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By M. Gonzalez Fernandez

"If the final goal of metallurgy is the extraction of metals from a given ore, everyone knows that this achievement relies on many separation steps involving much more than a biphasic material made of metal and gangue. Nevertheless, still today, most of the design and follow-up of industrial processes only consider metal grades; in best case metal grades per size class. Working with such heterogeneous material, made of several minerals, with different grain size and texture, implies to consider finer ore models to be able to predict the behavior of material and the subsequent operation performances. Analytical tools are now available to provide such relevant and accurate data which are applied in geometallurgy. To achieve a true geometallurgical approach for process design, but also for optimization, accurate process simulation absolutely needs to combine these fine ore models with the corresponding unit operation models. Based on generic, but configurable, criteria of description and a hierarchical approach, the material modelling tool embedded in the USIM PAC process simulator provides the necessary flexibility to describe any type of ore with almost no limit in the level of details and associated physical properties that can be met in the mining industry. The simulation engine and the mathematical models of unit operations are designed to manage such a diversity of material modelling. The paper present various ore models and some of their applications in flowsheet simulation. It proves the interest of this detailed and advanced approach to accurately predict plant performances. INTRODUCTION Process simulation used for process design and optimization requires accurate unit operation modeling. During the last decades, main efforts of the different teams developing software simulators have been dedicated to those models for comminution and physical separations such as flotation or gravity concentration (Kojovic et al., 2012, Soni and Yoon, 2014). In most case, the ore is modelled with a size distribution and metal or mineral grades. A water phase is considered for wet processes. The association of unit operations and such material models generally allows, after some parameters adjustment, to achieve good agreement between experimental and simulated data. The use of the obtained simulator to test alternative configuration of circuits or settings of equipment devices can be accurate enough as far as the ore processed is close to the ore used for simulator adjustment. However, when the ore gets very different grades, coming from different mineral proportions or grain sizes, the simulation results can be of poor accuracy. Because any physical separations such as gravity, magnetic or flotation, do not sort metal and gangue but particles, made of minerals, containing metals, the only way to be accurate enough for allowing extrapolations, is to model particles. The phase model tools embedded in the USIM PAC process simulator gives this possibility. However, as such level of details are not always available for analyses, the tool has been designed with a high level of flexibility, to adapt the model to the available data. In this paper, the principles of this conceptual modelling tool are presented, and some application cases illustrate the material model flexibility and its interest."

Jan 1, 2018

By David I. Verrelli, Peter T. L. Koh

"Recent experimental measurements of induction time made by direct observation with the ‘Milli-Timer’ indicated that angular particles were able to attach much more rapidly than spherical particles. There was around a tenfold difference in the respective induction periods for particle-bubble attachment. For industrial application, a more holistic comparison is needed, with the induction period for attachment being just one input. Over the years, CSIRO has developed a CFD-flotation model that incorporates both rigorous hydrodynamics, to simulate real industrial cell geometries, and a detailed model of the embedded flotation process, in which the induction period is an important parameter. We conducted transient modelling of batch flotation. First, spherical particles were modelled, as a ‘baseline’, for different particle sizes and levels of hydrophobicity. In the second set of results, the induction period was decreased by a factor of up to ten, simulating flotation of angular particles. Flotation recovery was found to depend upon induction period in a complex manner. For highly hydrophobic or fine particles, the induction period for spheres was already so low that recovery was limited by other factors (e.g. bubble-particle collision frequency). Further decreases in induction period, as for angular particles, did not have a significant effect on recovery in these cases. By contrast, when weakly hydrophobic or coarse particles were modelled, the recovery was predicted to be greatly enhanced for angular particles, in comparison to spheres. For these particles the induction period was limiting recovery, so that the flotation rate constant could be improved directly by reducing the induction period. This is consistent with batch flotation experiments using Ballotini reported earlier. Therefore, when dealing with weakly hydrophobic particles or relatively large particles that are to be floated, an enhancement can be expected for more angular particle shapes. In such cases, judicious specification of the grinding circuit may improve the overall efficiency."

