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By D. W. Feng

Thiosulfate as an alternative lixiviant for gold has received much attention in recent years due to the growing environmental concerns over the use of cyanide. Cu(II) is used to catalyze the oxidation of gold and ammonia is to stabilize Cu(II) in alkaline solution. However, the presence of Cu(II) enhances the oxidative degradation of thiosulfate. The high consumption of reagents has made thiosulfate leaching uneconomical to date, in comparison with cyanide leaching. Therefore, further investigations are required to leaching under low reagent concentrations over extended periods where reagent consumption is low and gold leaching rate is low as well. It is thus necessary to find additives to enhance gold dissolution in the thiosulfate leaching system. Electrochemical studies using rotating gold disc showed that the oxidation of gold in ammoniacal thiosulfate solution increased significantly in the presence of a small amount of thiourea and the beneficial effect increased with an increase in the thiourea concentration up to 7.2 mM. Thiourea improved gold extraction in the thiosulfate leaching of gold from a sulfide ore under low reagent concentrations. Excessive addition of thiourea inhibited the leaching of the gold ore. The decomposition of thiosulfate was reduced with the presence of thiourea. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) results indicated that thiou-rea likely decomposed to sulfide and formed gold sulfide species at the gold surface.

Jan 1, 2014

By P. Khattri

At Tata Steel, Coal is washed in gravity and froth flotation circuit at 13-15 mm size and below. Being coal is high in ash (~35%) and difficult washability characteristics (having high (~40 %) NGM at desired ash levels) needs more and timely quality data of ROM for effective optimization and process control. Conventional approach of supplying quality data takes 4-5 hours time. This means during this period, it is assumed that coal is having similar characteristics as of previous set and it is not possible to fine tune during this time which resulted in yield loss. Hence producing clean coal on agreed ash value consistently is a challenging task because of high NGM and variation in input quality. To overcome the problem of collection of representative sample and timely result a new technology was adopted Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis (PGNAA) technology which is basically an online analyser using Gamma rays as the source to measure the ash content in coal running on a conveyor which gives real time ash analysis. The details of this technological intervention are discussed in details in this paper. Keywords: near gravity material, PGNAA

Sep 1, 2012

By K. Price, G. Wang, L. R. Moore, Y. R. Xiong, J. Gu

"Sand is a naturally occurring granular material that is a result of the physical or chemical breakdown of rocks. Raw/natural sand contains various minerals, and it is this combination of minerals that brings the value to the construction aggregate industry. However, it is the quartz component of sand that is valued in its application as industrial silica in glass, high purity quartz, foundry sand, and oil and gas fracturing. Depending on the industry, the grade requirements can be the concentration of SiO2, particle size or shape, as well as contaminants such as the heavy refractory minerals, clays, fines, and alkali metals. With the ever declining mineral feed grade, processors continue to face challenges making the industry specific concentrate grade. As such, it becomes more important to tailor make the processing reagents to fit the mineral, processing conditions, and desired quality specification. This paper focuses on the application of novel collectors towards the beneficiation of sand for each of the major industrial silica applications. INTRODUCTIONQuartz is a mineral composed of a framework of silicon and oxygen atoms. It is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth’s continental crust. There are many species of quartz, which are defined by the particle size, shape, and color. Silica sand is one of those species, which is the byproduct of the physical or chemical breakdown of quartz containing rocks or crystals. Geologist define silica sand as a silica mineral with a particle size between 0.05 and 2 mm in diameter (Zdunczyk, 2001). Silica sand has significant value to society in recreation (beach sand and toy boxes), construction aggregate (concretes and asphalt), industry (iron & steel casting, fracturing proppants, and glass), as well as specialty products such as semiconductors or silicon wafers used in electronics.The aggregate business is the dominant consumer of silica sand products. Conversely, glass making, foundries (casting material), abrasives, and fracturing proppants are the dominant applications for industrial silica sand. Not much beneficiation is required for sand products going into the construction industry, other than sizing and scrubbing to remove clay. However, the industrial silica sand applications are dependent on particle size, shape, and degree of contaminants, which sets the market value (table 1). Therefore, as the more specialty products are produced, more sophisticated techniques and chemistry need to be applied to ensure the appropriate quality is met."

