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By R. A. Halet

"The Malartic Gold Fields mine is a good example of the association of ore deposits with a major fault zone. It also exemplifies the control exerted by the physical and chemical character of the host rocks on the localization of orebodies.The mine is in Fourniere and Dubuisson townships, Abitibi county. It is 6 miles east of the town of Malartic, 9n the main highway and railway from Noranda to Val d'Or.The discovery of the mine is due largely to the enterprise of the late J. P. Norrie, who organized the present Company in 1935. The ground is entirely covered by overburden, but Mr. Norrie believed that the extension of the Cadillac-Malartic 'break', the principal ore-bearing structure of the district, would be found on this group of claims. This belief was supported by the discovery of gold-bearing float in the area, and was confirmed by a dip-needle survey and a few pilot diamond drill holes that showed that the favourable Malartic greenstone band passes through the centre of the property.In this way the most favourable area for prospecting was narrowed to a zone 2 ½ miles long by ½ mile wide underlain' by greenstone. The remainder of the property is underlain by sedimentary rocks, which, from experience elsewhere in the camp, were not considered as promising. However, as the entire surface is covered by deep overburden, the location of orebodies even within this more or less restricted area could be accomplished only by a long campaign of diamond drilling. Systematic diamond drilling began in 1936.The contacts of the greenstone band were considered to be the most promising places to begin the work, and the early drilling was concentrated on the south contact, because the orebody of the East Malartic mine, 4 miles to the west, had been discovered on this structure and it was reasonable to hope for a repetition of these conditions. Although the south contact was very thoroughly explored, with a certain amount of encouragement, the work did not prove the existence of deposits of ore grade, and attention was shifted to the north contact zone of the greenstone band. In this locality much more promising results were obtained, and a number of good orebodies were outlined."

Jan 1, 1954

By R. B. Anderson, N. J. Sherren

The mining equipment at the Scully Mine, Wabush, consists of approximately twenty-five large haulage units, eight large dozer-loader applications and seventy other related pieces of service and maintenance equipment. This equipment is operating in sub-Arctic conditions. This pa-per presents a description of the tire maintenance procedures in use here and discusses the tire troubles that are being encountered and the methods of dealing with them.

Jan 1, 1969

By S. Boisvert

Risk-based Inspection (RBI) addresses the challenges associated with ageing plants by focusing the inspection effort on the process equipments with the highest risk, thereby improving plant safety and reducing inspection costs. The RBI methodology is commonly used in the oil industry through the API 581 standard. Since no such standard exists in the mining and metals industry, BPR-Bechtel has developed one using inspection data from process equipments in CEZinc. Models were developed for various damage mechanisms, such as uniform corrosion and stress corrosion cracking. The equations were organized into a user friendly software that facilitates the implementation process.

Jan 1, 2010

By K. E. Waters, N. Brodusch, R. Gauvin, H. Demers

"Rare earth elements are becoming increasingly in demand, due to their prevalence in both renewable energy devices and high-end electronics. The characterization of the composition, morphology and volume fraction of the various phases that have valuable rare earths in the ores are needed to find the optimal industrial process to extract the ores containing the rare earths. Rare earth-bearing minerals contain many elements with the M-and L-lines overlap, requiring a high degree of resolution, pushing the boundaries of scanning electron microscopy quantitative analysis. Enhanced microscopy at a high spatial resolution with improved x-ray quantitative analysis enables the accurate determination of the distribution of the desired rare earths in various mineral phases. INTRODUCTIONRare earth elements are becoming increasingly in demand, due to their prevalence in both renewable energy devices and high-end electronics. From batteries (lanthanum and cerium), to magnets (dysprosium and neodymium) and lighting (yttrium), the rare earth elements are crucial to the advancement of technology, and to energy saving devices (Crow, 2011). The goal of this project is to characterize the composition, morphology and volume fraction of the various phases that have valuable rare earths in the ores in order to estimate the economical VALUES (of the ores and to find the optimal industrial process to extract the ores containing the rare earths. High spatial resolution imaging and x-ray microanalysis are needed to reach this goal. In this work, the results obtained with a cold-field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and a silicon drift detector (SDD) energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) detector at low accelerating voltage are compared to experimental conditions typically used with electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) instrument.With this improvement, a detailed scientific analysis of the composition of these, and other, ores will become possible with a SEM/EDS system. This will help to better understand how such ores were formed, hence assisting in finding them, and to better understand how to process them in preparation for high end industrial applications, namely through mineral processing."