Jan 1, 2014

By Igor Kuzymin, Isaak Maximov, Iuriy Akkerman, Galina Aksenova, Valentina Sentemova, Nataliya Trubechkova

"The Russian Federation possesses large reserves of oxidized ferruginous quartzites. These ores are currently mined together with magnetite ores and are stockpiled on account of unavailability of an efficient processing technology. This paper presents the results of investigations performed on the ores from the largest oxidized ferruginous quartzite deposit located in the Kursk Region iron-ore basin of Russia. The objective is to produce concentrate with iron content at least 66% and silica content within 5%. A processing technology was, developed under laboratory conditions, which included ore preparation, wet magnetic separation in weak and strong fields and reverse cationic flotation with addition of caustic soda, dextrin and Lilaflot 811M (alkoxy propylamine) collector from Akzo Nobel. The developed technology produced iron recovery concentrate with iron content of nearly 67%, and that of silica - 4.1%, iron recovery into concentrate being 72.6%."

Jan 1, 2014

By S. F. Kaplan, A. S. Dolotov, V. N. Kovalev

"At this point in time, autoclave recovery (POX) followed by sorption cyanidation (CIL) is one of the most promising technologies for the efficient processing of refractory and double refractory gold-bearing sulphide rock. This hydrometallurgical technology requires the use of a large amount of water (up to 5 tons per ton of used concentrate), resulting in highly saline water with high pH (pH 9-11), high content of cyanides (up to 300 mg/l), arsenic compounds, antimony and a number of heavy metals. In order to determine the possibility of using recycling industrial water in POX-CIL technology, several batches of experiments were conducted (using the double refractory flotation concentrate of the Mayskoye deposit). Urban water with a chloride ion content of 10 mg/l was used during the reference POX-CIL experiment as the liquid phase of the ??? feed pulp. At that, gold extraction rate amounted to 89.4 %. A full cycle of POX(200 ºC)-CIL was carried out during the first part of the experiments; at that, fresh concentrate of the untreated recycling water with cyanide ion content of 95.4 mg/l, left after the completion of the previous CIL cycle, was used for repulping. It has been established that direct use of untreated recycling industrial water is impossible due to a sharp decline in gold extraction (preg-robbing) down to 79.5%. The presence of chloride ions, cyanide ions and other ligands in the liquid phase provides effective complexion formation for the recovery gold; complex gold compounds are quickly and firmly sorbed by the natural carbonaceous substances of the concentrate at the stage of autoclave recovery; they are virtually not cyanized onwards, and gold is carried over to the tailings. During the the second batch of experiments, recycling industrial water with cyanide and chloride ions' concentration of 500 mg/l each was subjected to the reverse osmosis desalination (up to 6 times in a successive order). After each desalting cycle, such water was used as the liquid phase of the feed pulp in POX-CIL. 6 cycles of RO desalination enabled the extraction of 86.1% Au (which is close to reference recovery). During the third batch of experiments, recycling industrial water was diluted with distilled water (2, 4, 16, 32, 64 times); after each dilution cycle, this water was used as the liquid phase of the POX-CIL feed pulp. Gold extraction after 64-fold dilution amounted to 82.6%. The results of the conducted researches show that the use of untreated recycling industrial water in POX-CIL hydrometallurgical technology is absolutely impossible due to a sharp decline in gold extraction. Even the 64-fold dilution with pure water is inefficient both from the perspective of gold extraction and of rational use of water. Reverse osmosis desalination solves the problem of water treatment except for the removal of cyanide ion, which requires separate reagent treatment of water."

