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By H. Mengbing, A. Potokin, A. Usov

"Revealed and analyzed in the study are the ways of significant perfection of specific characteristics of the equipment, such as use of high-frequency voltage transformation to create a charger; use of pulse transformers, with core made of materials with high magnetic permeability, in pulse generating circuits; as well as use of special ways to produce voltage pulses with a short front. The experiments have proved the possibility to adapt these technological solutions for electric-pulse installations, and suggested on this base is a strategy of further development and application of electric-pulse technologies. The different applications joint work schemes of voltage sources with two levels voltage and energy in electric pulse technologies are investigated. The possibility of increasing energy efficiency of destruction is shown."

Jan 1, 2014

By Alireza Javadi Nooshabadi, Kota Hanumantha Rao

Formation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), an oxidizing agent stronger than oxygen, by sulphide minerals during grinding was examined. It was found that pyrite (FeS2), chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), sphalerite ((Zn, Fe) S), and galena (PbS) generated H2O2 in pulp liquid during wet grinding and also when the freshly ground solids are placed in water immediately after dry grinding. Pyrite produced more H2O2 than other minerals and the order of H2O2 production by the minerals was found to be pyrite > chalcopyrite > sphalerite > galena. The pH of the water influenced the extent of hydrogen peroxide formation with greater amounts of H2O2 produced at highly acidic pH. Furthermore, the effect of mixed sulphide minerals, i.e., pyrite-chalcopyrite, pyrite-galena, chalcopyrite-galena and sphalerite-pyrite, sphalerite-chalcopyrite and sphalerite-galena on the formation of H2O2 showed increasing H2O2 formation with increasing pyrite fraction. There is clear correlation of the amount of H2O2 production with the rest potential of the sulphide minerals; the greater the rest potential of a mineral the greater the formation of H2O2. This study highlights the necessity of revisiting the electrochemical and/or galvanic interactions between sulphide minerals, and interaction mechanisms between pyrite and other sulphide minerals in terms of their flotation behavior in the context of inevitable H2O2 existence in the pulp liquid.

Jan 1, 2014

By Mingfei He, Yude Gao

"The leaching kinetics was studied during leaching of indium-bearing zinc oxide to recover indium. The effects of temperature, sulfuric acidity, particle size, stirring rate on dissolution rate of indium were investigated. Results showed that the leaching process was controlled by chemical reaction at the condition of low sulfuric acid concentration. While the acidity increased to 1.8 mol/L, the leaching process was transformed into an internal diffusion controlling model . The corresponding value of reaction orders under low acidity and high acidity were 1.194, 0.156, respectively. Further calculation results indicated that the leaching reaction activation energy was only 10.97kJ/mol under the condition of high acid. The leaching rate constant was inversely proportional to the square of particle size, while the effect of stirring rate on leaching process was insignificant. The leaching process can be enhanced by increasing the temperature and acid concentration, as well as the decrease of particle size. And a final kinetics eqution was proposed. KEYWORDS Indium, extration, leaching kinetics, zinc oxide INTRODUCTION Indium[1,2] plays an important role in many aspects of living and industrial production owning to its special physical and chemical properties. The reserve of indium is rare on the earth, and most of indium is distributed in some other minerals[3]. Some researchers [4,5] have proposed that indium mainly substitutes for the lattice of other minerals by isomorphous. Therefore, the extraction of indium should take into account of the production technologies of those minerals to comprehensively recover the valuable metals."

Jan 1, 2018

By Çisem Tuba, Ismail Girgin

"Comparative atmospheric H2SO4 and H2SO4 + H2O2 leaching experiments were performed using a Turkish lateritic nickel ore containing 1.52% Ni. In the leaching tests; acid concentration, temperature and leaching time were considered as main variables and the dissolution behaviour of the ore were studied by Ni, Fe, Co and Mg analyses. The dissolution values in the H2SO4 leaching experiments were observed to increase up to 60% (w/w) acid concentration and a temperature of 95°C. Increase of H2SO4 concentration above 60% at 95°C caused decreases in all the dissolution values and this was attributed to the formation of Fe2(SO4)3 and Fe2(SO4)3•HSO4•H2O type compounds. At the considered optimum H2SO4 leaching conditions ([H2SO4]= 45%, T=95°C, t=45 min); dissolution values reached for Mg, Ni, Fe and Co were determined as 99.12%, 95.58%, 92.63% and 78.37%, respectively. An activation energy of 30.57 kJ/mole was determined for nickel dissolution from the evaluation of the kinetic data obtained for H2SO4 leaching showing that the dissolution was controlled by external diffusion and chemical reactions. Caro’s acid solutions were prepared at H2SO4/H2O2 mole ratio of 3 for varying initial H2SO4 concentrations and leaching tests were performed at 25°C. Co behaved very differently and a dissolution value of 83.94% was obtained even at 5% acid concentration in 60 minutes reaction time. Complete dissolution of Co was obtained after 30 minutes of reaction time at 60% initial H2SO4 concentration and the corresponding dissolution values for Mg, Ni, and Fe were reached to 96.16%, 94.27% and 89.46%, respectively. Although the H2SO4 + H2O2 leaching experiments were conducted at 25°C, it was realized that the temperature of the leaching medium was increased to 122°C after four minutes of reaction time due to probable exothermic reaction(s) at 60% initial acid concentration."