Jan 1, 2012

By James D. Bittner

Separation Technologies, LLC (ST) has developed a processing system based on triboelectric charging and electrostatic separation that provides the mineral processing industry a means to beneficiate fine materials with an entirely dry technology. The environmentally friendly process can eliminate wet processing and required drying of the final material. The process requires little if any pre-treatment of the material other than grinding and operates at high capacity ? up to 40 tonnes per hour by a compact machine. Energy consumption is low, approximately 1 kWh/tonne of material processed. Since the only potential emission of the process is dust, permitting is typically relatively easy. In contrast to the other available electrostatic separation processes that are typically limited to particles greater than 75 µm in size, the ST belt separator is ideally suited for separation of very fine (<1 µm) to moderately coarse (300 µm) materials with very high throughputs. The triboelectric particle charging is effective for a wide range of materials and only requires particle ? particle contact. The small gap, high electric field, counter current flow, vigorous particle-particle agitation and self-cleaning action of the belt on the electrodes are the critical features of the ST separator. The high efficiency multi-stage separation through charging / recharging and internal recycle results in far superior separations and is effective on fine materials that cannot be separated at all by the conventional electrostatic techniques. Since 1995, this triboelectric process has been extensively used for the beneficiation of coal fly ash with eighteen separators in place and over 130 machine-years of operation at locations in North America and Europe. ST has also installed separators for the beneficiation of industrial minerals in North America and Europe. The technology has been successfully applied to the beneficiation of a variety of minerals including calcium carbonates, talc, barite, and potash.

Aug 1, 2013

By Yin Wang, Lin Li, Zhongwei Bi, Like Wei, Wen Li, Shaogang Li, Bin Zhang, Hongjie Li

Presently,Many long-wall fully-mechanized faces in shallow depth coal seams are below room and pillar goaf in Shendong mining area. When the working face is advanced out of concentrated coal pillar in upper room and pillar goaf, strong strata behaviors often cause support crushing accident. Aiming at a support crushing accident which happened in Shigetai coal mine of Shenhua group in Shendong mining area, this paper analyses the stress transfer process while mining out of concentrated coal pillar by numerical simulation software FLAC3D. According to the feature, simplifying the roof of upper room and pillar goaf as supporting-beam structure explains mechanism of large area collapse in room and pillar goaf roof. Based on the feature of supporting-beam structure, deep-hole blasting concentrated coal pillar technology is proposed to control the strong strata behaviors in Shigetai coal mine. The blasting control effect is confirmed through characteristics of strata behaviors, growth circumstance of ground crack and multi-point extensometer monitoring results. By using control technology, Shigetai coal mine has been successfully avoided support crushing accident.

