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By Nicholas Enraght – Moony, Alvin Johns, Zhonghan Zhang, Zhang Xianhua, T. Choo

"The tungsten (WO3)-rich ores from King Island Scheelite (KIS) Mine, Australia, containing scheelite(CaWO4) were previously recovered by gravity separation and flotation of fine scheelite (1978-92) with an overall recovery of 76% when both circuits were operating. Recently extensive test work has been conducted both in China and in Australia on KIS ores, assaying from 0.50%-1.34%WO3, and tailings assaying 0.2%WO3(GZRINM 2009; 2011a; 2011b). A new approach, which aimed at improving both recovery and grade of concentrate by means of an innovative all flotation route WOF (Whole Ore Flotation), achieved excellent results: 90%-92% recovery to concentrate grade of 66%-70%WO3for the ores. The process is characterized by the use of selective reagents in flotation, including a newly developed collector for scheelite, GYWA. The WOF process also embraces the "Improved Petrov Method" in the cleaning of scheelite rougher concentrate. Earlier investigations found that the removal of sulfides by flotation prior to scheelite flotation was not necessary. It was also found that recycling of process water did not influenceresults. Two main ore types were tested as well as tailings from 2009to 2001(0.20%WO3). In addition a flow sheet using wet high gradient magnetic separation (WHGMS) in tandem with flotation was also investigated for the tailings."

Jan 1, 2014

By F. L. Mentg

The utilization of acid leaching tailings was studied. It is obvious that the Fe in acid leaching tailings can be leached into solutions as Fe2+. In this paper, the influence of conditions, including the concentration of ferrous sulfate, pH, temperature and velocity of air flow was investigated. The optimum conditions for preparing seed crystal are as follows: the concentration of ferrous sulfate is 20 g/L; pH is 9.5~10; reaction temperature is 10~20?; velocity of air flow is 0.4m3/h. The optimum conditions for preparing iron oxide red are as follows: the concentration of ferrous sulfate is 5 g/L; reaction temperature is 80~85?; velocity of air flow is 0.13m3/h. At last, the product of iron oxide red could be prepared by ammonia method.

Jan 1, 2014

By S. J. Ma

To look into the ionic release laws of the sulphide tailings in some copper mine, the effects of the soaking period, temperature, oscillating speed, and pH of the solution on the heavy metals ionic re-lease were investigated through static soaking leaching experiments. The results show that Cu2+, Zn2+, Pb2+, Cr3+ are of different leaching behaviors with soaking period. The ionic concentration in soaking solution for four ions has a great gap. Zn2+ is more easily released out of sulfide tailings than Cu2+, Pb2+, Cr3+ , and the ion release concentrations are not proportion to their contents in the tailings. The time for each ion to reach its maximum concentration are different. The minimum concentration do not occur at the first day. Each ion concentration shows different fluctuation characteristic during soaking process. Solution pH, oscillating speed, and temperature affect the releases of Cu2+, Zn2+, Pb2+, Cr3+ out of the tailings to different extent. The effect of pH value on ion re-lease for the four ions ranks as Zn2+>Cu2+>Pb2+>Cr3+, the oscillating speed ranks as Pb2+>Zn2+>Cu2+>Cr3+, and the temperature ranks as Cr3+>Pb2+>Zn2+>Cu2+.

Jan 1, 2014

By M. F. He

There are three polymorphic modifications in pyrrhotite (monoclinic, hexagonal and orthorhombic), with monoclinic and hexagonal polymorph being more abundant. The floatability of different crystalline structures of pyrrhotite (monoclinic and hexagonal) is studied in this paper. It is shown that the floatability difference of monoclinic and hexagonal is obvious and that the flotation recovery of monoclinic pyrrhotite is greater than that of hexagonal pyrrhotite using different collectors . Using butyl dithiophosphate as collector, the flotation recovery of pyrrhotite is higher than when sodium diethyl dithiocarbamate and sodium butyl xanthate are used as the collectors. Monoclinic and hexagonal pyrrhotites are more easily activated by Cu2+ in acidic conditions than in alkaline conditions, while Cu2+ can not activate hexagonal pyrrhotite when sodium diethyldithiocarbamate was used as the collector. By the measurement of contact angle, it is indicated that monoclinic and hex-agonal pyrrhotite float well and are easily activated by Cu2+when dithiophosphate was used as the collector. Using sodium diethyl dithiocarbamate as a collector, the flotation behavior of pyrrhotite was investigated. The relationship between potential and pH range for pyrrhotite flotation was established. The results show that the flotation of pyrrhotite is dependent on pulp potential at certain pH values.