Jan 1, 2018

By Yimin Zhu

This paper introduces the sixteen mappings and rules of mineral flotation and the subgroup, period etc in periodic table of chemical element to provide mineral flotation workers to refer in theory and practice research. the nine mappings and rules of mineral flotation and the subgroup, period are Saline minerals including the first main groups and collectors of aliphatic acid and aliphatic amines, Minerals including the second main group elements and collector of aliphatic acid, Hydrated ion of the second main group elements and quartz flotation, The floatability of oxidized minerals including the four main group elements, Organic acid including the fifth main group elements and wolframe, tin flotation collectors, The floatability of sulfide minerals including the fifth main group elements, Inorganic compounds including the seventh main group elements and mineral flotation regulator, Oxidized minerals including the forth Subgroup elements and organic flotation agents with phosphorus and arsenic, Oxidized minerals including the fifth subgroup elements and organic floating agents including the fifth main group elements, Minerals including the first subgroup elements and CN-, Sulfide minerals including the second subgroup elements and CN-, The effect of the highest N-valency inorganic acids or salts including p area elements of the third period in mineral flotation, Oxidized minerals including transition elements of the forth period and 3# flocculating agent, The floatability of minerals including elements of the sixth period, Element area of generating compositions and the collecting theory of mineral flotation and so and. Keywords: mineral flotation, periodic table of chemical element, subgroup, period, regulator, coordination chemistry

Sep 1, 2012

By R. D. Alorro

Melting has become a popular pre-treatment method for municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration residues in Japan. Although the method is effective in stabilizing the hazardous organic sub-stances such as dioxin, it concentrates the heavy metals such as Zn, Pb, Cu, and Cd in a newly formed fly ash (melting fly ash). Melting fly ash is classified as a hazardous waste because of the leaching potential of these heavy metals in landfill environment. Extraction and recovery of these metals seem to be more environmentally and economically attractive than disposing the material to landfill after immobilization process. This study proposes a Carrier-in-Pulp (CIP) method as a new hydrometallurgical route to reject and recover heavy metals from fly ash. In this method, a carrier material which recovers the extracted metals is added simultaneously with fly ash to leaching solutions and is harvested from the pulp by physical separation method like magnetic separation or sieving. To demonstrate the effect of CIP method, shaking flask experiments were conducted under various conditions using NaCl solution as lixiviant and iron powder or granular activated carbon as carrier materials. In the CIP method using iron powder, more than 97 wt% of Pb and Zn were extracted from the ash to the solution phase. However, the iron powder which was harvested from the pulp by magnetic separation, recovered only Pb (more than 94%) through cementation, leaving behind Zn ions in the solution phase. Due to this problem, granular activated carbon (GAC) was considered as an alternative carrier material. Single- and multi-metal adsorption experiments using granular activated carbon were conducted as a preliminary study. Around 85% Pb and 88% Zn were recovered by GAC in the single-metal adsorption experiment, while 60% Pb and 70% Zn in the multi-metal experiment. These results showed that activated carbon was superior to the iron powder since it was able to recover both Pb and Zn through adsorption. The leaching test conducted on the residue after the CIP-Fe treatment revealed that the solubilisation of Pb was successfully suppressed to meet landfilling guidelines.

Jan 1, 2014

By John Nell, Paul den Hoed

Carbochlorination tests were conducted with matched particle-size fractions of rutile, ilmenite and high-titania slag in a small bubbling fluidized-bed reactor. The effects of temperature, the type and proportion of solid reductant in the charge, and the fraction of Cl2 in the fluidizing gas were investigated. Tests confirm the need for solid carbon in the bed if chlorination is to run at high rates. With solid carbon in the bed, CO supplied with the fluidizing gas does not increase significantly the degree of chlorination after 75 minutes. Ilmenite is chlorinated more quickly than titania slag, which in turn is chlorinated more quickly than rutile. Rates of chlorination at 1100°C and 1000°C are much the same and significantly higher than at 900°C. Chlorination is associated with significant increases in particle porosity (even for rutile), which is brought about by the rapid initial chlorination of FeO and MnO (in ilmenite and slag) and (it is argued) by the chlorination of Ti2O3 which forms at high-energy surface sites. A reaction mechanism is presented; where possible, its validity is demonstrated by the support of empirical observations.