Jan 1, 2018

By R. Chowdhury

Axis House manufactures and supplies alkylhydroxamate reagent of various carbon chain lengths for application in flotation of oxide copper and other minerals. As part of reagent performance improvement the structural factors of hydroxamate are examined by various analytical tools in particular with X-ray diffraction of single crystals. In a recent publication, the structure of n-octylhydroxamic acid and its corresponding potassium salt are presented with findings of hydroxamic functional group geometric preference, H-bonding, keto-enol tautomerisation, acid-salt aggregation and alignment of carbon chain. In this paper an example of branched alkylhydroxamate 3, 5, 5-trimethylhexylhydroxamate will be presented and compared with the result of linear alkylhydroxamate.

Sep 1, 2012

By Ben Murphy, Alejandro Yanez, Tatu Miettinen

"Flotation using large volume cells has grown in importance during recent years, particularly given the increasing demand for minerals whilst ore grades are decreasing. Outotec introduced the TankCell® e300 in 2007 to enable concentrator plants to process these higher tonnages. From the beginning, TankCell® e300s with FloatForce® mixing mechanisms have demonstrated good metallurgical performance with decreased operating costs and high availability. This paper deals with specific engineering challenges that need to be considered when installing these units rather than giving examples of performance. Today there are over 100 TankCell® e300s operational worldwide. As more of these units are installed new technical challenges are encountered and solutions developed to maximize their productivity. Lessons have been learnt by operators, engineering companies and the cell manufacturers on how best to design and layout these cells in modern concentrators to ensure smooth transition from design to installation to operation. This paper presents information on important design considerations and learning that has been obtained through the design, installation and commissioning of the TankCell e300 around the world. Areas pertaining to cells layout such as feed and discharge arrangements along with items of metallurgical concern such as sampling, reagent addition and the potential benefits of installing a variable speed drive on the motor will be covered in depth."

Jan 1, 2014

By Kaustubh Joshi, Pradip, Beena Rai, Kesri L. Menaria, Venugopal Tammishetti

"Beneficiation of alumina rich iron ore slimes is a major challenge for the Indian iron ore industry. High alumina is deleterious for the performance of both blast furnace as well as sintering plants. Slimes generally contain 5 - 10% alumina, and hence despite assaying as high as 60% Fe, those are dumped in tailing ponds. The slimes are typically less than 37 microns. Selective flocculation of iron ore slimes using highly selective reagents is thus an option worth exploring. Our research is directed at employing state-of-the-art molecular modeling techniques for the selection/design of selective reagents for this separation. We have earlier reported our results on starch as a selective flocculant for iron ore slimes. In this paper, we present our results on the selective dispersion-flocculation of natural iron ore slimes using guar gum flocculant. With careful selection of various process parameters such as flocculant dosage, dispersant dosage, pH and settling time, we were able to obtain a concentrate assaying >66% Fe and <3.5% Al2O3 with an yield of 65 to 68% (recovery of iron values more than 70%) from a natural iron ore slime sample assaying 58% Fe and 7% Al2O3."

Jan 1, 2014

By D. I. Verrelli

Within the flotation community a belief has developed that some particle shapes are more ?floatable? than others. This is usually attributed to an influence of particle shape or roughness on the induction period required to achieve attachment between the particles and the air bubbles in the pulp. Up to now, such measurements have not been able to readily isolate the effect on individual flotation subprocesses. In contrast, our experimental apparatus, the CSIRO Milli-Timer, enables us to directly observe the process of particle?bubble interaction and attachment by means of a high-speed video recording, thus providing a direct measure of the induction period for attachment. To assess the influence of particle shape on induction time we used two varieties of methylated borosilicate glass particles ? spheres and angular ?frit? ? in a range of tightly-sized fractions. In doing this, we take care to account for the influence of other factors that could affect the induction time, such as the polar angle of sliding commencement, and approach velocity. These parameters are recorded as variables for each interaction, and corrected for using multiple nonlinear regression. Our results illustrate the importance of particle shape on induction period, with angular particles exhibiting induction periods that were an order of magnitude lower than those of spheres. Furthermore, the induction period was seen to decrease with increasing particle velocity, or kinetic energy on approach, but increased as the trajectory approached the limit of just grazing the bubble. Particle shape in mineral processing is a consequence chiefly of the mineral type and the type of grinding employed. The results presented herein indicate that attention should be paid to the shape of particles obtained from the grinding operation, besides particle size. Keywords: attachment, bubbles, flotation, induction period, particles, shape effects, surface roughness