Jan 1, 2014

By K. Yoo

Cuprous oxide is one of the oldest antifouling agents and also acts as red pigment in these paints. In printed circuit board manufacturing industries, waste etchant contains a substantial amount of copper ion. In the present study, a process was suggested for recovering cuprous oxides from the waste etchant and optimum conditions were investigated to recover the cuprous oxides. The process consists of two steps: in first step, Cu powder is added into wastewater solution, and cupric ions re-duce into cuprous ions (Cu+Cu2+?2Cu+), where cuprous ions precipitate as cuprous chloride; In second step, cuprous oxide is synthesized by adding NaOH into cuprous chloride solution (2CuCl+2NaOH?Cu2O+NaCl+H2O). Optimum conditions were investigated to recover cuprous oxide in the processes. When copper powder was added into wastewater with copper ions, Cu concentration decreased from 15.6% to 2.6% and ORP decreased from 620 mV to -59.9 mV. This result shows that cupric ions reduced into cuprous ions. XRD data indicated that the precipitate was cuprous chloride powder. Using the cuprous chloride recovered and NaOH solution, cuprous oxide was synthesized. To investigate the optimum condition, various NaOH solutions were added into water with CuCl, and then pH, ORP, Cu concentration, Cu contents in precipitates were analysed. XRD data showed that main component of precipitates was cuprous oxide.

Jan 1, 2014

By Teemu Väyrynen, Matti Vilkko, Antti Jaatinen, Pekka Itävuo

"This paper shows that smooth and accurate feed-hopper level control is essential for consistent cone crusher operation. The objective of the paper is to define the best practices for tight control of cone crusher feed-hopper level. The paper discusses the challenges involved in a delay-dominant level control problem (specifically, dead-time-induced performance and stability issues, mass flow disturbances, process and actuator non-linearity) and proposes five corresponding control structures. The performance of the proposed control structure candidates is evaluated in a simulation study and, finally, a full-scale experiment is conducted for the best-performing candidate. The results of this study emphasize the importance of control structure selection. While the most obvious control structures failed to deliver the desired performance, the best result was achieved by using control structures that eliminate the conveyor transport delay (dead-time) from the control loop. In practice, the control loop dead-time can be eliminated by either using an actuator (variable-speed feed conveyor) that is connected directly to the feed-hopper, or by redefining the process boundaries closer to the used actuator (regulate the circuit mass balance instead of feed-hopper level). The presented control structures provide means to achieve a consistent cone crusher performance and size reduction. This facilitates efforts to improve the plant’s performance and increases the plant’s overall stability."

Jan 1, 2014

By Z. A. Zhou

In Canadian oil sands processing, flotation is used to recover liberated bitumen droplets from oil sands slurries. Similar to conventional mineral flotation practice, a fundamental limitation of recovering bitumen from low grade oil sand ores is its slow and ineffective aeration of the liberated small bitumen droplets. Gas nucleation and cavitation could provide better mechanisms for accelerating bitumen-bubble attachment. A research program was undertaken to examine factors affecting spontaneous bubble nucleation on bitumen surfaces. The results demonstrate that surface hydrophobicity and existence of gas nuclei in process water play a critical role for bubble nucleation. While there are more bubbles nucleated on highly hydrophobic silanated glass surfaces than on moderately hydrophobic bitumen, bubble nucleation on clean hydrophilic glass surfaces is negligible. Heating process water up to 85 ~ 95oC (as used in commercial operation) or boiling tap water prior to gas nucleation tests is shown to remove sufficient amount of gas nuclei existing in the water, thereby drastically reducing the number of bubbles nucleated on bitumen. Enhancing gas nuclei formation in hot process water is identified as a promising strategy to improve bitumen-bubble attachment during oil sands conditioning, and hence to increase bitumen recovery from low grade ores.

