Search Documents

By Guy Chevalier

QCM?s pellet plant, located in Port-Cartier, Quebec, produces up to 8.6 million tons of iron ore pellets annually. Four different types are produced: three for blast furnace operations and one for direct reduction furnaces. The paper presents the scientific approach that led to the installation of new process equipment to improve the reducibility of direct reduction pellets (DR pellet). The findings, the equipment selection and some post start-up modifications are presented. This low silica DR pellet is used in Midrex and HyL shaft furnaces. A good DR pellet has to meet strict chemical, physical and metallurgical specifications. An important metallurgical property is its ability to release oxygen when exposed to reducing gases. Considering that the market for DR pellets is expanding and being aware that reducibility is critical for our clients, a program to improve the latter was undertaken. Test work showed that one factor which has a negative effect on reducibility is the proportion of particles larger than 75 microns. Knowing that the best way to reduce the amount of coarse particles was to close our open grinding circuits, we began evaluating the most suitable classification equipment applicable to our process operations. We settled on hydro-classifiers based on their very sharp cut and their low operating costs. In light of the hydro-classifiers performance it was also decided to replace the hydro-cyclones of an already closed circuit.

May 1, 2003

By J. G. Schofield, C. G. Tan, R. J. Ord

"Most electric furnaces in the nickel and copper smelting industries are still fitted with conventional electrode holders which consist of water-cooled electrical contact clamps and a pressure ring. The water cooling exerts a significant cooling effect on the electrode column. The importance of controlling the temperature of the Soderberg electrode paste at the contact clamp area is examined, using in-plant experience and computer simulation of the paste melting and baking process. In addition to the effect of water-cooling, the effect of other variables, including the mantle air temperature, the electrode current, the furnace freeboard temperature and the electrode slipping rate are discussed. Ways in which the variable heating conditions in the paste melting zone can be controlled are outlined.IntroductionIn most non-ferrous electric smelting operations, the breakage of Soderberg electrodes is an infrequent, isolated occurrence. Occasionally, however, a rash of breakages may be experienced on a particular furnace for what appears to be no obvious reasons. The extent of the breaks may not exhibit a uniform pattern; sometimes the break may be less than half a metre above the electrode tip; at other times it may be at or just below the roof level. The latter type of break is, of course, the most dangerous since it is closest to the non-baked, weak portion of the electrode paste column. No matter where the breaks occur, they result in abnormal furnace power, charging and tapping conditions and loss of production while the new electrode section is slipped and baked. On a six-electrode furnace, breakage on one electrode has the immediate effect of reducing the total furnace power by one-third. On a three-electrode furnace, the effect is more drastic, one half of the power being lost."

Jan 1, 1995

By V. Ross

"The Upper Group 2 (UG2) reef in the Bushveld Complex in South Africa hosts an estimated 40% of the world’s Platinum Group Metal (PGM) resources. The processing of this ore via flotation poses two particular challenges: limiting the levels of chromite in the concentrate to reduce downstream smelting problems, and enhancing the recovery of ultrafine (typically -10 micron), liberated PGMs. Conventional ways of suppressing the entrained chromite, such as froth washing, is not effective in PGM operations, which are dominated by mechanical cells. The recovery of fine particles is hampered by low collision efficiencies with air bubbles, as well as oxidised surface layers especially in tailings operations. This paper documents the results of laboratory tests on a run-of-mine PGM UG2 ore, investigating the application of a pneumo-mechanical column (PMC) and its effect on PGM flotation and its selectivity with regard to chromite. A key feature of the device is the stage-wise release of aerated slurry from an agitated downcomer, thus creating conditions where the superficial velocity profiles of air and slurry change axially within the separation zone. This aids segregation of the silicates and chromite-rich fractions in the separation zone, concentrating the latter towards the bottom of the column and minimising its entrainment into the concentrate. Comparison of the performance of the PMC to that of mechanical laboratory cells under equivalent operating conditions showed improved PGM flotation kinetics and recovery. This was accompanied by a decrease in gangue recovery compared to the mechanical cells by more than 40%, thus doubling the final rougher concentrate grade from 50 to 100 g/t. Significantly, whilst the overall Cr2O3 recovery was reduced by more than 60%, the selectivity (PGM recovery vs Cr2O3 grade in the concentrate) was doubled.INTRODUCTIONThe Bushveld complex in the northern part of South Africa hosts the world’s largest reserves of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs), representing approximately 40% of the total PGE. It is characterised by three main PGM bearing reefs, namely Merensky, Upper Group 2 (UG2) and the Platreef. The Merensky and Platreef are dominated by silicates in the form of pyroxenites, and carry economically recoverable amounts of copper and nickel, in the form of chalcopyrite and pentlandite. The UG2 on the other hand is a chromitite ore with chromite as (ideally, FeO.Cr2O3) the most abundant gangue, often constituting more than 70% by mass with a PGM grade of around 4.5 g/t. Other key gangue minerals are pyroxene, feldspar and talc. The PGEs occur in a wide variety of minerals, with platinum and palladium sulphides typically accounting for about half of the total. Base metal sulphides such as chalcopyrite, pentlandite and pyrrhotite occur in only very minor amounts, accounting mostly for less than 0.1% by mass."

