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By E. Chiyangwa, L. Schoeman

The commercially successful electrowinning and refining of metals typically requires the optimization of the electrolyte composition and operating parameters to produce high quality compact electroplated metal. The prediction of the effect of the electrolyte composition on the structure and morphology of the plated metal remains a challenge. Initial work on the use of polarization measurements to predict and control plating behaviour in electrowinning plants involved potentiodynamic polarization but proved unsatisfactory as accurate and repeatable predictions could not be achieved. The aim of the present work was to develop a reliable galvanodynamic technique specifically applicable to the plating of zinc from sulfate electrolytes with which plant operation may be controlled and optimized. Initial results indicated that plating and nucleation potentials could be measured accurately and repeatably and that the relationship between the two could be used as a predictive tool for the effect of electrolyte composition on the quality of zinc electrodeposits.

Jan 1, 2014

By R. Aubertin, G. Panneton, P. Donovan

The Detour Lake gold project is located in northeastern Ontario, approximately 300 km northeast of Timmins, within the Abitibi greenstone belt in the northwestern portion of the Archean Superior Province. Historically this greenstone belt has produced approximately 180 million ounces of gold, largely from narrow vein underground mining. The Detour Lake project is a site of extensive past exploration since 1974, as well as underground and limited open pit mining activity from 1983 to 1999. During this period, it produced 1.8 million ounces of gold. Underground mining focused on narrow vein conventional shrinkage and mechanized longhole stoping. After acquiring the property in January 2007, Detour Gold Corporation initiated a comprehensive drill campaign to define the potential for a large, open pitable, low-grade gold deposit. From 2007 to present, Detour Gold has completed over 500,000 metres of diamond drilling. A technical report completed in March 2011 defined an open pit mineral reserve of 14.9 million ounces of gold, which is Canada's largest undeveloped gold reserve. The Detour Lake project is currently in development and infrastructure construction of the mine facilities started at year-end 2010, after all the necessary Provincial regulatory permits were received. Gold production is expected to commence in early 2013. Gold mineralization at Detour Lake is associated with a large scale deformation zone (Sunday Lake Deformation Zone; "SLDZ") that occurs at the contact between the 2.72 Ga Deloro Group mafic metavolcanics and the 2.69 Ga Porcupine Assemblage metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks. The bulk of the gold mineralization is found in the hanging wall of the SLDZ, which is associated with a stockwork of auriferous quartz veins that splay from a flexure along the deformation corridor. The mineralization forms a 200-350 metres wide auriferous corridor defined over 3 kilometres along the strike of the mafic metavolcanic assemblage, from surface to at least 1,000 metres depth. The richest gold mineralized zones are commonly associated with quartz veins with a strong biotite alteration and local zones of pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite-pyrite-gold enrichment formed during the deformation of the quartz vein system.

Jan 1, 2011

By A Turek

The Lake Cinch deposit occurs in the Tazin gneisses on the footwall side of the Black Bay fault. Ore is localized by two faults, the Main Ore fault and the Cracking-stone River fault, occurring in shoots along the former and on tension fractures between the two faults. Faulting leading to the localization of the deposit is analyzed in detail and tied into the regional pattern. Pitchblende, the chief radioactive mineral, is investigated by X-ray and found to be of very small particle size. The relation-ships of U, Fe and Mn in the ore are established quantitatively, and Fe is found to bear a catalytic relation to U. The deposit is classed as belonging to Lindgren's mesothermal class. Mineralization is attributed to carbonate solutions, and the uranium is believed to have been trans-ported in the hexavalent state as the uranyl tricarbonate ion; analogy is drawn to a recently developed hydro-metallurgical technique for the production of uranium dioxide. Introduction THE Lake Cinch deposit is located in the Beaver-lodge Camp, Saskatchewan. The property was staked in 1948 and went into production in 1957

Jan 1, 1965

By J. D. Wilkins

"Ore outcrops were first discovered in the area in 1911. Following various periods of exploration by private interests and Cominco Limited, the Coast Copper Company, Limited property was brought into production in August 1962. Subsequently, Cominco explored the adjacent Quatsino Gold Mines property and is currently developing, and producing from, what is now known as the Benson Lake Mine.The Benson Lake Mine was developed using a conveyor-equipped decline and trackless LHD equipment. The operation produces 800 tons per day of copper-iron ore, copper being the main product. Copper and iron concentrates are trucked 25 miles to storage and shiploading facilities near Port McNeill to await shipment to Japan."