Sep 1, 2012

By B. S. Moroney

Elemental distribution varies widely in the ores, minerals and beneficiated products depending on the constituents. Accurate analysis of each element present in various beneficiated products is utmost required to assess the grade in view of zero waste technology. Hence, the suitable methods and instrumental technique is of prime importance as the distribution of various elements differs in the beneficiated products. Conventional classical technique of analysis is absolute and due to this, it has not become obsolete. Besides, it is much needed for making standards for various relative techniques. Instrumental techniques comprising of X-ray fluorescence, Induced Coupled Plasma Analyzer, Carbon-Sulphur Analyzer, Atomic Absorption Spectrometer etc. are important for quick and accurate analysis. However, the selection of these instruments depend on the nature of material to be analyzed. This paper highlights the importance and use of various methods/techniques and instruments involved in the analysis of various ores, minerals and beneficiated products. Keywords: wet classical, x-ray fluorescence, induced coupled plasma analyzer, atomic absorption spectrometer

Sep 1, 2012

By Kilian Neubert, Hermann Wotruba, Henning Knapp

Sensor-based sorting has been integrated into more and more applications in mineral processing over the past decades. Various sensor types, such as line scan cameras, near infrared sensors and X-ray transmission sensors, allow the separation of a vast variety of raw materials. Sensor-based sorting has several economic benefits which can make the difference between an uneconomic operation and a profitable mine. Sensor-based sorters can be applied to fulfill various sorting tasks, such as waste rejection, product quality improvement and ore type diversion, and have a significant impact on the layout of the processing plant. Therefore, it is important to include sensor-based sorting into the planning of a processing plant at an early stage. To evaluate the applicability of sensor-based sorting for any specific ore type, it is currently necessary to provide several hundred kilograms of material for subsequent bulk tests. In exploration, ore samples are usually rare and only available in form of drill cores. The acquisition of drill cores is time-consuming and expensive especially for deposits in great depth. Hence, it is unfavorable to spoil valuable drill cores for bulk tests. This paper describes a methodology to evaluate the applicability of sensor-based sorting based on drill core analysis. That methodology offers the possibility to calculate the achievable performances of different sensor types for various grain sizes without comminution of drill cores. The general methodology is shown on basis of an exemplary test work on drill cores from a currently conducted exploration.

Jan 1, 2014

By Francesco Vegliò, Luigi Toro, Francesca Pagnanelli

Different hydro-metallurgical processes have been studied in order to recover manganese(II) from oxidised minerals such as MnO2. An innovative acid reductive leaching carried out in mild experimental conditions was here considered using agricultural and industrial wastes containing carbohydrates as reducing agents. The leaching process was investigated from a kinetic and equilibrium point of view in order to optimise the experimental conditions, develop a kinetic model and obtain high purity concentrated MnSO4 solutions. To study the leaching kinetic a Shrinking Core Model (SCM) was modified by a variable activation energy term to take into account both the variable reagent concentrations and the reaction rate change with respect to the manganese dioxide conversion. The influence of the particle size in the kinetic model is discussed with the support of SEM analysis before and after leaching. Manganese extraction yield was maximised (170-190 g/L) using appropriate carbohydrates and acid excesses, while impurity concentrations were kept low (Fe<10ppm and Ca<300ppm) pre-treating the ores, using hydro-alcoholic leaching medium and different combinations of down-stream processes. In particular precipitation, solvent extraction and adsorption onto active carbon were tested to eliminate Fe and Ca from MnSO4 solutions.

