochlore flotation”. The flow-sheet is characterized by ?1prior removal of slimes and iron minerals; ?2 Zircon (with calcite) and Calcite reverse flotation; and ?3Pyrochlore flotation applying new type of chelating collector GYX3 developed by GZRINM in conjunction with selected regulators and depressants.The process involved in the new technology is simple to implement and facilitates stable operation; the flotation reagent regime is easily adaptable; the cost of main reagent is lower largely because it is easy to manufacture and is environmental friendly. Laboratory test results demonstrated that, for raw ore assaying 0.35% Nb2O5, 0.03% Ta2O5 and 0.45% ZrO2, pyrochlore concentrate grade of >35% Nb2O5 could be obtained with >74% recovery. Meanwhile, the Ta2O5 content in pyrochlore concentrate could be recycled, and ZrO2 recovery >50% could be achieved in zircon concentrate assaying ZrO2>63%—significantly improving the technical-economic indicator. These results were verified in pilot trials of 1.44t/d throughput. The paper presents the new technology in whole, summarizes the key factors affecting its performance and discusses in simple terms the mechanism of separation."

Jan 1, 2016