Jan 1, 2003

By Vishal Shukla, Ashok Kumar, C. Raghu Kumar, D. P. Chakraborty

"Traditional iron ore beneficiation plants using washing, screening, and jigging processes require large volumes of process water. Generated slime during processing, its disposal and impact on water usage, is an important concern for any mining company. The challenge today, during extracting iron ore, is how to dispose of slime such that it is contained and stable, while maximizing water reuse and minimizing surface footprint. The slime disposal methods are sensitive to the environment. Two major technologies presently being practiced for disposing the slime across the world are pressure filtration and paste thickening. In this perspective an attempt has been made to do comparative study between paste thickening and pressure filtration for selection of suitable slime disposable technology for Noamundi processing plant, Tata Steel. From the studies, it is evident that by adopting pressure filtration technique it was possible to produce filtered slime, whereas filtration, rate reduces significantly with the presence of finer fraction. Further , the greatest advantage of paste thickening is volume reduction of slime. By considering the technology limitation and comparative lab test work result, it is opined that combination of filtration and paste thickening technology is favorable in terms of capital and operating cost and slime >45 µ should be filtered and < 45 µ slime should go for paste thickening. The study and the results are presented in details.INTRODUCTION The beneficiation processes always end up with an enriched portion of desired mineral - “Concentrate” and an enriched portion of undesired minerals - “Tailing”. The proportion and nature of tailings generated in every beneficiation process differ from ore to ore and reflects the characteristics of the feed processed. The traditional method of tailing disposal in many mineral processing industries has been to dispose them as thickener underflow at around 35% solids. Though, it had certain advantages of transportation with ease but contribute to a greater volume occupied in the tailing dam. This sustained practice and failure to utilize the space available in the tailing dam judiciously endangered the mining industry. The tailing management has become the toughest task to the mining industry and most of the mines are running out of space for disposing the fresh tailings as many of these are at the verge of getting filled."

Jan 1, 2018

By P. T. Nguyen

The analysis of particle capture by an air bubble by two separate phenomena of collision and attachment has been difficult due to the uncertainty in determining when and where the two phenomena begin and terminate at the bubble surface, respectively. Therefore, a unified analysis was developed by solving the motion equation for the particle capture as one process. No distinction be-tween collision and attachment was made. Both the liquid film described by the micro-hydrodynamic resistance functions and the surface forces were included in the new model. The model predictions with the DLVO (Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek) surface forces did not agree with the experimental trajectories of latex and silica spheres. The model predictions with the inclusion of the non-DLVO attractive surface force agreed with the experimental data. The non-DLVO force reduced the repulsion between the non-attaching particle and the bubble, and significantly increased the attraction between the attaching particle and the bubble. The unified analysis is capable of predicting particle capture without the use of the induction time. The unified analysis also shows significant influence of the short-range hydrodynamic interactions on the collision which has been previously ignored.

Jan 1, 2014

By B. Das

Waste water produced from coal preparation plants posses several problems during dewatering and solid/liquid separation. The natural sedimentation rate of the particles present in colloidal and finely divided suspended form is very slow. Flocculation technology is being applied in most of the coal washeries to recover water which is being accomplished through the use of inorganic salts, polymeric flocculants or both depending on the chemical and physical characteristics of the pollutants present in the waste water. The waste tailing water from Piperware coal preparation plant, Central Coalfield Limited (CCL), India, is highly turbid containing ~ 16000 NTU with negative surface charge in the pH range of 2 to 10. Polymeric flocculants in conjunction with fine magnetite is investigated to achieve faster settling rate with lowest level of water turbidity. The conditions affecting the interaction between the reagents and the turbid particles present in the tailings water are investigated. It is possible to bring down the turbidity of the water to < 90 NTU from very high turbid tailing water by using 2 mg/L of the polymeric flocculent in combination with 0.1 g/L of magnetite at natural pH of the tailing slurry. It has been found that finely divided positively charged magnetite particles in combination with the flocculent selectively coat the negatively charged impurities present in water and thereby increase the settling rate under the influence of a magnetic field.