Jan 1, 2003

By S. F. Kaplan, A. S. Dolotov, V. N. Kovalev

"The proportion of refractory sulphide ores and concentrates in world gold mining industry is growing every year. Pressure oxidation of these materials (in autoclave) allows to oxidize gold hosting minerals. Traces of halides and pseudohalides present in the slurry liquids contribute to formation of complex gold compounds. Sorption-active carbon present in ores leads to irreversible adsorption of complex gold compounds and their loss. The objective of the research is to study gold extraction dependence on the concentration of chloride-, cyanide- and thiocyanate-ions in the slurry liquids during pressure oxidation. Double refractory flotation concentrate of the Bakyrchik deposit was used for the testwork. The research was planned on the basis of a full factorial experimental design with additional refining experiments. Ligand concentrations (0 – 1000 mg/l Cl-, 0 – 600 mg/l CN-, 0 – 1200 mg/l of SCN-), temperature (200 – 240 °?) and retention time (1 – 6 h) were used as variables of pressure oxidation process. It was determined that sulfide minerals oxidize much faster than ""organic"" carbon. Under the conditions of T = 240 ?C, t = 2 h, sulphide sulfur oxidation was 95.6%, while ""organic"" carbon oxidation was 46.1 %. Each of the examined ligands has a significant adverse impact on gold extraction. Analysis of the experimental data demonstrated that with a high degree of confidence (R2 = 0.883) gold extraction does not depend on the ligand type, but only on its concentration and the ""organic"" carbon oxidation degree. In case of complete oxidation of ""organic"" carbon, the presence of the ligand (L = Cl-, CNS-, CN-) in the liquids at a concentration of up to 20 millimole/L does not significantly affect gold extraction. The assumption that the main factor of preg-robbing in ???-CIL treatment of double refractory concentrates is the natural ""organic"" carbon sorption-active to gold has been confirmed. INTRODUCTION In recent decades, placer gold mining has been gradually declining and hardrock gold mining, including ""refractory"" gold mining, has been growing all over the world, as well as in the Russian Federation (http://www.miningworld.ru, 2015). One of the main reasons why gold ores are refractory is gold adsorption on natural carbonaceous materials (""organic carbon""). Only a few technologies are suitable for processing such ore concentrates (a significant amount of gold is contained in refractory hardrock ore both in Russia and worldwide) (Vorob'yev-Desyatovskiy N.V., Yepifanov A.V., 2014)."

Jan 1, 2018

By E. V. Zelinskaya, V. U. Starostina

"The Irkutsk region is a raw material region. There are a lot of big enterprises for extraction and processing of oil, gas, coal, iron, gold and rock salt. Besides of it, refractory clays, limestone, mica, gypsum and talc are mined in the region. The most important type of mineral raw material is a gold. More than 8.5% of the total mining in the Russian Federation is extracted in Irkutsk region. It is about 0.7% of the world production. The environmental problems of mining and processing enterprises are a complex set of issues that requires of the searching of effective methods to be solved. One of the key environmental problems remains the reduction of waste generation and the introduction of environmentally safe waste management. After analysing different methods of environmental impact assessment it is established that the method of Life Cycle Assessment is one of the most effective methods for mining production. This method base? on the material balance of flows of raw materials, products and waste. The method of Life Cycle Assessment allows to identify the effects of environmental pollution under the influence of mining and processing at a quantitative level and to show real quantitative forecasts of the possibility of managing the flows of raw materials and waste.INTRODUCTION The Irkutsk region is a raw material region. There are a lot of big enterprises for extraction and processing of oil, gas, coal, iron, gold and rock salt. Besides of it, refractory clays, limestone, mica, gypsum and talc are mined in the region. The most important type of mineral raw material is a gold. More than 8.5% of the total mining in the Russian Federation is extracted in Irkutsk region. It is about 0.7% of the world production. The main provider of precious metal is the Bodaibo region. This is a main location for the major ore companies such as “Vysochaishy”, which produces about 5.0 tons a gold per year; “Pervenets”(PJSC Polyus, the largest gold producer in Russia) - 4.5 tons/year, “Druza” - 0, 5 tons/year. Placer gold is extracted by more than 40 enterprises. In connection with this, there are many plans about a building of new and reconstruction of concentrating factories. Consequently, an increase in the volume of processing is expected. The main projects are the construction of a new mill of the Mining and processing plant GOK “Vysochaishy” with a capacity of 2.6 million tonnes of ore per year; the development of the “Uhakhan” gold-field - 23 km from the “Goltsa Vysochaishy” gold-field; the opening in the Bodaibo region the next parts of the gold-deposit ""Pervenets"". Additional, the growth in a gold production can be achieved by a store of gold in the “Sukhoi Log” deposi"