Jan 1, 2014

By C. G. Anderson

Industrially proven and applied nitrogen species catalyzed (i.e. NSC) acidic pressure leaching has been utilized to treat a number of ores, concentrates and recycled materials. This versatile technology offers many advantages including low temperatures, low pressures, low capital costs, low operating costs, faster throughput and less costly materials of construction than conventional pressure oxidation. This paper will elucidate the application of this technology for production of gold, silver, palladium, rhodium, zinc, germanium, gallium, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, rhenium and nickel. Recycled material applications will also be elucidated. In addition, details of an application for treatment of a refractory chalcopyrite copper and gold bearing ore will be presented and pertinent economics discussed.

Jan 1, 2014

By Heikki Häkkänen, Tommi Kauppinen, Navid Khajehzadeh

"There are a variety of methods suitable to analyse elemental and mineralogical contents of rock drill core samples. Current demands are on fast exploration and objective analysis of ore samples. This paper proposes a combination of Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) and image processing, entitled LIF-imaging, as a potential method for automated mineral analysis of the drill core samples. It is shown that LIF-imaging can produce a mineral map of the fluorescent minerals existing on the surface of the drill core samples. The test cases are drill core samples from a Ni-Cu mine situated in Kevitsa, Finland. The main prerequisite of LIF-imaging technique is a reference data, linking colours to the minerals. This study describes the calibration of LIF-imaging technique using precise but slow Raman spectroscopy. Using regularized logistic regression, a model is obtained that classifies the minerals based on their emitted fluorescent colours in the digital images. The abundance of each mineral group is estimated by pixel counting. The results are compared with X-Ray Diffraction laboratory assays performed on the same samples. The results show that the interpretation of the fluorescent minerals through LIF images corresponds to the XRD results. Furthermore, the utilization of the logistic regression to interpret the existing fluorescent minerals greatly improves the technique."

Jan 1, 2014

"Editor’s note: Each year, Mining Engineering features an industrial minerals review. Several people put in a fair amount of time in developing the material for this issue, all the while doing their own jobs. Thank you to the industrial minerals annual review editor, to the Industrial Minerals and Aggregates Division technical committee chair and vice chairs, and to the authors of the individual commodity profiles.Jim Norman, member SME, of Tetra Tech, is the industrial minerals annual review editor.Vishal Gupta, member SME, of EP Minerals LLC, is chair of the Industrial Minerals &Aggregates Division’s Technical Committee.The technical committee vice chairs include:• Vishal Gupta, member SME, of EP Minerals LLC, Agricultural Materials.• Joe Garska, member SME, of Imerys, ceramics and refractory materials.• Stanley Krukowski, member SME, of the Oklahoma Geological Survey, chemical raw materials.• Russell Winn, member SME, of R.E. Janes Gravel Co., chemical raw materials.• Justin Zdunczyk, member SME, of Pike Industries, construction aggregates.• Jerry Gauntt, member SME, of Golder Associates, fillers and pigments.• Ebrhaim K. Tarshizi, member SME, of the Michigan Tech, sorbents, filters and process aids.• Daniel T. Eyde, member SME, of St. Cloud Mining, specialty minerals.Their help makes possible this July industrial minerals issue. On behalf of ME readers, the editors thank them.Virta, R.L. U.S. Geological Survey, National Minerals Information CenterFour companies - H.C. Spinks Clay Co., Inc., Imerys, Old Hickory Clay Co., and Unimin Corp. - mined ball clay in four states in 2013. On the basis of preliminary data, production was 1 Mt (1.1 million st) with an estimated value of $47 million. Production increased by 3 percent in tonnage from 973 kt (1.1 million st) with a value of $45.1 million in 2012. Tennessee was the leading producer state accounting for 64 percent of domestic production, followed by Texas, Mississippi and Kentucky. About 67 percent of total ball clay production was airfloat, 22 percent was crude or shredded and 11 percent was water-slurried.ConsumptionIn 2013, domestic ball clay producers sold clays to the following markets: ceramic floor and wall tile (44 percent); exports (21 percent); sanitaryware (18 percent); miscellaneous ceramics (9 percent); fillers, extenders, and binders, and unspecified uses (4 percent each), based on 2012 end use patterns and current markets. Other markets accounted for less than 1 percent of the remaining ball clay sales or use. Sales reported for the manufacture of fiberglass or most filler, extender, and binder applications were likely to have been mainly kaolin mined or purchased by the ball clay producers.PricesThe average value of domestically produced ball clay was approximately $47/t ($43/st) in 2013 compared with $46/t ($42/st) in 2012, on the basis of a preliminary survey of domestic ball clay producers. The unit values of exported and imported ball clay were $126/t ($114/ st) and $373/t ($338/st), respectively, in 2013, compared with $62/t ($56/st) and $314/t ($285/st), respectively, in 2012. Unit values for most large export shipments increased in 2013, and a larger number of low-tonnage, high-value export shipments were shipped in 2013 than in 2012, resulting in a doubling of the average export value. Two low-tonnage, high-value shipments in 2013 accounted for the increased value of imports."