Jan 1, 2014

By Xubo Chen, Zhiqiang Hu, Zhijian Sun, Gaoyun Zhou

"The research aimed at developing an efficient and environmental frother,which was applied in the flotation of sulfide ores. The flotation properties of an efficient frother and pine oil have been studied relatively by flotation tests of lead and zinc sulfide ores. At the same time, the biodegradability of two kinds of frother has been studied by the method of biological respiratory curve. The test results show that the flotation properties of new frother are superior to pine oil such as flotation rate, dosage etc. and its biodegradability is superior to pine oil. INTRODUCTION Frother is a kind of important agent in flotation reagents.In practice, the criterion of the foaming performance of the frother is what is high and low according to flotation indexes. The difference of different minerals and flotation technologies has great influence on the foaming performance of frother, and it is very important to choose the corresponding frother. The type, dosage and selectivity of frother in flotation process must be considered carefully. In today's society, environmental protection and ecological protection are becoming more and more important, and the environmental and ecological damage from mine development has aroused increasingly more attention. The use of mine agents has promoted the development of mineral resources, greatly improves the recovering utilization of mineral resources, at the same time, the production and use of mine reagents also inevitably bring about pollution, and result some influence or damage in the ecological environment.The frother is a common kind of reagent in the flotation process of the concentrator. In many cases, the waste water in the concentrator can not be let out in the natural water because the higher content of the frother in the waste water results in higher index of COD.This will inevitably increase the cost of waste water treatment in the mine.Therefore, the choice of frother should not only consider its influence on the flotation index, but also consider its influence on environmental protection. Waste water treatment is a way to solve the waste water pollution, but it needs to cost a lot of fund, manpower and material resources.And the development of high efficiency pollution-free reagent is a good way to reduce the production cost of mining enterprises and reduce the environmental pollution."

Jan 1, 2018

By Sami Makni, Ahmed Bouajila

"To remain competitive in an open market, mining companies are more and more requested to optimise their complex and highly multivariate processes. The increasing amount of process data, brought about by intensive use of instrumentation and the progress in computer data acquisition, enhances the need for more and more powerful and robust tools for the analysis and modelling of the process data. Now, with the emergence of multivariate data analysis (MDA) techniques, on-line clustering of mineral process behaviour is possible and could help in the extraction of valuable process operation indicators. MDA can be used in different mineral processes such as flotation, grinding, smelting etc.In this paper, we focus on grinding process considered as the most costly and power consuming node of the mineral processing scheme. Different objective-oriented levels of data clustering will be addressed.First, the evaluation of grinding operation taking into account data and constraints from all processes before (e.g. blasting, crushing) and after (e.g. flotation, leaching, etc.) the grinding node. The second level deals with process diagnosis by differentiating operation level and identifying behaviour drifts. Control and optimisation are two other levels concerned here with the selection of optimum trajectories in the drift correct.Industrial plant data are processed in order to illustrate the feasibility and the potentiality of MDA applications in addressing the clustering and interpretation of grinding mill behaviour."

Jan 1, 2003

By Walter W. Focke, Zola Kwela, Willem van der Merwe, Arao Manhique

"The advantages of the de Wet zirconium process for the manufacture of AZST from zircon sand include: Fewer processing steps; removal of radioactivity by leaching rather than by precipitation; alkali reagent recovery in the form of a sodium silicate solution that is essentially free of radioactivity; fewer waste streams and less waste to discard.Here we report on our efforts at maximizing the alkali recovery in the sodium silicate product stream: Milled zircon, d50 ˜ 9 µm, was fused with caustic soda pearls in open reaction vessels at temperatures between 650°C and 850°C. Fusion times of 1, 2, 4, 24 and 336 hours (with intermittent milling) were investigated.For prolonged fusion times the fusion products approached equilibrium compositions. However, the phases Na2ZrSiO5 and Na4Zr2Si3O12 observed at 850°C did not form at 650°C. Since they do not hydrolyse in water they limit the recovery of alkali. For 2-hour fusions a broad spectrum of non-equilibrium reaction-products, that are rich in sodium silicates, is formed. Optimum process conditions, with respect to NaOH recovery, correspond to a 2:1 stoichiometry and fusing for 2-hour at 850°C. At these conditions the alkali recovery is ca. 78% and the zirconia yield is ca. 57%."

Jan 1, 2003

By C. Y. Wang

Based on Slurry Electrolysis, and combined with the problems of extraction antimony, lead and their separation from complicated antimony-lead concentrate, a series of tests have been done in this paper. Using Slurry Electrolysis to treat complicated antimony-lead concentrate, antimony and lead can be separated in one step. And 2# metal antimony can be achieved in cathode directly at the same time. Lead in concentrate is restrained still in the residue at the form of PbCl2. After converting the residue with ammonium carbonate and removing sulfur with kerosene, the high quality of lead concentrate (Pb is above 45%, S is below 15%) and pure sulfur can be achieved, respectively. The recovery of all in Slurry Electrolysis process is as: Sb 95%, Pb 95%, Ag 80%, S 60%.