Jan 1, 2018

By Wolfgang Öfner

Many technical processes also yield dusty residues which usually contain appreciable amounts of valuable matter. Often they also accumulate substances detrimental to the process. Dumping them entirely in landfills wastes raw material and causes high disposal costs, but recycling them without prior treatment is often not feasible. Physical separation processes are preferable because of their rather low energy demand. In order to develop such treatment systematically, the residues must be characterized properly. The technique for such a characterization is taken from mineral processing: perfect fractionation according to continuous properties of the particles supplemented with chemical analysis are used for plotting the Henry-Reinhardt chart. This represents the benchmark for assessing actual separation processes and tests. Their results are compared in terms of ?selectivity? and plotted in the kappa chart. In this paper, Henry-Reinhardt chart and kappa chart are applied to several different types of residues from iron and steel production and show their potential for being upgraded before reutilization in the production process. This approach is suitable for virtually all dusty residues from other industrial processes as well. Keywords: residue, dust,iron and steel, process development, Henry-Reinhardt chart, kappa chart

Sep 1, 2012

By C. S. Gundewar

About 90% of the barytes produced the world over is used for oil and gas drilling as weighting agent in drilling mud to control pressure, prevent blow out and provide lubrication. This is because of its unique properties like high specific gravity, water insolubility and intentness. India is one of the leading producers and exporters of barites. The Mangampeth Baryte deposit in Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh, India being the largest single deposit in the world having a reserves of about 80 million tonnes. Approximately 50% of the total reserves of grey barites of Mangampet deposit assays less than 92% BaSO4, the minimum stipulated grade for oil and gas drilling industries. To reach and recover the high grade barite, the overlying low grade has necessarily to be mined out and removed. At present this is being stacked separately at the mine site involving lot of labour and transport cost. Considerable barites is contained in the dumps adversely affecting the conservation and creating lot of environmental hazards. IBM being the premier organization in India in the field of conservation of minerals and environmental protection in mining has recognized the importance of adverse effect of these huge dumps at site. The Ore Dressing Division of IBM, Nagpur has characterized these dumps and developed the flotation process on a sample assaying 66% BaSO4 and 23.3% SiO2. The flotation concentrate obtained assayed 93.7% BaSO4, 2.38% SiO2 with BaSO4 recovery of 80% and meets the requirement of the oil industry. The flotation concentrate being non-wetable, can not be used as such as weighting agent, and hence the collector coating on the concentrate was removed either by acid treatment or heating to make it water wetable. The concentrate was 92% -325 mesh and having a specific gravity 4.3. The barites concentrates so produced meets the size, grade and specific gravity specifications required for use in oil drilling industry. Apart from the financial benefits the process augurs well for the commercial exploitation of these huge dumps in terms of (1) additional recovery of these valuable minerals and conservation, (2) reduction in dumps value, (3) improvement in environment and offering an excellent potential for export.