Jan 1, 2014

By J. P. Dai

The Fankou Mine in Guangdong province, China, processes a polymetallic ore containing averagely 4.2% Pb, 8.5% Zn, and 90 g/t Ag. The main metal minerals including sphalerite, galena and pyrite are very finely disseminated and unevenly occurred in the ore, making it difficult to liberate them from each other. This paper presents the processing technology of the Fankou plant and the characteristic features of the novel technology applied.

Jan 1, 2014

By Y. Q. Yang

Jig is a kind of conventional and old gravity concentration equipment, which is mainly used in the preconcentration of medium particle fractions of low-grade nonferrous metal ore. In the past ten years, studies on jigs have made a great progress on separation of coarse and fine particle fractions. At the same time, pneumatic jigs have been widely used in processing of nonferrous metal ore. In this paper, pilot test study and commercial operation for several kinds of jigs used in Dachang con-centrator has been introduced. Dachang mining area of GuangXi province is rich in mineral resources, where many minerals exhibit various complex properties. Many elements such as Sn, Pb, Sb, Zn, S, As, Cu, In, Ag, Gd, Ag, Ga, etc, were found in the run-of-mine ore (ROM). At present, Dachang concentrator produces tin concentrate, lead-antimony concentrate and zinc concentrate. Other valuable elements get enriched and recovered in above concentrates. Dachang Mine with a mining operation history more than sixty years will end its mission on the rich ore resource exploitation. At present, low grade ores are porcessed in the concentrator, and the concentrator begins to run at a loss upon processing the low-grade and refractory ore. Heavy medium cyclones were used in the concentrator for processing 20-4mm fraction, Gongge jigs for 4-2mm fraction, and cone concentrator combined with spiral concentrator to discard the tailings of -2mm fractions. In order to minimize overgrinding, table flotation was used to recover some liberated cassiterites in a complex processing technology. Therefore, the concentrator is difficult to manage. Many years studies have shown that heavy medium cyclones and spiral concentra-tors can be replaced by sawtooth shaped wave jigs to discard 50% tailings to improve the grade of feed. And the feed was divided into rich one and poor one to minimize overgrinding of valuable cassiterites with different grinding mills. In this case, the recovery of the valuable minerals can get improved and the flowsheet was simplified. Moreover, the concentrator begins to make profit with reduction of cost. At the same time, pollution in the concentrator gets reduced and the working condition gets improved too. Sawtooth shaped wave jig was used in Changpo concentrator for replacement of cone separators and spiral concentrators to discard the tailings of -4mm fraction, and the yield of discarded tailings got improved from 30% to 50%. Grades of tin, lead and zinc in the tailings are lowered from 0.15%, 0.12%, 0.7% to 0.06%, 0.05%, 0.4% respectively, with a loss reduction of tin, lead and zinc from11%, 9%, 10% to 7.5%, 6%, 5% respectively, corresponding to the increasement of recovery of tin, lead, zinc from 52%, 50%, 55% to 56%, 56%, 62% respectively. Cost of the concentrator for processing one-ton ROM was therefore dropped from RMB155.28 to RMB119.74. Changpo concentrator lost RMB2.5 million in 2003, but it made a profit of RMB0.92 million in 2006 after the innovations. Batac jig was used in Tongkeng concentrator to discard the coarse tailings at 20-4mm, with a discarded yield of 35%, and the grades of valuable minerals got improved with a recovery above 95% for tin, lead-antimony and zinc.