Jan 1, 2015

By Yulin Zhou, WenFeng Li, Wen Chen

"In this article, with the help of the X-ray photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), a modern test method, all the characteristics of the chlorite,and adsorption collector A6 on the surface of chlorite have been studied. There exist abundant carboxylic C-O and C=O structures in the Carbon XPS atlas with strong adhesive ability after the reaction between new collector A6 and chlorite, which indicates that the ring structure and ether-base functional groups can strengthen the reaction between collector A6 molecule and chlorite surface. The results of XPS analysis indicate that the photoelectron spectroscopy peaks of Mg2p and Al2p moved towards low energy after collector A6 absorbed on chlorite surface, which indicates that chemical bonding through electron cloud transfer happened between collector A6 and Mg, Al ions of chlorite surface. The chemical reaction promoted the adsorption of A6 on chlorite surface and eventually improved the ability of A6 to float and collect chlorite.INTRODUCTIONThere are a large amount of iron-bearing silicate minerals such as chlorite in different types of gangue minerals in iron ore from different areas besides quartz (Yingyong et al, 2012; Qiang et al, 2009). There always exist Mg2+, Al3+ Fe3+ and other metallic ions due the isomorphic replacement among the irons of this kind of minerals. The dissolution often occurs on the surface of minerals with abundant metallic ions during grinding process, and some ions are exposed on the surface, such as Mg2+, Fe3+, Al3+, Si4+, which can increase the surface electrical behaviour of iron-bearing silicate minerals (Wanzhong & Chuanyao, 2002; Yuping et al., 2007), making it easy for the surface to react preferentially with the depressants such as causticizing starch which making it impossible for the surface to reach with conventional anionic fatty acid collector (Mowla et al, 2008). Thus, the beneficiation efficiency is dramatically decreased and the improvement of concentrate grade becomes very difficult. The conventional aliphatic acid collector has some defects such as poor selectivity, poor low temperature resistance, sensitive to water hardness, etc. Thus, the addition of synergist (Liu, & Yu, 2015) or other compound reagents (Zhou et al, 2015) can promote the adsorption of reagents to mineral surface, and improve the collecting capacity and selectivity of aliphatic acid collector to minerals. The addition of polar group to nonpolar group in aliphatic acid can improve the water solubility, dispensability and hard water resistance (Tian et al, 2013). The nitrogen atoms in amid ate aliphatic acid collector can adsorb on mineral surface by itself and supply coordinate electron which can form chelating keys to improve the collecting capacity of collector. There exist coordinate electron in oxygen atoms of ether acid collector, which, along with the oxygen on carboxyl compose chelate with metal (Luo et al, 2015). There are also exist some opinions that the ether acid can arrange into similar crown ether structure which can absorb on mineral surface. A new alicyclic unsaturated ether acid compounds collector A6 is adopted in this paper, the structural formula is listed in Figure 1. The A6 has a strong collecting ability to chlorite with strong water solubility and low temperature resistance."

Jan 1, 2016

By A. Sutherland Brown, Stuart S. Holfand

"The Northeastern part of the Cariboo district lies in the big bend of the Fraser River between Quesnel and McBride. The area shown on Figure 1 extends from just west of Wells to Isaac Lake, about 30 miles across the regional strike of beds.Topographically the area extends from the moderately well dissected Interior Plateau in the west through a transition zone to the fully dissected Cariboo Mountains in the east.The area is an important source of lode and placer gold. The Cariboo Gold Quartz and Island Mountain lode-gold mines have produced more than 32 million dollars in bullion since 1932. Placer-mining has probably produced an equivalent or greater amount, although only 15 million dollars is officially recorded because accurate statistics. were not kept until fourteen years after the origiiaal gold rush of 1860.The regional structure of the Barkerville district was summarized by Lang in the Jubilee Volume (1948, pp. 141-149). Since then a large amount of detailed and areal mapping by the writers has expanded the information available and made necessary a complete revision of the regional geology. Much of the information summarized in this paper, together with a full discussion of the revisions, may be found in British Columbia Department of Mines Bulletins, Nos. 34 and 38, but other information is as yet un-published.Rocks of the Kaza group are exposed in the core of the Lanezi anti-clinorium between Spectacle and Isaac Lakes. The main part of the group is composed of greenish micaceous greywacke and greenish schist with knots of garnet, biotite, or both, and minor amounts of pebble conglomerate. The upper 1,000 feet is composed of white to brown quartzites and brown phyllites. Altogether, about 6,000 feet of the group is exposed. 1t is of latest Precambrian, i. e. Windermere, age."