Jan 1, 2014

By F. A. V. Guimarães, A. M. Costa

"The moisture in sintering is a very important parameter for the performance of the process. It allows that the granulation takes pace in an efficient way making the water bridges between the bigger particles used as nucleus and the finer particles that perform the coating of those coarse particles. The formation of the micro pellets is extremely important to prevent loss in permeability of the bed in the sintering grate, avoiding excessive fuel consumption and producing a quality sinter. The aim of this project is to use some of the methodologies for determine the saturation degree on ores and coal to determine the optimal moisture for sintering. In the sinter pot grate series, 3 to 4 assays in a series of 10 are required to determine the optimal moisture for the process. The saturation degree curve test has shown that is really viable to use this technique to skip those tests and go directly to the series to determine productivity and the coke / anthracite consumption. In an industrial scale can be used to adjust the water addition in the conventional mixing methods used in the sintering plants to increase productivity in the process.INTRODUCTION Sintering Sintering is a high temperature agglomeration process in which iron ore fines are partially melted and bonded together using fluxes and a source of fuel, usually coke breeze. The agglomerated product, sinter, has improved metallurgical properties making it an ideal ferrous burden that enable the passage of hot gases in the iron-making blast furnace. The sintering process is normally carried out over three basic stages: granulation, ignition/sintering, and product sizing. In the granulation stage, iron ore fines (usually a blend of selected ores), sinter return fines, fluxes and fuel, and are mixed with water and micro-pelletised in a drum or disc before being introduced in the main granulation circuit. (Wang, Teng, & Wang, 2017)."

Jan 1, 2018

By E. Vahidi

In this study, a hydrometallurgical treatment involving solvent extraction of zinc using D2EHPA (di-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid) has been investigated to recover zinc from an industrial zinc leach residue. The residue was leached with sulfuric acid producing leach liquor which was subjected to solvent extraction for enrichment of zinc and removal of impurities. Operating variables for the zinc extraction process, such as pH of the mixed solution (0.5~5.0), concentration of D2EHPA (5%~40%, w/w), temperature (25~60°?C), A/O volumetric phase ratio (1/2~4/1), concentration of tri-butyl phosphate (TBP) as modifier (3%~7%, w/w), concentration of NaR2RSOR4R in aqueous phase (0.05M, 0.1M, 0.2M) were also studied. Practically all zinc was extracted from the aqueous solution at pH 2.5 with 20% w/w D2EHPA in kerosene. At this operating condition, zinc could be extracted at one theoretical stage at A/O phase ratio of 1/1, as calculated by the McCabe-Thiele method.

Jan 1, 2014

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 Q. Huo

The alumina production might not continue when the sulfur content of bauxite was too high. In order to bring down the sulfur content in bauxite, we studied on the bauxite desulfurization by bacteria screened from the acid mine drainage at mines of high sulfur content. The screened bacteria were domesticated by the high sulfur content bauxite. The experiments of bauxite desulfurization were carried out under the conditions of 5% pulp density, temperature of 30?, rotate speed of 120rpm. Bacterial desulfurization for 30 days, the sulfur content of the bauxite was reduced from 5.73% to 1.55% and the desulfurization percent was 72.9%. The recovery percent of alumina was 94.3%. The study showed that it was feasible to bring down the sulfur content of bauxite by bioleaching and this technique might make full use of the low grade bauxite.

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. F. Guo

Laboratory scale experiments were conducted to produce titanium-rich material from Panzhihua ilmenite. The results showed preoxidation with sodium salt additive especially for Na2B4O7 signif- icantly advance the reduction of iron in Panzhihua ilmenite. Acceleration mechanism of preoxidation with Na2B4O7 has been studied here. The maximum metallization of iron 92% can be obtained under conditions of preoxidation at 850? for 30 min and subsequent reduction at 1100? for 150 min. The rusting separation technique to reduced ilmenite has been further studied, obtaining titanium-rich product with TiO2 over 82% and the recovery of TiO2 above 97%.

Jan 1, 2014

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

In the present work, the flotation behaviours of zircon, rutile and ilmenite using sodium oleate as collector in absence and presence of depressants were thoroughly investigated. The maximum in the flotation recovery of any of the above minerals falls within similar pH ranges. A range of inorganic and polymer depressants were examined in order to improve the separation of zircon from rutile and ilmenite. Optimum values of conditioning pH and depressant concentration to achieve maximum recovery and best selective floatability of zircon were obtained. Selective flotation of zircon from Ti-bearing minerals was anticipated from single mineral experiments under different pH values, depressant and collector conditions.

Jan 1, 2014