Jan 1, 1971

By Bradley Stoughton

The magnetic oxide of iron, F eO4 , contains a theoretically larger amount of iron ( 72.4 per cent.) than any other commercial ore. It is probable that it has originated in many cases by the prolonged exposure of the hydrated oxide, ZF e20 a + 3H20 to heat and pressure which converts it first into hematite, F e20 3, and then into magnetite. It would thus appear as if nature had already done part of the work of removing all the oxygen and that magnetite should be relatively easy to reduce. That it is, in fact, less reducible than either limonite or hematite, is due chiefly to its dense and compact physical structure, which makes it less pervious to the furnace gases, and also to its characteristic action in resisting crushing to a uniform size, with consequent irregularity in reducing conditions within the furnace. The net result is that the magnetic oxide requires more fuel and more time for its reduction in the blast-furnace than any other iron ore of similar iron content and physical condition. There is another very important reason why the smelting of magnetite is more costly than that of hematite, and its treatment viewed with a great deal of adverse prejudice by blast furnace operators, namely, that magnetite decreases the proportion of heat developed by the fuel in the stack of the furnace, and increases the already excessive heat requirements of the heart.

Jan 1, 1924

By C. Fortin

The subject of gold flotation has been reviewed extensively in a number of publications. The focus in most of these reviews has been on the theories of gold flotation as well as the physical and chemical effects that may impact the efficacy of the gold flotation process. It is evident that the current status of gold flotation chemistry as it is being applied in industry has not been addressed widely. It is the intent of this paper to review current gold flotation practice and how these applications tie in with the current understanding of the chemistry of gold flotation.

Jan 1, 2011

Access to accurate real-time information is critical to maintaining efficiency and competitiveness in any modern minerals processing facility. At MMG LXML Sepon Copper Operation in Lao P.D.R., controlling the copper grade of the feed to the leaching circuit is paramount for maximising productivity and copper recovery. Since 2008, real-time analysis data has been available to process engineers from the Geoscan on-belt analyser installed on the Copper Mill feed conveyor. Access to accurate real-time results from the Geoscan has allowed the process engineers to strictly control blending based on copper grade to overcome variability in the plant feed, where conventional sampling and laboratory analysis is difficult, error prone and time consuming. In addition to enjoying these benefits since the Geoscan’s installation, in recent times the process engineers have expanded the use of the Geoscan by observing elemental results other than copper grade to control different aspects of the operation, focussing on the reduction of Gangue Acid Consumption. This paper discusses the process of expanding the Geoscan use at the operation, including an explanation of the calibration process. Additionally, a brief description of the Geoscan and its use at MMG LXML Sepon Copper Operation is provided, as well as a summary of recent calibration and analysis results. A discussion of future works concludes the paper.

Jan 1, 2016

By C. A. Morais, L. V. Resende

"The technological development observed in recent years has stimulated the application of rare earth (RE) elements. Amongst their various applications it is well worth mentioning their use in electronics, superconductors, nuclear medicine, as well as in special inks - as those used in radar invisible airplanes. TV and computer monitor screens present as coating a powder containing some rare earth elements, mainly Europium and Yttrium. The recovery of the RE elements from electronic scrap is extremely important as the economic and environmental issues are concerned. This paper describes the study of the Eu and Y recovery from e-scraps. The first step of the process was the leaching of the powder obtained by manually scraping the inside surface of the screen. After the optimization of the leaching, the dissolution of Eu and Y was higher than 98 w/t% and a pregnant sulfuric liquor containing 11.9 g L-1 Y and 0.72 g L-1 Eu was obtained. The second step was the separation of the metals found in the liquor by the solvent extraction technique. The separation of Eu and Y was carried out in a counter current circuit compound of 3 extraction stages, 7 scrubbing stages and 15 stripping stages. DEHPA was used as the extractant, whereas a diluted sulfuric acid solution was applied as scrubbing agent and a hydrochloric acid solution at high concentration was used as the stripping agent.INTRODUCTIONThe rare earths (RE) are a moderately abundant group of 17 elements composed of lanthanides, scandium and yttrium. Amongst the RE, promethium (Pm) is extremely rare, however several of the RE elements are not very rare and occur dispersed in a variety of forms (Greenwood & Earnshaw, 1984; Tyler, 2004).The innumerable applications of the RE elements are based on their particular properties, mainly their spectroscopic and magnetic properties (Martins & Isolani, 2005). The technological development observed in recent years has stimulated the application of rare earth (RE) elements. They have been used in agriculture, electronics, superconductors, nuclear medicine, automobile industry, special inks – as those used in radar invisible airplanes, X-ray screens, high intensity mercury vapour light bulbs, neutron scintilators, charged-particle detectors and optical memory reading systems (Maestro & Huguenin, 1995; Nagaosa & Binghua, 1997; Sánchez et al., 1999)."