Jan 1, 1949

By E. R. Olson

The introduction gives not only a historical background but also touches on shaft sinking and surface construction and gives some general information on the Potash Conservation Regulations which the Saskatchewan government introduced in 1969. It also gives information on the corporate and local organization of Alwinsal Potash.

Jan 1, 1972

By Muhammad Tawalbeh

The calculated temperature history of a single particle of MgCl2 hydrates when it came in contact with fused salt electrolyte at 650 °C was determined using the measured heat transfer coefficient for the molten salt bath at 650 °C. The calculations revealed that the entire interior of the particle reached the temperature required for the formation of MgOHCI from hydrated MgCl2 in less than 2 seconds. This was much less than the time required for dissolution of the prills as observed in experiments. It is very likely that the formation of MgOHCI during prill dehydration and dissolution is a result of hydrolysis in the interior of the prills.

Jan 1, 2004

By R. von Bonsdorff

Electrochemical and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) methods were used to investigate the dissolution rate of gold in a solution similar to those utilized by the Outokumpu HydroCopper® process. The measurements were conducted in an electrolyte solution where [NaCl] = 2.8-280 g/L, pH = 1-2.5, [Cu2+] = 0-30 g/L and T = 70-95°C. According to these measurements, the solution flow has the greatest impact on the dissolution rate of gold in the HydroCopper® process. Under adequately acidic conditions (pH < 3), the dissolution rate of gold increases with increasing cupric concentration, increasing chloride concentration and increasing temperature. The results and trends observed compared well with the literature.

Jan 1, 2007

By J. H. Baek, S. Alexandrovskii, D. W. Lee, B. K. Kim

Nano-phase titanium carbide was synthesized by Mg-thermal reduction process using a novel route of Mg-thermal reduction. The processes are based on I) feeding of TiC14+CxC14 x = 1, 2 ) solution into liquid magnesium, 2) Mg-reduction of metal chlorides, 3) TiC formation by the reaction of released Ti and C atoms, and 4) vacuum separation of residual liquid phases of Mg and MgCl2. In this study, the process for titanium carbide production with composition close to stoichiometry and the minimum content of impurities was optimized with the various process parameters such as concentration of initial solution, its feeding rate and reaction temperature, as well as a kinetic study.

Jan 1, 2004

By L. V. Chugaev

In the course of the hydrothermal refining of copper-nickel products containing covellite, oxidation of Fe2+ ions by the CuS?Cu2+ pair takes place, and iron is precipitated as hematite. Lower copper concentrations in the solution and higher solution acidity lead to the partial oxidation of sulphide sulphur, whereupon hematite is reduced by covellite causing iron to go back in solution. It is demonstrated that in the process of hydrothermal treatment of the covellite-containing solid product in pure water covellite oxidises millerite to polydymite (Ni3S4). Formation of polydymite during the process of refining seems to be due to millerite oxidation both by covellite and the CuS?Cu2+ pair.