Jan 1, 2014

By C. Abbruzzese, F. Vegliò, S. Ubaldini, R. Massidda

The aim of this paper was to study the influence of different water/organic solvent mixtures (isopropyl alcohol, ethanol and ethylene glycol) on the gold desorption process. The experimental work was carried out on laboratory scale, using activated coconut carbon with different temperatures and extraction times, without adding cyanide. Best results have been obtained in this order: isopropyl alcohol > ethylene glycol > ethanol. Starting from gold concentration of about 5 g Au per kg of carbon, best kinetics resulted in 97-100% of gold extraction, after 8 hours of desorption, at a temperature of 80ºC.

Jan 1, 2003

By Janne Kytökari

Controlling a wide range of minerals processes with single control system is an ordinary way to operate in mines all over the world these days. However the potential of these systems is not yet fully recognized nor utilized. The key issue is to manage the information in a way that enables automating the day-to-day tasks, quality control and safety functions. At the same time it provides means for optimization and constant improvement of processes creating a working environment where the system helps employees to do their key tasks instead of searching, modifying, and transmitting the huge number of information arising every day. The distribution of control system nodes enables the other processes to run heedless of a problem occurring in one of the sub-processes. Also the control room can be in remote location such as in large city removing the need to travel substantially long distances to plant sites every day. When all essential information is brought to the same place there is less risk for a mishap to happen due to information breaks that are often the cause of them. One of the biggest single reasons that result in production losses are break downs of machinery usually caused by normal wear, misuse, incorrect utilization rate etc. For this reason it is important to measure the condition of machines using vibration measurement and diagnostics. By moving from failure or time-based maintenance towards predictive or performance maintenance generates eventually a steady and predictable process but also results in significant long term savings. The mineral process at Talvivaara mine is based on bioheapleaching, whereby metals are leached from ore as a result of bacterial action. Bioleaching is a fairly new technology used in metals recovery. Therefore it is important for the mine to collect and analyze data from different stages of the minerals process. Talvivaara mine?s Metso DNA system has integrated machine condition monitoring and information management. These are not only necessary but also crucial in environmental conditions where the outside temperature can drop below -35°C, where ice and snow dominate the landscape and impact the equipment for four months a year and where distances between equipment can be up to 7.5 kilometers. Keywords: DCS, analyzer, machine condition monitoring, automation, remote communications, optimization, mining, metso DNA, Talvivaara

Sep 1, 2012

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 S. Gomez, P. A. Bebswa, A. N. Mwale

"The research aimed at improving the way screen performance analysis is conducted using a model that accounts for most feed and design parameters in its formulation. Thus, the aim was to validate the fine screen model that was developed at the Centre for Minerals Research (CMR) unit at the University of Cape Town. Fine wet screening is increasingly becoming an important application in fine grinding operations. Minera Saucito, a lead-zinc Mexican mine has replaced hydrocyclones with eight stacks of five decker derrick screens to close the ball mill in their concentrator plant. The five decker stacks have improved the overall plant throughput by 20% and have had the ball mill circulating load reduced considerably. As a continuous plant optimization process, a number of surveys were carried out to assess the performance of the 75 µm panel aperture installed screens. The surveys were conducted at seven different feed rates to the entire nest of screens to collect performance data. Using the fine screen model to analyze the results, it is found that as the feed rate increase, the sharpness of separation reduces. The CMR fine screen model was fitted to these results. The model fits the plant data with good accuracy. Simulated results based on this model are also presented.INTRODUCTION The potential of high frequency vibrating screens has long been identified as an alternative to hydrocyclones in grinding applications (Rogers and Brame, 1985). However, high frequency vibrating screens have had two main disadvantages, low capacity and high wear rates (Kelley and Mckeon, 2005; Teknikk, 2009). Current vibrating screen technology overcomes these challenges by multiple deck screen design and use of wear resistant urethane materials for panel construction (Kelley, 2007; Valine and Wennen, 2002). For a example, the Derrick screen’s material of construction is a tensionable urethane that provide high open area ranging between 35 to 45% with considerably reduced blinding (Valine and Wennen, 2002). Thus, there has been an increased uptake by the mining industry in the use of wet fine vibrating screens closing the ball mill as the final classification stage in the comminution circuit (Barkhuysen et al., 2010; Frausto, Ballantyne et al. 2017; Pelevin and Lazebnaya, 2009; Teknikk, 2009). Even though there is a number of models in existence, none of these models adequately predict the performance of high frequency vibrating screens (Karra, 1979; Rogers, 1982; Subasinghe et al., 1990; Trumic and Magdalinovic, 2011). Recently Mwale et al., (2016) developed a model for predicting the performance of high frequency vibrating screens using the partition curve properties. The input parameters of the model include screen open area (??) in m2, tonnage feed rate (????) (tph) and the weight fraction of solids (??) in the feed for a given panel aperture size. The model was developed based on data collected from a single deck industrial size derrick screen, in a pilot setup. The work presented in this paper is an attempt to test this model using data collected from Minera Saucito concentrator, an industrial plant whose comminution circuit is shown in Figure."