Jan 1, 2014

By Dale L. Ramsey

The Pinkerton Tunnel Open Cut Project is part of the National Gateway Clearance Initiative improvement project to achieve a minimum of 6.4 meters (21 feet) of vertical clearance along CSX Transportation rail corridor so that double-stacked intermodal railcars can be transported between Mid-Atlantic States and their ports to Midwest Markets in the U.S.

Jan 1, 2014

By D. J. Zhao

The reduction and nitridation of preoxidized ilmenite pellets were investigated with the prospect of creating grain refiners containing titanium oxides and titanium nitride dispersoids. All the reduction and nitridation reactions were conducted in a furnace with a thermogravimetric analysis system under a H2-N2 gas mixture of 5 L/min. The ilmenite pellets were reduced at 1100°C for 4 hours under 80%H2-20%N2 gas mixture, and then respectively nitrided at 700°C, 800°C, 900°C and 1000°C for 12 hours under 10%H2-90%N2 gas mixture. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and analyzed by Energy Dispersive Spectrometers (EDS) and Electron Probe Mapping Analysis (EPMA). Iron oxides were reduced into metallic iron, and oxides of titanium were found, but titanium nitride particles were not identified in the products under the prevailing conditions.

Jan 1, 2014

By N. Acarkan

Beneficiation of the pyrite concentrate of the Kastomonu-Küre (Northern Turkey) copper ore seems to be attractive due to its high Cu, Co, and Zn contents. Pyrite concentrate were used in the experimental studies. Cu, Co, and Zn were recovered from the concentrate by the sulphatizing roasting, leaching and the precipitation using H2S. Sulphatizing roasting experiments were carried out in a rotary furnace and the optimal roasting conditions were found to be at 650°C roasting temperature and 3.0 h roasting period and addition of Na2SO4 of 3 % for the concentrate containing 0.58% Cu, 0.22% Co, and 0.04% Zn. Then, the roasted product was repeatedly leached with 10 g/L H2SO4 solution. Optimal conditions were found to be 60 oC leaching temperature, 2 h leaching period, and 30% pulp density. Leaching efficiencies for Cu and Co were over 99 %. The valuable metals in the pregnant solution were selectively precipitated by H2S as sulfides. Selective precipitation of Cu, Zn, Co was achieved by adjusting the pH and the temperature of the leach solution. Final metal recoveries of 99.20% Cu, 99.40% Co, and 95.60% Zn were attained. The precipitated sulphides are marketable products. Roasting gases with their 15% SO2 content are suitable for the production of H2SO4 and the leach residues can be integrated with the iron ore processing plant as they contain 57.50 % Fe, 17.70% gangue (SiO2, CaO, etc.), 0.04% S, and 0.06% non-ferrous metals.

Jan 1, 2014

By L. C. S. Dharmasiri, S. M. Shin, A. Senaputra, J. S. Sohn, K. H. Park, J. Avraamides

Reducing agents can be applied to leach metal values from natural and secondary resources such as laterite ores and deep sea manganese nodules and recycled materials such as spent batteries / catalysts which contain high-valent metal oxides of manganese, cobalt and iron. Selective leaching of some metals can be achieved by selecting conditions to control the saturated solubility and dissolution rates of metals from oxides or mixed metal/oxide matrices. The leaching results are rationalized on the basis of chemical species, Eh-pH diagrams and heterogeneous kinetic models. The role of reducing agents such as hydrogen peroxide, sulfur dioxide and iron(II) sulphate, in acid, alkali and in the presence of complexing ligands such as ammonia for the improvement of the leaching of metal oxides and metals is discussed. Previous studies on acid leaching of metals from nickel laterites, manganese nodules and spent catalysts/batteries in the absence or presence of reducing agents show that the rate controlling step involves the diffusion of protons through a thickening product layer on the particle being leached. It is shown that the leaching of nickel and cobalt from manganese nodules and zinc-carbon batteries in ammoniacal sulphur dioxide solutions also obey shrinking core kinetics.

