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By Claudio L. Schneider, Peter R. King, Reiner Neumann

"Predicting the liberation spectra that are produced from breakage of two-phase ores under the random fracture assumption can be accomplished by measuring the conditional, on length, linear grade distribution directly from images obtained from a representative sample of the unbroken texture. The technique tremendously simplifies the prediction problem by avoiding the multiple convolutions that arise from the traditional method based on a description of texture from a measurement of the chord length distributions associated with each phase in the unbroken texture. For a 3-phase system, the phase transition probabilities associated with the textural information make the traditional calculation an almost insurmountable mathematical problem. The direct measurement procedure on the other hand can be expanded to three phases comparatively easily.A coal sample is used here to demonstrate the procedure. It is concluded that the conditional, on length, linear grade distribution can be predicted in the same fashion for multi-phase systems. Accurate stereological conversion is the practical hurdle to be overcome for multi-phase systems, but it is already a reality for 3- phase systems."

Jan 1, 2003

By R. B. Shu

A moderate thermophilic microorganisms, has been isolated (45?) from a typical sulphide mine in the region of Mo Jiang located in the southwest of China. The culture has been used to extract copper from chalcopyrite concentrates obtained from De Xing copper mine. The majority of experiments were carried out in 300mL Erlenmeyer flasks containing 150mL volumes of mineral suspension. Effects of some variable parameters such as solids concentration, pH and the concentrations of inorganic nutrients on the bioleaching of chalcopyrite obtained from De Xing copper mine were investigated. For a given concentrate the most important factor affecting the fractional copper extraction was the size of the mineral particles. The overall rate of leaching was found to be limited by the area of mineral surface. The attack started in cracks and genetic defects and finally reached the whole chalcopyrite surface. As a consequence of this, the ore showed strongly cracks. The additive of ferrous sulfate increases the bacteria activity, but did not improve chalcopyrite bioleaching. The results indicate that the nature and relative proportions of the various minerals present have been shown to be important factors.

Jan 1, 2014

New technology for on-line particle size analysis of mineral slurries has opened up new applications for particle size measurement. In some cases the particle size distribution of the final concentrate is an important quality issue. This paper discusses established on-line particle size analysis technologies and presents experiences on the use of a new technique employing laser diffraction in several minerals processing operations. The main innovations in the new instrument are a simple dilution system and multiple scattering correction algorithm, which allows wide solids content variations of diluted sample in the measurement cell. Representative sample for laser measurement is produced by a simple and reliable dilution system. The applications discussed are; Blaine number measurement of Fe concentrate before pelletizing, grinding of variable batches of ore and paste thickener control.

Jan 1, 2014

By G. J. Mei

Separation of hematite and iron-containing silicate gangue - aegirine by Flotation using fatty acid collector and (NH4)2SiF6 depressant was investigated in this paper. The flotation tests with single minerals show Ammonium hexafluorosilicate (AHFS) is a selective depressant for aegirine in hematite flotation in weakly acidic medium, which can strongly reduce the flotation recovery of aegirine in the pH range of 4~5 while has no evident effect on the flotation of hematite. The results of flotation tests with actual ores show the separation of hematite from aegirine gangue by forth flotation was possible, and good selectivity was achieved. Chemisorptions were observed on aegirine mineral surface treated by AHFS solution by using SEM and IR spectrum measurements. On the basis of coordination chemistry, a comprehensive mechanism, which reasonably explains the selective depression of AHFS for iron-containing silicate, is also proposed.