Jan 1, 2014

By Zhang Yuejun, Feng Tianran, Shen Zhengchang, Han Dengfeng

"With continuous mining industry development and dressing plant scale expansion, flotation cell is developed towards to large scale and intelligence. Based on flotation cell scale-up theory and industrial practice, KYF-320 air-forced mechanical flotation cell with effective volume of 320m3 was successfully developed by Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (BGRIMM) and adopted by China Gold Inner Mongolia Mining Co., Ltd, Luming project of China Railway Resource Group Co., Ltd, and Toromocho project of Chinalco in Peru. In this paper, the structure and technical characteristics of KYF-320 flotation cell are introduced, and the application of that equipment in China Gold Inner Mongolia Mining Co., LTD is demonstrated. The tank of KYF-320 flotation cell is cylinder-shaped, 8200mm in diameter and 7500mm high, with double froth lauders and large inclined angle cone bottom. 16 sets of KYF-320 flotation cells of which the processing capacity is 26,000,000 tons/a, are used in the second phase project of China Gold Inner Mongolia Mining Co., LTD. Their stable running shows the long life of impeller and stator and the power intensity (power consumption divided by effective volume of flotation cell) of KYF-320 flotation cell is only 0.73kW/m3 which is significantly less than that of small scale flotation cells. The industrial production obtains good results that the Cu grade of final concentrate of entire flotation circuit is 22.90% at the recovery of 86.73%, when Cu grade of feed is 0.35%, which indicates that KYF-320 flotation cell has good performance and can be widely used in large scale mine."

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. Q. Qui

In the bauxite flotation process for desilication, the middling treatment mode is the important factor to raise the flotation recovery of the preparation concentrate. The middling treatment mode mainly depends on A/S and the size composition. However, similar ratio of A/S should not be the single factor of re-dressing, size composition plays an important role also. Re-dressing the middling mixed with the tailings of concentrated to the rough ground for desilication and the concentrate of scavenged to the fine ground for desilication to raise the recovery of 5.83%, when compared two flow sheet schemes.

Jan 1, 2014

By Olli Haavisto, Heikki Häkkänen, Tommi Kauppinen, Navid Khajehzadeh

Raman analysis is a well-established method for finding the abundant minerals in an ore sample. In this study, Raman spectroscopy is tested as a method for rapid and contactless on-line mineral analysis. Rapidness might enable on-site analysis of rock drillcore, which in turn would lead to more cost-efficient solutions in mineral exploration. This paper discusses the use of Raman analysis to identify minerals and to measure their concentration. The sample set under study consists of rock drillcore collected from Agnico-Eagle Kittilä Mine, Finland. Selected parts of the sample set are measured by Raman spectroscopy and the minerals are identified using reference spectra from a public source. Moreover, the direct measurement of concentration of different minerals with the help of Non-negative least squares (NNLS) optimisation algorithm is considered. The optimisation algorithm was constructed to form a linear combination of reference spectra which best represent the measured spectrum, or an average of measured spectra, from an ore sample. The results show that NNLS can identify abundant minerals in a given sample. Also through this method of analysis the results of a traditional point-count method can be expanded: It was observed that, due to grain size, multiple minerals consistently appear in the spectra measured over an area, which means that point-count method is not a proper way to interpret the spectra. This can be seen as a new result, as formerly the discussion has attended to other methods.

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. H. Zhang

Mechanism of BK501 in desiliconization from bauxite was studied by use of flotation test, EDS, ?-potential, FTIR. Results of flotation show that almost all of diaspore can be depressed when BK501 is put into pulp ranging from pH 4~12, in the meanwhile kaolinite is slightly activated. In the light of surface analyses, it is concluded that the adsorption of reagent on the diaspore is dominant by chemical interaction. Moreover, kaolinite may float more by addition of BK501 because of flocculation.

Jan 1, 2014

By Z. C. Shen

As core part of flotation column, aerator has been always priority research. A new type of porous aerator made of stainless sintered microcellular material is designed , which diameter is between 20µm to 40µm. High bubble surface area flux is obtained at low air pressure 20kPa by this type of aerator in water. In order to extend its applied range ,experiments were carried out in alkali slurry (pH=12) , resulting with porous aerator clogged after working 20 days . Sampling the cross-section of aerator detected by microscope and X-ray diffraction ,the reason clogging was found. Then plugging aerator was reactivated after putting it in acidic liquor treated by ultrasonic for about ten minutes. On-line aerator maintenance can be done in no down time , and it can be repetitive-used after recovered ,so reduced capital costs.

Jan 1, 2014