Jan 1, 2014

By W. Q. Zhao

In order to raise the utilization rate of phosphate resource of Al-Jalamid Mine in Saudi Arabia, a flotation experiment for its phosphate rock was carried out by using WF-01collector that have been produced by Wengfu Phosphate Mine. The results showed that WF-01 collector had extensive adaptability for Al-Jalamid phosphate rock, and the grade of phosphate concentrate could be up to 33% P2O5 mixing the upper, middle and lower beds rock as well as its 80% more recovery.

Jan 1, 2014

By Jincheng Hu, Honggang Zhong, Qijie Zhai, Congsen Wu, Cheng Zhang, Jingzheng Ye

"The influence of cooling intensity on the solidification structure and ferrite phase content of a new duplex stainless steel (DSS) was investigated by using a thermal simulation setup for continuous casting. The results showed that the characteristics of the solidification structure were similar to their industrial scale manufactured slabs, including chill zone, colunmar zone and equiaxed zone. And austenite morphologies were mainly primary and secondary Widmanstatten sideplates as well as intragranular Widmanstatten plates. In addition, it revealed that the ferrite content increased with an increasing distance from the chill surface and decreased at colunmar to equiaxed transition (CET) position, then the value remained relatively stable at equiaxed zone. Furthermore, the ferrite content presented the same trend with the cooling intensity ranging from 100 mL/min to 2000 mL/min with the values just varying in a slight range.IntroductionThe duplex stainless steel (DSS) is the kind of steel that ferrite phase and austenite phase occupy about 50% respectively, or the content of the fewer phase has to be more than 30% [l]. The success of modem duplex stainless steels is to a large degree due to their higher strength than austenitic stainless steels, higher toughness than ferritic stainless steels, good weldability and high resistance to stress corrosion cracking as well [2,3]. The cost of stainless steel production continues to soar in recent years due to the increasingly higher price of Cr. In order to decrease the production cost, a new type of duplex stainless steel was developed by Bao steel [4]. This newly developed duplex stainless steel had low Cr content compared with 2205 DSS, and was expected to be applied into automobile industry. However, this type of steel was still in the initial stage of development, and the influence of continuous casting process on its solidification process and structure was still unclear, which needed to be studied further. Several works published in literature presented the effect of continuous casting conditions on duplex stainless steel (DSS) 2205, 2304 [5,6]. It was discussed that the cooling intensity in the chill-side had little efficient influence on the phase transformation. In this paper, the effect of cooling intensity on the solidification structure and ferrite volume fraction of this DSS at a given cooling rate was investigated."

Jan 1, 2014

By I. S. Zajac, Y. O. Oyediran, M. C. Robart

This paper presents an overview of the metallurgical work on the Strange Lake Alkalic Complex (SLAC), from historical development of the "Main Zone" to present day develoment of the "B Zone". The SLAC, originally discovered by the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) in the northeastern Canadian Shield of Québec and Labrador, is one of the world’s largest deposits of rare earth elements (REE) including yttrium and high field strength elements (HFSE) including zirconium, niobium, and titanium. It is part of a Precambrian, post-tectonic complex of peralkaline granites which intruded along the contact between gneisses and monzonites of the Churchill Province of the Canadian Shield. Mineralization of interest at Strange Lake principally occurs within peralkaline granite-hosted pegmatite and aplite sheets and, to a lesser degree, within the host granites, particularly in intra-pegmatitic granites. The highest grade and metallurgically most favorable mineralization is in the upper, open pit mineable parts of the SLAC. Metallurgical development has been conducted under a number of mining companies, and various value metals have been targeted throughout the history of the deposit, including yttrium, zirconium, niobium, and rare earths. Historic processing routes tested have included ore beneficiation, atmospheric leaching, solvent extraction (SX), and metal precipitation. This paper also presents the metallurgical development supporting Quest Rare Minerals Ltd.’s (Quest) 2013 Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and 2014 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).

Jan 1, 2014

By Tom Snyder, John Brulia

"The U. S. commercial explosives industry annually transports thousands of tons of hazardous materials (HM) in the form of explosives, oxidizers, and combustible liquids by highway in truck-tractor/trailer combinations and straight trucks, including pickups. Managing risk during transportation is every commercial explosives industry motor carrier’s number one job."

Jan 1, 2014