Jan 1, 2012

By H. E. T. Haultain

I HAVE considerable hesitation in preparing and presenting this paper. These machines have been such an intimate part of my own experiences and predilections for such a long time that J would find it difficult to tell the story in an impersonal way. They have had several attractions for me. They were needed for the study of the fundamental features of modern milling, size analysis and accurate batch concentration of the very fine particles. I had been a millman once, a real operating millman, and, when I became academic". I always had the craving to link the academic laboratory with the field, as Rittinger and Richards had done. My first milling experience was with a small concentrator at a tin mine in Bohemia, forty-seven years ago. There was no assay office and the testing of our tailings was by means of a "Vanning Shovel", introduced from Cornwall by Captain Josiah Thomas, the great Josiah of Dolcoath, some fifteen years previously. This was a most effective instrument and it has always been a puzzle to me that it has not been more universally used by millmen. Later, at Freiberg, on the other side of the Erz Gebirge from the tin mine, I was introduced to the "Sichertrog", made out of wood shaped something like a very shallow boat or an elongated saucer, a most effective piece of apparatus when. the difficult technique of handling it was once achieved. Later, in the Slocan in British Columbia, my partner, the late Maurice Bucke, used a short length of flat trough or launder suspended by four wires, with which he got very satisfactory results as a small batch concentrator. In the University laboratory we had frequent need for something of this kind, and many efforts were made to solve the problem. With W. E. Johnston, we were working on the problem of gold-bearing telluride ores, which called insistently for a separation of the very fine telluride particles which existed only in minute quantities in the Kirkland Lake ores. Under this spur there finally developed the Superpanner, which is a mechanized combination of the Vanning Shovel, the Sichertrog, and the Maurice Bucke suspended launder.

Jan 1, 1937

By G. W. Harris, P. Mousset-Jones, J. Daemen

"To minimize ore dilution induced by blast movement in surface mines, it is necessary to quantify such movement. This will enable more accurate location of the grade boundaries beneath the surface of a blasted rock pile before excavation. A method has been developed and tested to accurately measure the direction and magnitude of subsurface blast movement. This technique uses a cesium vapour gradiometer and a real-time, differentially corrected GPS system to locate pre- and post-blast position of magnetically enhanced target objects placed within blastholes inside a bench. The procedure developed does not require the blasted rock to be disturbed, and the movement information is available within a sufficient time to allow for modification of the selective mining boundaries for each surveyed blast. It was found that the maximum depth of target detection was 18 m, with the overall accuracy being measured as ±1 m (horizontally) and ± 1.2 m (vertically). IntroductionOre dilution is a critical concern for many mining operations. In some instances, it may be the cause of considerable mineral loss. Where the mineralization is finely grained, sedimentary and disseminated in nature, and exhibits no clearly defined visual ore/waste boundary, there is a heightened possibility for ore grade dilution. In most modern open pit gold mines, it is economically desirable to minimize dilution in the production process through the practice of selective mining by defining pre-blast ore digging boundaries, called digging polygons, on the preblast bench area. The polygons’ positions are defined by sampling the production drill holes, with the resultant assay and survey data being used to estimate the areas of specified grade content within the bench. Once the ore is blasted in the bench, the pre-blast locations of these digging polygons are flagged as designated areas on the broken ore pile. The purpose is for the loader operator to be able to recognize which areas of blasted rock are to be sent to the appropriate processing facility or to the waste dump."