Jan 1, 2007

By J. Etcheverry, E. Seguel, R. Díaz, F. Parada, R. Parra, E. Balladares

A thermodynamic and kinetic model is proposed to explain the formation of bornite, chalcopyrite and magnetite during partial roasting of enargite-containing copper concentrates. The proposed mechanism involves solid-solid-gas and solid-gas reactions between chalcocite, pyrrhotite, gaseous sulfur and oxygen. The formation of bornite could be explained by a two-step reaction: the first one involving the formation of chalcopyrite by a reaction between Cu2S, FeS and gaseous sulfur, followed by a second step in which the newly formed chalcopyrite reacts with additional chalcocite to form bornite. Although thermodynamically the direct formation of bornite is more favorable than that of chalcopyrite, the lower diffusion kinetics of bornite formation could explain the preferential formation of chalcopyrite. If the reaction occurs with stoichiometric chalcocite and pyrrhotite in the presence of gaseous sulfur to form chalcopyrite, no bornite is formed, while for the stoichiometric reaction between chalcopyrite and chalcocite in the absence of sulfur, only bornite is formed. For the formation of magnetite and chalcopyrite the mechanism could involve the partial reaction of chalcocite and pyrrhotite in the presence of oxygen. The proposed model is thermodynamically consistent with the experimental results obtained in laboratory and pilot plant. INTRODUCTION The processing of high-arsenic copper concentrates with over 0.7 wt.-% arsenic by conventional smelting-converting normally require an additional arsenic removal step to reduce arsenic content to levels below 0.2–0.3%. One of these high-arsenic copper concentrates is the one produced by the Ministro Hales Division (DMH) of CODELCO, which has the typical chemical composition shown in Table 1. Enargite (Cu3AsS4), chalcocite (Cu2S) and pyrite (FeS2) are the main mineralogical species present in these concentrates, with over 75 wt.-%, as shown in Table 2. Partial or “neutral” roasting of these concentrates under controlled temperature and partial oxygen pressure conditions at 923–993K (650–720ºC) can remove up to 95% of the arsenic as As2S3 (As4S6), which has a high vapor pressure under these conditions, leaving a calcine with low residual arsenic. In copper concentrates, arsenic is present generally as enargite and arsenopyrite. This compounds as well as others such as pyrite and covelite, decompose readily above 770 K (500ºC), releasing, in addition to gaseous arsenic trisulfide, gaseous sulfur which by oxidizing to SO2 generates most of the heat required by the process.

Jan 1, 2019

"In the present study, the reduction behavior of composite pellets comprising of iron oxide, synthetic graphite and slags were investigated in a laboratory-scale horizontal tube furnace. Two different types of slags indicating silicate base and aluminate base slags were chosen to examine the effect of slag chemistry on the reduction behavior of pellets. Slag composition of binding materials has influences on the reactions occurring in composite pellets during direct reduction. In-situ high temperature visualization approach was used to observe the slag / iron / carbon interactions at 1773K (1500°C). The off-gases were measured by means of infrared analyzer to determine the reaction rates of the pellets. Different physical appearances during the in situ reaction inferred a strong correlation between the slag composition and internal reactions. In addition, compression tests were conducted to examine physical strength of the pellets. This investigation was carried out to establish feasibility of physical property control of pellets by selecting optimum slag compositions of binding materials INTRODUCTIONCurrently, most of the iron ore mines have facilities that make an ore more usable for the blast furnace operation by improving its physical properties (e.g. pelletizing and sintering). However, during the process, a large amount of fuel is supplied to indurate materials which consequently deteriorate energy efficiency and produce more CO2 emission. Along with increased interests, direct reduced iron (DRI) making process; simply without coke oven or sintering process, has opened the era of clean and environmental friendly iron making process. While some of the established DRI technologies such as Midrex and HYL were restricted to certain locations where natural gas is abundant, coal based technologies using Rotary Hearth Furnace (RHF) such as FASMET and ITmk3 have been developed with regardless of expensive fuel deposit. In addition to the direct use of pulverized non coking coal and fine iron ore, RHF process also has advantages of utilizing waste materials such as EAF dust, biomass and recycled plastics. Nevertheless, there are still many challenges in the coal utilizing technologies as the unprocessed coal and the waste materials contain huge volatiles and ashes. Although recent investigations on volatiles in a RHF process (Sohn and Fruehan, 2005, 2006) have indicated the benefits of coal in terms of iron oxide reduction and have shown feasibility of multi-layer process, carbon composite pellets still have disadvantages because of its weak mechanical bonding strength. As the mixed system with carbon and oxides generates intermediate gases (e.g. CO and CO2) between solid particles, it is difficult to keep its physical state without the help of binding materials. In this reason, industries have been tried to use various binding materials such as bentonite, kaolinite and Portland cement. However, they are still struggling to find out new materials that provide not only sufficient mechanical strength but also metallurgical properties, such as porosity, reducibility and swelling throughout the reduction reaction. Recently, Canadian researchers (Aota et al, 2006) observed enhanced mechanical strength of pellets by using high alumina cement as a binder and concluded that the method could be used to recycle EAF dust as well, but in depth mechanism of reinforced strength has not been concerned. Most of the ashes coming from binders formulate certain type of slag during the reduction process due to its incombustibility. Thus, observation and regulation of slag property is an essential for the control of carbon composite pellet. Yet, only a little thermodynamic consideration from the perspective of slag chemistry has been adapted in the iron and steel making industries as ash has been easily ignored for its tiny proportion. In this study, effect of CaO-SiO2- Al2O3 slag system on the reduction of iron oxide was investigated in terms of"