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. S. Sun, P. Gao

"In this investigation, a pilot-scale suspension magnetization roasting reactor was introduced and used to enhance magnetic properties of an iron ore. Consequently, the effects of roasting temperature, reducing gas CO flow rate and fluidizing gas N2 flow rate on the magnetization roasting performance were investigated. The results indicate that the hematite and siderite are almost completely converted into magnetite by a gas mixture of 3.5 Nm3/h CO and 2 Nm3/h N2 at roasting temperature of 520 °C. Under the optimized conditions, the magnetic iron concentrate with an iron grade of 60.18% and iron recovery of 90.17% was achieved. The XRD and Fe mineral phase analyses revealed that most of the hematite and siderite were converted to magnetite, and the magnetic properties were greatly enhanced. INTRODUCTION The steel and iron industry in China has rapidly developed in recent years requiring a large quantity of iron ores. Low-grade and complex iron ores are currently the overwhelmingly dominant mineral resource for iron in China. Therefore, China depends on imported iron ore resources heavily, resulting in an increase in the production costs of iron-making and steel-making[1-3]. Using domestic resources to produce a steady supply of high-quality iron ores is an important step toward the sustainable development of the steel and iron industry[4-5]. The iron ore from Jiuquan iron and steel company is abundant and recognized as typically complex iron ore resources in China. Magnetization roasting followed by low-intensity magnetic separation has been proven as the most feasible methods to upgrade refractory iron ore[6-10]. In present research, an innovative roasting technology, namely suspension magnetization roasting, was developed and applied to recover iron from a typical refractory iron ore. Suspension magnetization roasting technique and equipment developed by Prof. Yuexin Han’s Group at Northeastern University (NEU) is an effective way for the utilization of refractory iron ore. The advent of suspension magnetization roasting will, in China and even globally, produce a significant technological revolution in the field of iron ore beneficiation. Based on the previous works, this paper mainly described experiments on the separation and recovery of iron from a complex refractory iron ore by means of suspension magnetizing roasting and low-intensity magnetic separation processes. The purpose of the research is providing a new technology for effective utilization of refractory iron ore. Process parameters that affected the separation and recovery rate of iron were conducted and optimized, and the reaction process was analyzed by XRD and Fe mineral phase analysis."

Jan 1, 2018

By A. Tolentino, J. Bravo, M. A. Corona-Arroyo, C. Quintero, R. Zarate, A. Lynch, L. Carillo

"This paper presents the performance of the flotation circuit of Minera Fresnillo PLC, Mexico. A plant survey was carried out on the lead banks and a size-by-size assay on the samples was conducted. The results indicate that the plant is treating fine particles in the flotation circuit. At least 30% of the particles in the feed are finer than 8 microns and that high amounts of Pb, Au, Ag and insolubles are in this particle size. It was also found that higher percentage of insolubles in the -8 micron particles are recovered in the final concentrate rather than being rejected in the tails. The presence of high amounts of insolubles in the concentrate is an issue of the company. The result of the plant survey provided valuable information for effective reduction of the insolubles in the concentrate and for plant optimization. The work conducted is part of the training of the students involved in a mine placement in the Alban Lynch Student Venture. INTRODUCTION Minera Fresnillo is one of the operating mines and the main contributor to the silver production of Fresnillo PLC group, the world’s leading producer of silver from ore. It is located in the mining district of Zacatecaz, Mexico, approximately 650 kilometers from Mexico City. The major minerals that make up the ore are galena, sphalerite, tetrahedrite, pyrargyrite, proustite, polybasite, pyrite and pyrrhotite. Minera Fresnillo has a capacity to treat 8300 tonnes of ore per day. The plant consists of semi-autogenous mill - ball mill – hydrocyclone circuit for primary grinding followed by silver-lead flotation then zinc flotation circuits. This paper reports the plant audit conducted in the silver-lead flotation circuit (Figure 1) of Minera Fresnillo. The circuit includes rougher, scavenger and two stages of cleaning. The tails from the scavenger goes to the zinc flotation circuit while the second cleaner yields the final silver-lead concentrate. The feed to the circuit has a particle size of 90% finer than 75 microns and generates a concentrate with grade of about 35% Pb, 5700 g/ton Ag, 16 g/ton Au and recoveries of 90% Pb, 90% Ag, 64% Au, respectively. Although the plant achieves their target concentrate grade and recovery, the concentrate also contains significant amount of insoluble materials which is about 18%. These insoluble materials consist of gangue minerals. The plant audit was conducted primarily to determine the possibility of further reducing the amount of insoluble materials present in the silver-lead concentrate."

Jan 1, 2018

By Andrey V. Tarasov

"An environmentally clean and virtually waste-less technology for treatment of domestic and industrial solid waste (HGIW) including other toxic chloride-containing materials has been developed and proven on a full scale by the Gintsvetmet Institute in cooperation with some other Russian organizations.The essence of the process is that the HGIW are decomposing in the liquid base in air-bed slag melted layer under the temperature of 1350-1400°C.HGIW is considered as fuel heat-producing energy of 1500-1800 kCal/kg with 51,7%.Processing of municipal and industrial solid waste in molten slag is carried out autogenously without additional fuel, the blowing is enriched by oxygen up to 50-70%.The complex makes it possible to treat the furnace charge without preliminary drying and sorting with big differences in chemical and morphological composition due to the versatile firing chamber.The proposed process resolves the acute and globally significant problem of dioxin formation.The purpose of the proposed technology is to ensure such destruction of the structural lattice that would guarantee irreversible transformation of the resultant substances to prevent formation of dioxins. It was established the required preconditions to achieve this purpose."