Jan 1, 2001

By Edgar Stansfield

Introduction First, I should define more closely the vague term 'recent work' that appears in the title of this paper. Following the period of depression that was an aftermath of the first Great War, the Research Council of, Alberta carried on for ten years without a Council and without a financial yote by the Legislature. In November, 1942, a new Council was formed, under the chairmanship of the Hon. N. E. Tanner, Minister of Lands and Mines, and a vote was granted by the Legislature early in 1943. By 'recent work', I mean work during the present regime. The Council is now going full steam ahead, or would be if it could get suitable technical assistance and required apparatus and materials. Lack of these has so far made unnecessary my responsibility for seeing that we do not exceed our estimates. The Annual Meeting of the Research Council will be held in November (1945), and at that meeting the programme of work for next year will be discussed. The present time is therefore the correct time for any of you who may have ideas as to work which might profitably be undertaken by the Council, to submit these ideas for consideration. I propose to discuss my subject under several headings, and to give enough of these to show that the Council has wide interests.

Jan 1, 1946

By George W. Bain

Mr. Geo. W. Bain: Dr. H. C. Cooke's discussion of 'The Geology and Mineral Deposits of the Harricanaw and Bell River Basins' possesses many of the elements of a good political address; perhaps his long residence in Ottawa has some bearing upon his method of discussing geological work. The three essential parts of the address are all included. First, the plank - "Contributed discussion on the Geology and Mineral Deposits of the Harricanaw and Bell River Basins"; second, the personal attack upon the opponent, to show antipathy to the opponent as well as to his ideas; and third, controversion of a number of statements, which have been made to appear as planks of the opponents platform, even statements and work which are in no way connected with one under discussion. In the following pages, I will confine my attention to a defense of my work in the Harricanaw and Bell River basins, leaving discussion of the other areas mentioned by Dr. Cooke until results of the re-surveys are published. It is intimated that it was impossible to make a geological examination of an area of 1,600 sq. miles on a scale of four miles to the inch (base map supplied) in three and a half months, because "the area is accessible only from the railway along the northern edge together with a few roads close to it, and from rather wide separated streams?. There is one way, known to most geologists, whereby a place can be reached other than by railway coach or motor boat, and that the oldest of all -- walking. Most of the region was reached in this fashion. The boundaries of all the 18 townships included in the map are surveyed, nine are divided into lots, and the north-south and east-west centre lines of most of the others are surveyed and have mile-posts placed.

Jan 1, 1927

By P. A. Peach, W. H. Gross

The modern economic geologist in Canada is well equipped to apply geological, geochemical or geophysical techniques in the exploration for ore. Recently, great advances have been made in geophysics and geochemistry, and a large number of new orebodies have been discovered by these methods. An attempt is made in this paper to show that there has also been a considerable advancement in geological knowledge and that the most effective application of geophysics and geochemistry often occurs in areas already considered geologically favourable for the occurrence of ore. Ali exploration methods sooner or later suffer from diminishing returns. Therefore, as time goes on, one can expect to see the application of some of the more subtle or refined geological techniques that are presently being developed.

Jan 1, 1967

By Michael J. Rosko

Methods have been developed for processing and analyzing reflected solar radiation data obtained by Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper multispectral scanner. Spatial resolution for the Landsat series satellites is 30 meters per side per pixel. Materials on the Earth?s surface absorb or reflect different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum depending on their physical and chemical properties and, therefore, typically have characteristic spectral ?signatures?. Using these signatures, environmental parameters such as surface water and vegetation may be identified and analyzed. Principal advantages of the satellite image method for environmental monitoring include: a relatively long historic period beginning in 1985 for which information is available, the reliable numerical basis for the results, and the ability to assemble a historic environmental baseline and provide on-going monitoring for large or remote areas where standard monitoring methods may not be practical. However, because the long-term continued operation of Landsat 5 is problematic due to the age of the equipment, QuickBird and IKONOS satellite images were processed to determine if the two systems are sufficiently similar in their results to allow continuing monitoring using QuickBird data. The QuickBird satellite was launched in 2001 and collects the same visible and near infrared spectral bandwidths as Landsat 5, allowing for equivalent process algorithms for QuickBird, IKONOS, and Landsat 5 data. Spatial resolution for the QuickBird images is 2.4 meter per side, allowing for more detailed characterization of the land surface; spatial resolution for the IKONOS images is 4 meter per side. Because of several differences between the satellite systems, including degradation of the Landsat 5 sensor, it is necessary to calibrate QuickBird and IKONOS results to the Landsat results to verify similarity. Recent images from the satellite systems have been processed and results have been compared to determine the validity of comparing Landsat 5 and QuickBird/IKONOS images so that these newer data can be used reliably in the future instead of Landsat 5 data. Results from this comparison are presented in this paper and suggest that analyses for vegetation using the two satellite systems are comparable, and that little calibration is required. Results from comparison of surface water results from the two systems are less comparable and is currently being investigated by the authors.