Jan 1, 2018

By Erico Tabosa

The turbulence characteristics and measurement techniques for agitated tanks are well established for liquid and liquid-gas systems. However, the literature shows that the overall energy dissipation rate (related to turbulence) is affected not only by air addition, but also by the concentration of solids. Unfortunately, there are no reliable measurement techniques for characterizing turbulence in a three phase (liquid-solids-gas) environmental system, which is the case in a flotation cell. Therefore, the effect of turbulence on flotation kinetics is very much one of conjecture. The aim of this work was to develop a sensor to characterize the degree of velocity fluctuation, which is related to turbulence, in a flotation cell operating with slurry and air. This sensor comprises a piezoelectric film transducer that converts mechanical to electrical energy. Hence, when the sensor deflects backwards and forwards an AC voltage is created. Flotation studies carried out using this sensor in a 3m3 Metso RCS cell processing a copper sulphide ore showed a highly turbulent impeller zone with transition to a significantly less turbulent zone in the upper portion of the cell. The transition region moves as the cell operating variables are changed, for instance the impeller speed, impeller size, air rate and feed solids concentration. Keywords: mechanical flotation cell hydrodynamics, turbulence characterization

Sep 1, 2012

By P. K. Rozakeas

It has been experimentally demonstrated that the application of electrokinetic techniques in the continuous flow of coal-water suspensions within a helical anode-cathode pipe geometry effectively causes a significant reduction in the wall shear stress. This reduction in the frictional force at the cathodic pipe wall surface is attributed to a decrease in the concentration of coal particles in this flow region caused by the migration of negatively charged coal particles towards the anodic surface(s). The disadvantage of flow-intrusive geometries is the reduction in effective flow area as well as an increase in frictional surface area caused by the placement of the anode(s) within the flow region. Experimental data is presented for a non-intrusive helical anode-cathode geometry embedded in the pipe wall which shows that a reduction in pumping energy of approximately an order of magnitude is possible. A sample of sub-bituminous black coal fines having a mean particle size of approximately 17 microns was used to prepare coal-water suspensions with a solids concentration of 50%(w/w). The practical and economic implications of this work relate to an enhanced method of long distance transportation of slurries in pipes as well as an alternative technique for continuously separating solid-liquid suspensions.

Jan 1, 2014

By Leon Lorenzen, Nursen Guresin, Harald Muller

The development of mining projects from discovery, exploration to actual production is a complex and time consuming process. Often poor process plant performance can be attributed to the use of non-representative samples and inadequate and/or unsuitable metallurgical test work when designing flow sheets during project feasibility study stages and specifying process equipment. Samples not representing the ore deposit and inadequate test work may lead to increased project development costs, since expensive test work and engineering may have to be repeated. It should be noted that for higher level engineering studies, larger scale test work is recommended and is a requirement for feasibility level studies. This would apply even if the technology is considered mature and well proven, as each ore body may have its own unique characteristics that, if untested at a larger scale, could result in significant design shortcomings, which will have to be rectified at later stages of the project, usually at significant additional costs