Jan 1, 2018

By Ning Liu, Xuming Wang, Yongqiang Lu, Jan D. Miller

Bench-scale flotation experiments have been conducted to study the effect of nonionic polyethylene oxide (PEO) polymer surfactants on the flotation of Florida phosphate rock. It has been found that PEOs having a molecular weight from 1,200 to 8,000 are effective. Flotation results demonstrate that the addition of nonionic PEO has a favorable effect on phosphate flotation, especially on the flotation of coarse phosphate feed. At about the same collector level, phosphate recovery can be improved by 10-30% with PEO addition. The surface chemistry of phosphate flotation using the fatty acid/fuel oil/PEO system has also been studied to better understand the phenomena involved. The increase in phosphate recovery with PEO addition has been attributed to improved dispersion of fatty acid, which leads to better froth stability and a more hydrophobic surface state.

Jan 1, 1999

By Jim Frazier

Tradition has often dictated low design load stresses on piles. Such traditions often developed prior to modern static or dynamic pile testing methods and perhaps result from a few limiting situations. These low stress limits were then broadly applied, even in cases where the piles could carry substantially higher loads. With sufficient testing to prove the design, higher design loads may present significant overall savings to the project owner. The cost of the testing then becomes an insignificant cost compared to the potentially great benefit of increased pile loadings. To confirm higher load possibilities for driven piles, the pile is tested either statically or dynamically. Further savings and increased testing efficiency result from remote dynamic pile testing. This paper presents a project where design stresses were considerably increased as a result of additional testing and use of remote dynamic pile testing equipment.

Jan 1, 2002

By R. Lee-Aston

HALLOWAY mine of Tennessee Copper Co. at Copperhill, Tenn., has been under development for several years. It has two shafts, the A shaft, 1336 ft deep from the surface to the 16 level, and the B shaft, lying 500 ft to the southeast and extending 1385 ft deep from the 10 level down to the 24 level. A section through the two shafts, Fig. 1, shows the development work entailed by the proposal and the area involved. The Problem: For operational reasons it was necessary to extend the B shaft from the 10 level to surface, and the pilot hole and raising method was chosen. This method had been used to extend the Company's Boyd manshaft from the 10 to the 14 level in 1954, but no satisfactory hole surveying method had been employed. In that instance, when the hole was located it was found to be about 8 ft from its calculated position. The success of this shaft extension method lies in the ability to keep the pilot hole within the proposed shaft diameter for nearly the entire length. The approximate 670 ft of extension distance in one hole was thought to be excessive because of deflection encountered locally in other core drilling. Since a connection between the two shafts, intermediate between the surface and the 10 level, would be required at some future date, the pilot hole drilling was done in two sections. This intermediate level was fixed at the 6 level and distances became 470 ft from surface to the 6 level and 230 ft from the 6 to the 10 level. A rock pentice of 25 ft was left temporarily in place just above the 10 level.