Jan 1, 2012

By N. D. Wineinger, J. Jodouin

"An Independent Electricity System Operator Industrial Accelerator Program (IESO IAP) case study was completed for a mine in Ontario, Canada by SRK Consulting, Inc. The purpose of the study was to analyze the ventilation system to determine whether and which system improvements could reduce the overall electrical power demand of the mine. Financial incentives are offered by the IESO IAP grant program to help cover the capital costs of these improvements. This study included the completion of a full mine ventilation survey as well as measurement of a full suite of electrical parameters of the surface and underground ventilation fans. After these measurements, a base ventilation model was created and established as the system baseline. Changes to the ventilation system were modeled, and their effects on the power demand were projected. The results of the study showed that several improvements were possible which may significantly improve the efficiency of the ventilation system and reduce mine electricity demand.INTRODUCTIONIn 2017, a ventilation study was conducted in accordance with the Independent Electricity System Operator Industrial Accelerator Program (IESO IAP) at a mine in Ontario, Canada. The IESO IAP is designed to assist eligible transmission-connected Canadian companies operating in Ontario to fast track capital investment in major energy conservation projects. The program will provide financial incentives to encourage investment in innovative process changes and equipment retrofits to reduce electricity consumption on the provincial system and to help companies become more competitive by positively impacting their bottom line. There are now four initiatives under the Industrial Accelerator Program:1. Retrofit2. Process & Systems, including Small Capital Projects3. High Performance New Construction4. Energy Managers – a new initiative under the Industrial Accelerator ProgramWithin the program, companies may propose energy saving changes to their current systems where applicable and appropriate. Companies may then be awarded funding to implement the proposed changes. The program allows partial financial compensation to implement certain energy saving changes that would otherwise not be considered due to high capital costs. For larger projects, such as underground mine ventilation systems, a detailed engineering study must be submitted. This study must detail each energy saving change or measure, its savings, and calculate the financial incentives using the IESO IAP Payment Structure. The payment structure for a project is an amount equal to the lowest of the following (Independent Electricity System Operator, 2015):"

Jan 1, 2019

By S. Markstrom

The Boliden AITIK copper mine is located 100 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden. A pre-feasibility study was conducted in 2005 with the aim of increasing the capacity of the existing processing plant. After analysis, options to upgrade the existing plant were abandoned in favour of building a new processing plant, with higher capacity and therefore greater profitability. A new plant could be designed with greater flexibility to make potential future expansions easier. A feasibility study for a new 36 Mt/y processing plant including fully AG grinding circuits and flotation was completed in 2006. The project was approved by the Boliden board shortly thereafter. Construction started in the beginning of 2007 and was completed during 2009. Commissioning of the new plant was undertaken in the first half of 2010. The grinding circuit consists of two lines with each line consisting of a 22.5 MW AG mill and a 10 MW Pebble mill in closed circuit with a spiral classifier. The nominal production level is 2 200 t/h for each grinding line. This paper presents the start-up and operation of the grinding circuit.