Jan 1, 2003

By Carlos G. Rudolp, Julio C. Videla, Mario Zuleta

"The present paper summarises the results of gravity pneumatic concentration of a borax ore with 17.5 % B2O3. The sample was extracted from the Tincalayu ore deposit located in the Salta Province of Argentina.The applied methodology was based on a former study (Zuleta, 1985). It consisted of sample characterization by means of physical and mineralogical determinations, chemical analyses as well as pneumatic table concentration tests. In this, a simplified concentrating flowsheet was utilized.A concentrate with 30.6 % B2O3 and 74.7 % recovery was obtained. The recovery was 8.8 % less than previously reported and that was of 30.6 % B2O3 with 87 % recovery. Nevertheless, the simplified flow sheet presented processes only two granulometric fractions, - 6.4 mm + 0.3 mm and - 0.3 mm, compared to the three granulometric fractions used in the previous study: - 6.4 mm + 1.4 mm; - 1.4 mm + 0.3 mm and . 0.3 mm. This would simplify industrial implementation."

Jan 1, 2003

By Zehong Wang

Selecting sodium polyacrylate (PAAS) as grinding aid, the effect of grinding aid on the grinding efficiency of bauxite taken from Shanxi province was studied and its mechanisms were analyzed by measuring the variation of adsorption characteristic, pulp viscosity, surface electric potential of the bauxite and the surface appearance of particles. The results showed that, compared with no grinding aids added the content of -0.074mm in the ground product was increased by 5.45 percentage points under the optimal grinding conditions adding PAAS as grinding aid when the amount of PAAS was 0.7%wt of bauxite. Because the physical adsorption and chemical adsorption were occurred on the bauxite surface, which could reduce the pulp viscosity, change the surface electric potential of the bauxite, enhance the surface appearance of particles and lower the surface hardness of the bauxite, the grinding efficiency of bauxite was increased by PAAS. Keywords: bauxite, grinding aids, grinding efficiency, mechanism

Sep 1, 2012

By G. Aguilera

The mineral suspensions do not present a newtonian behavior as their continuous phase; they can be pseudoplastic, dilatant, or both. The viscosity becomes as the most important rheological variable because the different industrial processes involve a wide variety of rheological scenes, with a specific rheological behavior for each one. Some authors have tried to model the viscosity of suspensions considering the volumetric fraction of solids and others have also kept in mind the size of the particles (Einstein, 1906; Batchelor, 1977; Jinescu, 1974; Krieger and Dougherty, 1959; Tangsathitkulchai and Austin, 1988). Others consider the shear rate (Cross, 1965; Hershel-Bulckley, 1926; Bingham, 1916, etc). However, none of the models is able to simulate the viscosity involving the physical, chemical and mechanic factors at the same time for crowded suspensions. A new model based on Neural Networks is presented, taking into account all the variables of ceramic clay suspensions and chemical additives. Keywords: viscosity, clay minerals, neural networks, simulation, mathematical function

Sep 1, 2012

By R. S. Wang, S. Z. Zhou, L. Wan, K. W. Zeng, Z. J. Sun, W. G. Wu, Z. B. Qian, X. R. Zhang, Z. K. Hu, Y. Yu