Jan 3, 1958

By John M. Hartman

THE high temperature of the blast of modern furnaces renders it desirable that the pipe conveying the blast into the furnace crucible shall transmit and radiate as little heat as possible. To accomplish this, the pipe shown in the accompanying sketch was devised and patented. It consists of a slide-valve, leg-pipe, and belly-pipe, which are held together and to the tuyere by a system of levers and links. The slide-valve is superior to the old throttle-valve. The leg-pipe is formed of two thicknesses of wrought-iron pipe, with a space of half an inch filled in with clay and brick. The belly-pipe is made in the same way as the leg-pipe, and terminates in a globe face to suit the tuyere. The quarter turn is made extra thick, of cast iron, and the cap on the end is lined with clay also. The catches, A, B, C, are merely for convenience in putting the pipe together. The joints D and E are globe faces, and allow the pipe to adjust itself to any angle. The eye-piece is made of violet glass, which cuts off the glare from the bright coals in the furnace and allows a close examination of the interior, so that any water dropping or vapor can be detected. The glass does not become coated with dirt, like mica. Since good running of furnaces is shown by a bright tuyere, it is necessary to have a good eve-piece to examine then. To detach the pipe, a man lifts the weights, the side rods are then slipped off the bell crank under the quarter turn, the link under the belly-pipe is unhooked, and the pipe carried away. The same process is reversed to put the pipe together. The nozzle is changed by taking off the cap, G, drawing the nozzle through the belly-pipe, and inserting another. In this way the change can be made quickly, without taking down the pipe. On the old tuyere pipe bolts with brass nuts were used, which burned up and gave trouble. In other cases key-bolts were used, making it difficult to adjust the pipe. Bolts make too rigid a joint, and there is no provision for movement from contraction or expansion. As the temperature of the blast increases there is more expansion, and where rigid joints are

Jan 1, 1879

By Aspinall T. O, Just G. D

Computer software systems have been developed to assist in a wide range of specific mine planning and scheduling applications. In selecting appropriate systems for any mining operation it is apparent that certain features have particular advantages for each mine site. The ideal solution to this problem is to select a range of systems which best relate to sections of each mining operation. This approach raises potential data linking difficulties where output from one system is incompatible with input requirements for other systems. A study at the University of Queensland investigated the problems related to the integration of a number of mine planning and scheduling software systems. The project used data from large scale coal strip mining operations in Central Queensland. Two major computer packages used extensively in the study were the SURPAC mine planning and XPAC mine scheduling systems. Dragline and truck and shovel operations were analysed in the project. Results of the work have been directly applied at the mine site to assist current strip design by effectively automating the design procedure. This enabled sensitivity studies to determine the effects of changing dragline working levels and varying pit dimensions. Coal blending studies and procedures to optimise operations have been investigated using linear programming within a spreadsheet software application. Output from the SURPAC and XPAC programs was directly linked to the linear program for this analysis. The simulation program GPSS/PC was also used in a similar manner to assess optimisation parameters.

Jan 1, 1992

By Ivan Hunter, Gary Johnson

In many comminution circuits based on SAG mills, an operating cost penalty is incurred in terms of high unit power consumption. By the addition of a crusher to the circuit, to crush part of the so­called critical size fraction extracted from the mill charge, the power efficiency of the circuit can be significantly improved. Dominion Mining has now incorporated pebble crushing into three of its comminution circuits. The improvements in circuit performance have in all cases been significant, and in some cases dramatic.

Jan 1, 1991

By Steve Kral

After years of cutbacks, closures and layoffs, the mining industry is beginning to expand again. Metals prices are up and so is investor interest and confidence in the industry. Gold prices began to slowly move up in January2003 and finally cracked the $12.86/g ($400/oz) mark in early December. Silver, too, is up, as is copper. So the mining industry is feeling good about itself again and many companies are expanding existing mines and developing new ones. One side benefit to mining’s improved outlook is that companies are beginning to send more of their employees to industry conferences. Such was the case at the109th Northwest Mining Association meeting in Spokane, WA. The meeting was held in early December and attracted 1,100 attendees and 84 exhibiting companies. That is up from 2002’s attendance of about 900 people and 65 exhibitors. The theme was “A Partnership into the Future.”