Jan 1, 2012

By Joseph F. Daniels

In recent considerations of the utilization and beneficiation of coal, the chemise and the chemical engineer have been occupying the centre of the stage with their presentation of the picture of new fuel forms. The stage hands and supernumeraries of the cast, the miners and the consumers who carry the brunt of the present-day burdens, are apt to be forgotten in the glorious settings and the climaxes. With no thought of disparaging or of minimizing the efforts of our fellow scientists, let us remember that economic considerations as well as technical difficulties will limit these chemical applications, which must develop and move slowly before reaching the stage of industrial application at some later day. In the meantime, the coal-mining industry must live on hard faces rather than rosy dreams. In these brief notes it is my purpose to call attention to some of the physical advances in the utilization and beneficiation of coal which have been of interest to the industry in the State of Washington.

Jan 1, 1928

By Q. G. Reynolds, R. T. Jones

"Residence time distributions are well defined for batch and continuously stirred reactors. However, there exist many smelting furnaces that do not fit either of these classifications. A mathematical description is presented for the case of a furnace that is fed continuously, but where the liquid slag and metallic products are tapped intermittently. The effects of slag and metal tapping intervals and the fraction of liquid retained in the furnace, are shown to have a significant effect on the residence time distribution.INTRODUCTIONThere are some processes in which the time spent by the feed material in a smelting furnace plays a significant role in determining the extent of the reactions between metal and slag and influences the degree of settling of metal droplets from a molten slag.Residence time distributions are well defined for batch and continuously stirred reactors. However, there exist many smelting furnaces that do not fit either of these classifications. Here we will focus on producing a mathematical description for the case of a furnace that is fed continuously, but where the liquid slag and metallic products are tapped intermittently. The effects of slag and metal tapping intervals and the fraction of liquid retained in the furnace, are studied.Previous work (Jones, la Grange and Assis, 1997) has studied the effect of retention time on the degree of cobalt recovery achieved in a slag reduction process. In that work, a method was proposed for the calculation of the mean residence time of the contents of a pilot-plant furnace. That approach is to be extended here for the purposes of providing a more general design or scale-up tool.The maximum allowable depth of molten material in a given furnace is affected by such factors as the desired batch size (or the size of the ladles) and the pressure of the molten material that the tap-hole and surrounding system can withstand. Within these constraints, there might be some scope for choice of taphole position. The effects of this choice need to be understood mathematically."

Jan 1, 2012

By M. Narita, S. Nakayama, M. Fujihara

Hibi Kyodo Smelting Co., Ltd. was founded in 1968 and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018. In 1972, we started producing copper cathode with a production capacity of 84 KTPY. Since the company founding, we have undertaken seven expansion projects, and our current copper-cathode production capacity is 290 KTPY. To increase our production efficiency, two tank houses were converted from Conventional process to ISA process in 2006 and 2014. In another investment, we equipped a continuous glue dosing system, which allowed for strict additive-concentration control, yielded quality improvements and reduced the power-consumption rate. Along with an increase in the production of copper cathode, the amount of impurities eluted from the anode increases. To solve this problem, the chelate-resin purification process that was introduced in 1983 was renovated, and impurities could be recovered more efficiently. In this paper, we report various improvements that have been implemented at the refinery since 2000. INTRODUCTION Tamano Smelter and Refinery of Hibi Kyodo Smelting Co., Ltd., founded in 1968, celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding in 2018. The Tamano Smelter opened its No. 1 tankhouse in 1972, and began operating No. 2 tankhouse in 1984. Thereafter, with continuous production increases and technical improvements, electrolytic copper production was increased from 84 KTPY to 290 KTPY as shown in Figure 1. Table 1 shows the major operating facilities and operation data in 2017.In this paper, details of equipment introduced to continuously dissolve and add glue, various improvements made to the chelate resin process, enhancements made to the crude Ni sulfate process, and another vibrating screen introduced to the copper slime processing flow in accordance with the expansion of copper production capacity since 2000 are reported.

Jan 1, 2019