"In view of the present situation that the traditional environment friendly depressants for galena aren’t very effective in the separation of mixed concentrate including copper sulfide and lead sulfide, this research describes a new environment friendly depressant PD-1 and investigates its effects and mechanism in the separation of chalcopyrite and galena. This study is carried out through flotation tests, analysis of infrared spectra and absorption measurements. It is shown that when O-isopropyl-N-ethyl thionocarbamate (Z200) is used as collector, chalcopyrite and galena can be separated in the presence of PD-1 under appropriate conditions. Therefore, it can be concluded that PD-1 has an excellent depression ability and great selectivity for galena. Meanwhile, analysis of infrared spectra demonstrates that PD-1 can strongly absorb on the galena surface by chemical interaction with Pb2+, while it hardly absorbs on the chalcopyrite surface. In addition, the results of absorption measurements reveal that competitive adsorption occurs on the galena surface between PD-1 and Z200, PD-1 can block the absorption of Z200 on the galena surface. However, PD-1 has a little effect on the absorption of Z200 on the chalcopyrite surface under above conditions. What’s more, the hydrophilic groups of PD-1 molecules can make galena effectively depressed. The results of mechanism analysis are in accordance with those of flotation tests.INTRODUCTION In the processing of copper-lead sulfide ores, the process, copper increase and lead reduction (Zhang et al., 2017) after reagents removal of rough concentrate produced by mixed flotation of chalcopyrite and galena, is usually adopted. However, as a result of tight symbiosis and the similar flotability of chalcopyrite and galena, the separation is difficult (Hu and Feng, 2006). There are 3 kinds of depressants for galena in the separation of chalcopyrite and galena concentrate,including dichromate, sulfite and combined depressants of organic or inorganic reagents (Wei, 2012). As dichromate would cause serious environmental pollution, it is gradually banned to be used in industry (Xu et al., 2017; Lin et al., 2017). what’s more, due to the need of acidic slurry, using sulfite is not conductive to the maintenance of equipment and stable production(Wang, 1999). As for the combined depressants, they also have disadvantages of complex pharmaceutical system and no ideal separation effect (Wei and Sun, 2008). Therefore, the development of new safe and effective depressants for galena is a research focus for researchers in the minerals processing (Chen, 2000). In this paper, a new type of organic depressant PD-1 is applied to the copper-lead separation process of ""copper increase and lead reduction"" using Z200 as the collector. In addition, the performances and mechanism of its depression to galena are studied emphatically."

Jan 1, 2018

By J. K. Afidenyo

Microbial pretreatment of a double refractory gold ore was investigated using a white rot fungus, Coriolus versicolor (ATTC 20869) to improve gold extraction. A series of preliminary tests were conducted to determine the amenability of the ore to fungus degradation. Pulp density, temperature, pH and retention times were the process variables considered. Both a single. Stage and two-step processes were studied to establish process conditions. During the single stage process, the ore was contacted with the fungus culture (biotic) for 3weeks at 30°C and pH 10.0. For the two-step process, the first step involves ore contact with the culture medium (abiotic) at 45°C and pH 10.0 followed by fungal contact (biotic) at 30°C. Results indicated that carbonaceous matter is not degraded but passivated by the fungus; as preg-robbing activities dropped significantly from 18.1% to below 1.0%. The single stage process resulted in higher gold recovery than the two-step process Gold ex-traction by cyanidation of the pretreated ore was 78.9% for the single stage compared with 15.0% for the untreated ore. In the two-step process, only 73.3% gold extraction was achieved. Application of the two step process conditions to a high grade flotation concentrate, resulted in 93.3% gold ex-traction as against untreated concentrate of 30.5%. The results show that the microbial pretreatment process degraded sulfide sulfur, passivated carbonaceous matter and enhanced gold extraction from double refractory gold ore and concentrate.

Jan 1, 2014

By S. K. Chaudhuri

With a growing emphasis on maximizing the value by rapidly deploying it across their assets, mining firms are eager to identify any issues that may hinder such efforts and to refine their approaches to overcome them. As such a CDE vision can be considered realized when the following components are addressed and functioning as intended - People: the right resources working together and efficiently to achieve shared goals, Process: well-defined workflows mapped out for key value processes, Technology: availability of the correct tools and applications to increase efficiency in work execution and Locations: regional locations/ sites that need to be linked for collaboration and information exchange. For the above vision, an approach that considers the degree of interaction between the roles in metallurgy operations, mineral resource planning, mine engineering, plant operations, logistics and infrastructure, and which accounts for the current technology states across these groups to determine sub-processes where the impact of a CDE will be the most is critical. In effect, CDE is more about transforming an organization?s operational philosophy than a technology driven project. This paper examines the definition and components of a CDE in a mining context. Real-time operations co-ordination, maintenance interventions, production analysis and optimization processes are examined along with current state technologies and manual processes as candidates which are likely to result in most benefits from collaborative work processes. Finally, the paper examines technologies that can be used to further enable a collaborative working environment.