Oct 1, 2009

By R Chandramohan

Comminution is the science of size reduction of brittle materials. It is integral to mineral extraction and is one of the most energy intensive processes in the mining industry. There are a number of tests used to quantify the strength of ore, which are then used to size the AG / SAG mill in circuit design. The calculated energy utilized for breakage in these devices is based on the assumptions that the materials treated are of average shape and that the processing equipment is designed to break the ore as efficiently as possible under the given operating conditions. In drop weight tests, it was found that shape significantly influences the measured rock strength. Controlled experiments with variations in blends of rock shape show that mill throughput increases with the addition of weaker shaped rocks.

Jan 1, 2012

By S. Nikolic, H. M. Henao

"There is renewed interest in the improvement of existing copper smelting processes and the development of new technologies. It has become clear that further accurate information on slag properties, in particular, on phase equilibria are required in order to optimize these processes. It is in this context that improved experimental research methodologies have been developed specifically to provide information on phase equilibria at the oxygen partial pressures encountered in copper smelting practice. The methodology involves synthetic slag equilibration at controlled gas atmospheres, quenching and measurement of compositions of phases with an electron probe X-ray microanalyser (EPMA) with wavelength dispersive detectors (WDD). Application of modem analytical tools and careful design of experiments greatly improve accuracy of determination of phase equilibria in complex, multi-phase slag systems. New experimental data on phase equilibria for the copper smelting and converting silicate slags at controlled oxygen partial pressures in the temperature range between 1200°C and 1350°C in the ""Fe0""-Ca0-SiO2 system and in the ""Cu20""-""Fe0""-Ca0-Si02 system in equilibrium with metallic copper are reported, and differences between various data sources are analyzed."

Jan 1, 2007

By J. D. Little

"THE SALMO PROPERTIES of Canadian Exploration, Limited comprise forty-one Crown-granted mineral claims situated on Iron mountain between Sheep creek (on the north) and Lost creek, some eight miles southward from Salmo, in the Nelson mining division (see Figure 1). On these claims there are at present four operating mines. These are, from north to south, the Dodger, Feeney, and Emerald, all tungsten mines, and the Jersey, a lead-zinc mine, about 7,000 feet south of the Dodger. About midway between the Dodger and the Jersey is a fifth mine, the Emerald lead-zinc mine, which was the first producer in the area but has been inactive since 1926. The locations of the mines are shown in Figure 2.Records of prospecting and claim staking on Iron mountain -which owes its name to the presence of large iron-stained outcrops -go back to 1895. The first recorded owner of the claims that form the old Emerald lead-zinc mine was John Waldbeser who, in 1908, did considerable work and produced 426 tons of lead ore valued, at the then price of lead, at $7,000. This ore was chiefly lead carbonate and was taken from the surface outcrops of two bands of ore that form the Emerald orebodies. In 1909, the Emerald was the largest lead producer in the Nelson mining district."

Jan 1, 1953

By G. V. Sirianni, G. E. Viens, R. A. Campbell, G. N. Banks

A combination shaft-electric furnace for the smelting of ores and the melting of metallized feed is being developed at the Mines Branch. When iron oxide pellets are smelted in this unit, they are preheated and partially reduced in the shaft before being transferred to the electric furnace where smelting is completed. Also, limestone flux added with the pellets is-preheated and calcined in the shaft. It has been demonstrated that, in smelting iron oxide in this unit, the throughput of the 250-kva electric furnace can be approximately doubled and the amount of electrical energy required can be very significantly reduced when the shaft furnace is operated in conjunction with the electric furnace. These benefits are achieved mainly by utilizing the sensible heat and latent energy contained in the arc furnace off-gases.