Jan 1, 2014

By T. S. Reddy

Research and Development Centre for Iron and Steel (RDCIS) a unit of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is continuously engaged in reduction of energy consumption at SAIL plants by implementing innovative and new concepts. In this regard, continuous efforts are being made to recover waste heat in Sinter Plants. This paper discusses existing waste heat recovery measures taken and proposed measures planned in Sinter Plants. One such effort is on waste heat recovery from sinter coolers. Hot sinter is discharged to the crusher at the end of the sinter machine at a temperature of 500 to 800°C. Temperature of hot sinter is brought down to nearly 100°C in the sinter cooler with air-cooling. The air after cooling the sinter is generally discharged to the atmosphere at about 225 to 300°C. It is planned to recover heat from the hot air that is being released to atmosphere and heat the process water, which is being added at ambient temperature in mixing drum at Bhilai Steel Plant. The temperature of raw sinter mix will be raised by addition of this hot water, which will help in improving the productivity of sinter machine. It is estimated that Waste heat recovery to the tune of 1.5 to 2.0 Gcal/h is possible with reduction in CO2 emissions in the range of 4000 to 5000 ton/year. The novel approach that is being adopted is addition of hot water in mixing drum for higher sinter productivity for the first time in India. Keywords: waste heat recovery, sinter plant, hot water generation, emission reduction, CDM

Sep 1, 2012

By Kr. J. Dedelyanova

Selective flocculation of iron minerals could improve the economics of high intensity magnetic separation as concomitant process. When the minerals are finely disseminated is necessary a finer grinding to be applied which generates a lot of slimes. The HIMS is not enough efficient for particles below 20 microns ? territory where the selective flocculation is already well known industrial practice, so the combination of these two methods of beneficiation can bring a higher grade at high recovery to be achieved. The dynamics and selectivity of the precipitation process is studied in batch tests with flocculant starch and dispersants sodium silicate and sodium hexametaphosphate. The influence of preliminary conditioning with nitrogen acid at pH 2 before flocculation is also investigated. Flowsheet including these two methods is tested and the distribution of iron is shown.

Jan 1, 2014

By J. Seo, W. Kim, I. Bae

"Microcrystalline silica impurities such as quartz and opal-CT commonly associated in bentonite should be controlled and removed as far as possible when bentonite is used as biocompatible raw material because they show sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity. Since opal-CT contained in bentonite in trace amounts cannot be well separated by conventional sedimentation method, in this work, the ultrasound-assisted removal of the impurity was attempted. Irradiating ultrasound into bentonite-water suspension promoted the production of fine montmorillonite particles in the suspension and the production markedly increased when montmorillonite was activated by Na2CO3. Subsequent centrifugation of the suspension made it possible to recover pure montmorillonite particles as an overflow product. Only 16.2 mass % of total solids was recovered as an overflow from the non-activated suspension, whereas 63.5 mass % was recovered from the activated suspension at centrifuging speed of 10000 rpm. Increasing sonicating time enhanced the yield of overflow, however, excessive sonication up to 10 min hindered the purification of montmorillonite. It was observed that the peak reflection of (101) plane of opal-CT in overflow increased as sonicating time increased during prolonged sonication. INTRODUCTION Bentonite consisting predominantly of mineral montmorillonite is clay-rich soft rock generated frequently from the alteration of volcanic ash. Depending on the nature of its genesis, bentonite contains a variety of accessory minerals, which may include mainly quartz, feldspar, opal cristobalite/tridymite (opal-CT), calcite, illite and mica. The presence of these accessory minerals can impact the industrial value of the deposit, reducing its commercial value depending on its applications. Therefore, bentonite is often purified by removing these impurity minerals for special applications where specific properties and characteristics are required (Murray, 1999). Among the special applications, bentonite is often used in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry as both excipient and active ingredient in the forms of liquid (suspensions, emulsions), semi-solid (creams, ointments) and solid (powder, capsules and tablets). The basic requirements for bentonite to be used as raw material are pure, microbiological and mineralogical inertness. Physical properties such as swelling volume and gel formation are also important. Particularly, microcrystalline silica polymorphs such as quartz, cristobalite and opal-CT should be controlled and removed as far as possible because they show sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans."

Jan 1, 2018

By J. Bhattacharya

In many different ways industrial raw materials resources industry as a whole has accepted the principles of sustainable development and has made a commitment to move toward this goal. The critical question now is ?how?? While many companies have adopted policies and are implementing community relations programs, sustainability is not always ?lived? throughout the organization. While traditional programs and commitment from the top are critical, employees within all functional areas can advance sustainability. Individuals can make difference at all organizational levels, and it is this collective action that is so critical for enhanced financial performance as well as the preservation of the industry. Keywords: value chains, sustainability, legislation, auditing process

Sep 1, 2012

By João Queiroz, Cristian Marquez-Sarmiento, Luiz Teixeira

The removal of various metals from process waters and effluents is usually done by precipitation of the corresponding hydroxide. Manganese however is one metal that does not respond efficiently to that approach. It may be seen in its eH X pH diagram that the way of oxidation to Mn IV rather than hydrolytic precipitation of the Mn II ion as its hydroxide, is the way to efficient precipitation of Mn in the pH range 6 to 10. We studied the use of oxidants O2; NaClO; H2O2; Caro´s Acid (H2SO5) and the combinations of O2 or H2O2 with Na2S2O5, and H2O2 with NaClO, for the oxidative precipitation of Mn from synthetic solutions starting with 10 mg/L Mn, at 25 oC. In adequate conditions, which include pH > 8, it is possible to reach final [Mn] less than 0.1 mg/L in 60 minutes of reaction time.