Jan 1, 2004

By D. Hopkins, D. Türler, R. D. Giauque, W. B. Davis, M. Karaca

In a highly collaborative research and development project with mining and university partners, sensors and data-analysis tools are being developed for rock-mass characterization and real-time measurement of mineral content. Determining mineralogy prior to mucking in an open-pit mine is important for routing the material to the appropriate processing stream. A possible alternative to lab assay of dust and cuttings obtained from drill holes is continuous on-line sampling and real-time x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy. Results presented demonstrate that statistical analyses combined with XRF data can be employed to identify minerals and, possibly, different rock types. The objective is to create a detailed three-dimensional mineralogical map in real time that would improve downstream process efficiency.

Jan 1, 2002

The development of reliable and accurate solution sampling systems plus on-line atomic absorption spectrophotometers and voltammetric analysers at Pasminco Metals - EZ's (PMEZ) zinc refinery at Hobart, Tasmania, has led to extensive implementation of On-Stream Analysis (OSA) throughout the hydrometallurgical circuit. These systems complement industrial autotitrator and colorimetric analysers and with the comprehensive use of a powerful integrated Distributed Control System (DCS), provide extensive monitoring and control of all the important in solution' parameters for the plant. Samples can be left unaltered, or filtered or settled, to remove solids. They are then precision diluted and pneumatically transported to analyser shelters, where they are analysed for zinc, acid, copper, cadmium, lead, antimony, cobalt, nickel, mercury and ferrous, ferric and/or total iron. The range of analyses depends on the sample itself. The results are used for feed forward and/or feedback control of reagents where possible, or simple trend monitoring and out-of-specification alarming when closed loop control is not practical. The overall system reliability and accuracy is such that many daily composite plant samples are no longer analysed off-line. Operator sampling has also been reduced, and in two places, autotitrators with automatic sample pre-treatment have been installed for preparing and analysing samples collected by operators.

Jan 1, 1993

By J. L. SCHUELER

THE writer has reread Mr. Ingalls' interesting article in the July, 1923, issue of MINING AND METAL- LURGY on "The Use of Spelter in Galvanizing." It seems that most writers, in commenting upon coatings of spelter on sheets and wire, dwell upon the thin coatings which these materials carry, and rightly so. However, they seem to forget that until very recently, in the case of wire, the manufacturer did not know how to apply a heavy coating of spelter to the wire, especially if the wire was to be woven into fence or fabricated in some other manner, because heavy coatings of spelter are exceedingly brittle. This is even true in the case of high-grade spelter, but to a lesser degree than with Prime Western. Because of this brittleness, it has been necessary for wire manufacturers to smooth the coating by passing the wire through tightly compressed wiping means of some kind, usually asbestos. This removes all of the excess spelter and allows only a thin coating to remain. The latter, as a rule, is malleable and the wire can be fabricated without material injury to the coating.

Jan 1, 1924

By Ángel Ruiz-Sánchez

Ethylene glycol additions to aqueous acid solutions for leaching copper sulfides increase both copper and iron extractions compared to a conventional sulfuric acid leach with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The role of ethylene glycol is to prevent peroxide destruction, which normally occurs in solutions that contain both cupric and ferric ions. However, despite this improvement, ethylene glycol and sulfuric acid concentrations must be high (3.5 M and 0.7 M, respectively) to obtain satisfactory conversion levels at room temperature. In the present investigation, EDTA was used as an additive to complex the cupric and ferrous ions, lowering the requirements of ethylene glycol and H2SO4 to 0.11 M and 0.007 M, respectively, while minimizing oxidant decomposition. The experimental results for a mainly chalcopyrite, copper concentrate showed complete copper extraction in 24 h at room temperature, with the stoichiometric quantity of EDTA for the copper and iron dissolved. Tests using seawater were equally as successful.