Jan 1, 1971

By A. Boehm

"For recycling LD slag into the steel making process, the phosphorous containing calcium silcate phases have to be removed from iron oxide phases. One possible technical solution could be magnetic separation in a wide range of susceptibilities from ferromagnetic to paramagnetic. To check the feasibility of magnetic separation the distribution of the magnetic susceptibility in size classes as well as the liberation of the phosphorous containing phase were evaluated by a new method combining two dimensional physical property analysis with QEMSCAN analysis. The particle size classes of energy controlled comminution products were subdivided into fractions of defined magnetic susceptibility using a hand magnet of well known field properties (pick up method). On the one hand the susceptibility classes were wet assayed on the other hand analyzed by QEMSCAN followed by data evaluation using iDiscover 5.3.1(FEI), which was adapted to the data structure of two physical properties (size and magnetic mass susceptibility). The results allow the comparison of mass based (3D) cumulative distribution of grades from the wet assays with the area based (2D) distribution from QEMSCAN analysis, in order to control a systematic (size dependent) stereological error for this special type of material. As the physical separation property forms a crucial parameter the results from the liberation analysis by QEMSCAN can be interpreted more profound with respect to an expectable separation result. Once the various mineral compositions of the particles are assigned to the physical properties the Henry Reinhardt chart serves to predict the best possible separation result and thus the feasibility of a separation technique.INTRODUCTIONThe two Austrian steel plants operated by voestalpine AG produce about 650,000 t (voestalpine 2014) of LD slag in the course of steel production from pig iron according to the basic oxygen process blowing oxygen in the converter by an oxygen lance. The process is also known as the Linz Donawitz (LD) steelmaking process. By the addition of lime (CaO), carbon, phosphorus, silica, manganese and sulfur, which are present in the molten pig iron, shall be oxidized and bound in the slag either as oxide or silicate phases, or leave the slag in the gaseous phase (CO). The average chemical composition of the investigated LD slag is given in table 1."

Jan 1, 2016

By E. Krause, V. G. Papangelakis, S. Garg, R. Mahadevan, E. Edwards

"Bioleaching uses iron and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria to extract base metals from sulfide minerals. As bioleaching involves breaking the iron-sulfur bonds by ferric attack, the biologically mediated rate of iron oxidation is recognized to play a key role in influencing the overall kinetics. In this study, we investigate the catalytic ability of an indigenous AMD culture for oxidizing Fe(II) in solution. This culture was subsequently adapted on pyrrhotite tailings (0.6% Ni) by gradually increasing the solids loading. Results from this study show that such an adaptation reduces the initial lag phase in the biotic oxidation of Fe(II), thereby allowing for a higher Ni extraction when compared to experiments with an un-adapted culture at a similar solids loading. The use of adapted cultures also helps to reduce the residence time for bioleaching of Ni from pyrrhotite tailings. INTRODUCTIONAs the world demand for pure base metals grows; the mining industry is increasingly faced with the burden of processing lower grade ores and mining waste streams in order to recover the occluded metal VALUES ((Watling, 2006). The extractive metallurgy of nickel from sulfide minerals focuses on using a combination of mineral processing, pyrometallurgical (smelting) and hydrometallurgical techniques to extract Ni from its ore bodies.Pyrrhotite (Fe1-xS) is commonly found in association with pentlandite and chalcopyrite in sulfidic Ni ores, such as those found in Sudbury, Ontario, and in Russia, e.g. Norilsk. The vast majority of this pyrrhotite needs to be removed using mineral processing techniques, in order to minimize the Fe and S contents of the concentrates that proceed on to smelting. If all pyrrhotite were left in the concentrate, much more slag and SO2 would be produced, and the smelter throughput would be limited. Beneficiation of Ni sulfide ores leads to the rejection of unwanted constituents as mining wastes, which may still contain extractable amounts of Ni (Edgar Peek et al., 2010)."

Jan 1, 2012