Jan 1, 2014

By S. Owada

A national project of ?Establishing ?Green-Hydrogen (G-H)? Society in Honjo-Waseda Area? is now being developed by Waseda University together with four other universities and ten companies. The project involves three tasks of technological development of, (1)?G-H? production, (2)?G-H? refining, transportation and storage, and (3)?G-H? utilization. This paper focuses the first task of ?G-H? production from aluminium dross. We developed the physical treatment process by combining selective grinding with vibrating rod mill and electrostatic separation, in order to produce two kinds of materials, one is metal aluminium concentrate to recover it and the other is raw material to produce ?G-H? and aluminium hydroxide which can be generated by the treatment with sodium hydroxide aqueous solution. Here, we described the concentration mechanism of metal aluminium in the selective grinding and electrostatic separation and proposed a separation flowchart for optimizing the ?G-H? system in Honjo-Waseda area.

Jan 1, 2014

By Francisco Vicuña, Miguel Becerra, Gonzalo Montes-Atenas

"The optimization of the copper recovery from smelting slag by a process of comminution / flotation has been a widely discussed topic during the last few decades. Several studies covering the characterization of different types of slag, the impact of the slag cooling rate and of different flotation operating conditions on the flotation performance have been widely published. Currently, at El Soldado mine site (Angloamerican), there are large copper bearing slag deposits that can be a profitable alternative for the concentrator with capacity to treat this material. Under this process schema, the optimization of the flotation process to obtain better copper recoveries is a relevant topic of study. The aim of this study is to assess the efficiency of a sulfidation stage of a slag and to correlate that process with copper recoveries results in a flotation circuit. This article presents a detailed examination at both laboratory and plant scales of the slag sulfidation on the recovery of copper in the flotation process. The experimental methodology involves studying the effect of the sulfidation agent dosage, the pH, the particle size distribution of the flotation feed and the conditioning time. Furthermore, the performance of the sulfidation stage was analysed through the XPS analytical technique. It was observed that the sulfidation of particles in floatable size fractions correlated well with the increase in copper recovery. The results indicated that it is possible to increase between 2 to 4 points the total copper recovery with a sulfidation process implemented appropriately."

Jan 1, 2014

Electrochemical behaviors of synthetic and natural enargite in buffer solutions have been investigated using open circuit potential, stationary polarization and cyclic voltammetry as functions of solution pH, scan direction, scan range, scan rate and dissolved O2. The results indicate that the electrochemical behaviors of synthetic and natural enargite are very similar; solution pH, scan direction, scan range and scan rate have remarkable effects on the electrochemical behavior of enargite while dissolved O2 has little effect on the electrochemical behavior of enargite. The potential range in which enargite possesses the ability of passivation is from ?0.9 V to + 0.83 V vs. SCE. Enargite is most stable in neutral and alkaline solution around potential ?0.2 V vs. SCE. The main oxidation products on enargite surface in alkaline solution are Cu(OH)2 while the potential imposed on it is within the range of ?0.2 V to 0.33 V vs. SCE and Cu(OH)2 + S0while the potential applied is higher than 0.52 V vs. SCE.

Jan 1, 2014

By M. R. Garmsiri

With the environmental issues and water recycling becoming more significant, the development of deep cone thickeners has improved the efficiency of thickening. While deep cones performance is dependent on many factors, the sensitivity of an industrial thickener to each variable factor has not been determined. In this work, four industrial deep cone thickeners, which are used on tailings stream in Shahrebabak Copper Complex, were monitored for a year to analyze the effectiveness of different factors affecting the performance. Feed flow rate, fine fraction of the feed, solids concentration, flocculant dosage and concentration, solids density, pH, temperature and bed height were the factors investigated on the basis of partial R2 and partial correlation. Results indicated that, with positive effect, feed slurry dilution affected the dewatering efficiency most sensitively. With a negative effect, the sensitivity of dewatering efficiency of deep cone thickeners to flocculant dosage was negligible. While, decreasing flocculant solution concentration had a considerable positive effect.

Sep 1, 2012