Sep 1, 2012

By John A. Herbst

The Mineral Processing Industry needs accurate Production Simulators for the design of future plants and expansions. To achieve this, these simulators should not only provide an accurate portrayal of the dynamics of individual pieces of equipment they should include the impact of discrete stochastic events such as scheduled and unscheduled maintenance so the relationships between availability, equipment sizes, and plant capacity are understood. To provide such a tool accurate dynamic Population Balance Models need to be combined with solid discrete event modeling. The current paper provides a description of how these two disparate modeling techniques were combined and the associated benefits from this combination. Keywords: dynamic plant simulation, population balance models, discrete event models, prefeasibility and feasibility studies, plant design and expansion

Sep 1, 2012

By V. K. Chandaliya

N-Methyl-2-pyrollidone (NMP) has already been proven a good solvent for extraction of coal. It is believed that organic components of coal are likely to be dissolved with the solvolytic power of NMP. During dissolution process, original coal also gets disintegrated and thus helps in further extraction. Coal extraction highly depends on temperature, coal to solvent ratio, N-Methyl-2-pyrollidone (NMP) to Ethylenediamine (EDA) ratio and the size of coal particles. The process has been established in the laboratory. There is no reference available beyond lab scale. In present study, we are running a bench scale plant with 40 kg/batch capacity. Design of experiment was done in such a way that the optimum zone of the process gets evaluated for clean coal having low ash with high yield. Bench scale plant trial was conducted based on optimum zone developed during design of experiments (DOE). From the DOE analysis it was observed that feed size and coal to solvent ratio are important parameters for this process. Total 27 experiments (four factors with 3 level of variation) were designed through Box-Behnken model. It was observed that -0.5 mm feed size of coal, 150 °C extraction temperature, 17:1 NMP to EDA ratio, 1:9 coal to solvent ratio was optimum conditions. The results obtained at optimum conditions are 50% clean coal yield with 5% ash.

Sep 1, 2012

By R. Mukherjee

Consistency of Run-Off-Mine (ROM) quality plays an important role in mineral processing which is not very often talked about. The major impediment is limitation of sampling ROM ore, which makes processing plants to run without any realtime feedback on ore quality that comes in. The process of direct determination of Run-Off-Mine (ROM) ore quality is expensive and time consuming as drawing and preparing representative samples from blasted muckpiles are constrained by large sample size and inherent heterogeneity in terms of size and chemistry. In absence of techniques for direct measurement of quality, monitoring and control of ROM, feed to the processing plant at Joda East Mine, like all other iron ore beneficiation plants worldwide, is largely based on blasthole sampling and subsequent chemical analyses of blastcone chips. While such indirect methods proves to be more accurate for representing whole of a mining block or blasted muckpile (~30-50KT/blast), it is indeed a challenge to ascertain and predict day to day input quality for a part there off. This eventually leads to a gap between predicted and actual ROM quality, resulting in difficulties in process control, in turn, and leading to wide swings in product quality. Hence, it is imperative to bridge the gap between predicted and actual ROM quality by arriving at means, which ensure consistent plant feed grade to deliver consistent output. The paper discusses an efficient and affordable alternative for effective prediction of ROM alumina which has been developed by integrating blasthole quality database in GPS based Truck Dispatch System (GPS-TDS) at Joda East Mine. Initially, GPS-TDS has been installed for optimizing production parameters only, but this development has helped in further utilization of GPS-TDS for real time quality monitoring by improving ROM grade prediction and scheduling from several ore blocks in active mining areas. Keywords:run-off-mine (ROM), blast hole, feed grade, GPS-TDS

Sep 1, 2012

Coal preparation plants usually operate with water in a closed circuit mode. In this practice, large quantities of water is continuously being recycled. To compensate the natural losses, only small quantity of fresh make up water is added into the circuit. As a result, a gradual build up of residual concentrations of flotation reagents (frothers, collectors, coagulates etc.) take place in the water and the concentration levels of the contaminants increase. Besides, the recycled water accumulates higher amounts of total dissolved components (1600 ppm) and hardness (740 ppm) than the fresh water. Nearly 80 ? 85% of the process water used in a coal preparation plant is utilized in treating the coal fines in flotation circuit. The presence of certain alkali earth metal ions (e.g., Ca++, Mg++) may adversely affect the flotation performance as they precipitate sparingly soluble hydroxyl complexes on the coal surface and change its surface charge. These studies showed that the use of recycled water in flotation has a significant effect on the selectivity and kinetics of the flotation process because, the dissolved compounds, both inorganic and organic, alter the chemistry radically. By treating the recycled water through a softening process, the concentrations of alkali earth metals and hardness were reduced significantly. The concentration of alkali earth metals and hardness were reduced to 10 ppm and 35 ppm respectively in the softened recycle water. From the selectivity studies, it has been observed that the flotation yield and recoveries increased by four to seven units by softening the recycled water. The kinetic studies indicated that the clean coal particles followed first-order kinetics. The kinetic parameters namely, flotation rate constant (k) and maximum recoveries (R8) of flotation, were found higher with softened recycle water than the recycled water. This reduces the residence time in the flotation cell and thereby, increases its productivity. Keywords: coal flotation, hardness of water, water chemistry, softening process, selectivity, kinetics, flotation rate constant and maximum recovery

Sep 1, 2012

By P. K. Fedotov

Centrifugal separation opens its new application fields in the Mining Industry. The up-to-date equipment for ultra-fine ore and concentrates grinding allows an efficient use of centrifugal concentration for micronic gold grains recovery. Moreover, advanced centrifugal concentrators are presented on the market: concentrators with continuous concentrate discharge designed both for ore and non-metallic minerals concentration process. The conducted tests proved the centrifugal concentration to be efficient process for gold recovery from finely ground concentrates and ores (less than 20 µm). Knelson concentrator application for such a fine material in different process circuits makes possible to raise the total gold recovery level of plants. In the circuits of coal plants and in course of coal slimes treatment the centrifugal concentration may be used before flotation in order to improve process performances. A centrifugal concentrator KC-CVD with continuous concentrate discharge working on 0.3 (0.5)mm fraction before flotation is

Jan 1, 2014

Cenospheres is a sandlike hollow sphere component of the fly ash that is collected in coal-burning electric power generating plants. Metal coated particles have been widely used in industries. Magnetron sputtering method which was used to coat copper film on the surface of the cenospheres is a widely used coating technique in large surface metal coating. A newly designed equipment is used to make the fine particle coating can be carried out because the fine particle is hard to disperse and it must make the particle keep moving to let every direction of the particle be coated. The copper film coated is compact, smooth, even and without uncoated spots under the optical microscopy and SEM. The film has good affinity to the cenosphere surface. The film does not separate with cenoshpere surface even when the cenosphere is crushed. The XRD, SEM, XPS, SPM was used to study the copper film characteristic. It is shown that using this newly designed magnetic sputtering equipment can coat high quality copper nanofilm on the cenoshpere surface.

Jan 1, 2014

By G. M. Savov

Copper recovery via Solvent Extraction (SX) process is a well-known technique, which is practiced commercially for approximately 40 years. The main advantages of the SX process are: an absence of using high temperatures (not more than 50oC), complete recycling of barren solutions, very high selectivity at removal and purification of metals, metal conversion to a form, suitable for easy subsequent recovery. Despite the wide acceptance of Solvent Extraction, it does have some shortcomings, namely SX employs large quantities of volatile organic substances. This leads to huge plant ?footprint? of SX circuits. The SX is very sensitive to low temperatures and quantity of total suspended solids in feed solutions and this causes bad phase disengagement times and therefore poor process performance. And most important ? low grade solutions (with copper concentrations below 1 gram per litre) are very unattractive for treatment via Solvent Extraction process, because capital costs for SX plants are not a direct function of copper tenor in the feed. The combined process with Ion Exchange (IX) and Solvent Extraction ? further called IX/SX by IONTECH Engineering was developed. This combination eliminates SX negative characteristics shown above. The key findings of the IX/SX process are; (1) recovery of copper from pregnant leach solutions with metal concentrations, varying on a broad range; (2) can be operate effectively with very low-graded copper pregnant leach solutions; (3) the construction of large ponds for pre-filtration of the pregnant leach solutions is not necessary; (4) working with turbid solutions and solutions containing large quantities of suspended solids; (5) winter operation without troubles; (6) strongly reduces organic losses; (7) technological approach lead to plant sizes reducing. This paper reviews the main stages of the combined IX/SX process, the applications for metal recovery and introduces projects where the process is applied. Key findings of the process are also presented. A comprehensive technical comparison between processes has been carried out. This paper also evaluates the advantages of using combined IX/SX technology as a purification and separation step in copper production process, with the aim of further increasing the overall copper recovery and to ensure that a suitable copper concentration in the advanced electrolyte is achieved. The implementation of a Ion Exchange (IX) process in the classic Solvent Extraction-Electrowinning process(SX/EW) is found to be beneficial for processing of pregnant leach solutions both from spent and new copper heaps and dumps, acid mine drainage and other industrial streams without any preconditioning as well as in terms of achieving improved recoveries and copper cathode quality.

Sep 1, 2012