By G. Henry, S. J. Domvile

Arsenic management practices at the Con Mine in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories have evolved over the last fifty years of operations under changing regulatory, economic and technological conditions and incentives. As a result of a processing upset in the mine' s arsenic trioxide reclamation plant circuit in August 1988, arsenic levels in the mine' s tailings pond rose from 30 to over 100 mg V. At these arsenic levels, water treatment operations were unable to meet water licence discharge criteria and the mine itself was under risk of closure due to limited water storage capacity. Under these internal pressures, the mine initiated its own research initiatives designed to restore water treatment operations. The new process developed from the mine's research, utilized the mine's existing water treatment plant hardware but introduced a pretreatment step involving a discrete sludge recycle and removal system. In February 1989, water treatment operations resumed under the new process.

Jan 1, 1992

By E. Haug, Quamrul Ahsan, R. Norcross

Cyanide leaching is the most common process employed in the majority of the gold extraction plants. These gold extraction plants naturally generate tailings and/or effluents that contain highly toxic cyanides, In geographic locations with excess precipitation and therefore net positive water balance, a portion of these tailings must be discharged. Before these highly toxic cyanide-containing effluents can be discharged to the waterways, cyanide and any other toxic substance must be destroyed. Geographic locations with high evaporation and low precipitation, as in the western USA, result in net negative water balance and therefore these plants can operate with a zero discharge option. However, with the current stringent environ­mental regulations and concerns for bird and wildlife mortality, even these operations may be required to partially treat their tailings to preclude potential harm to wildlife. Furthermore, heap leach opera­tions are now generally required to detoxify the heaps before abandonment. It is, there­fore, apparent that all gold extraction plants may be required to install some form of effluent treatment in order to achieve the above objectives,.

Jan 1, 1990

By E. L. Frueh

AMAX Base Metals Research & Development, Inc. has developed a process for treating copper-nickel mattes to produce copper cathodes and a pure nickel sulfate solution. In this process, the input matte is preleached in a copper sulfate electrolyte bleed solution so as to dissolve nickel from the matte and cement copper from solution. The preleach leaves a substantially pure nickel sulfate solution. The residue from the preleach is roasted to less than about one percent sulfur. A portion of the calcine is leached with sulfuric acid to make a copper sulfate solution for input to the tank house. The residue from this leach and the remaining calcine are smelted to form a bimetallic (copper/nickel.) anode. The anodes are electrolytically refined and copper is preferentially deposited on the cathode while the nickel reports to the electrolyte, A bleed stream is taken from the electrolyte and used in the preleaching of the input matte. This process produces high purity metal streams while consuming less energy and smaller amounts of reagents as compared with other matte processes.

Jan 1, 1983

By Albert R. Rule

Beneficiation studies were made by the Bureau of Mines to develop a process for concentrating phosphate minerals from the altered rock of the Phosphoria Formation. This report describes research on intermediate - and marginal-grade ores from southeast Idaho, The process developed consists of attrition scrubbing and sizing to produce a coarse concentrate; desliming at about 800 mesh (18.5 microns); flotation of the fine sands; roasting of the combined concentrates for removal of organic carbon and combined water; and leaching with SO2 for removal of magnesium and nonapatitic calcite. Results of continuous tests on three different ore types showed that approximately 80 percent of the available phosphate can be recovered at a grade suitable for phosphoric acid production. While leaching with SO2 is not necessary for all ore types, it is an important step in purifying concentrates containing excessive magnesium.

Jan 1, 1966

By J. A. Eisele, G. E. McClelland, M. D. Wroblewski

The Bureau of Mines is conducting research at its Reno Research Center to develop a staged agglomeration-heap leaching system and to electrowin the dissolved precious metals from the pregnant leaching solution. For direct electro- winning to be successful, the pregnant solutions generated during the Initial stages of leaching must be higher grade than obtained by conventional heap leaching. The precious metal concentration of the pregnant solution can be Increased by agglomeration pretreatment with cyanide solution which starts the leaching process during the curing period, by leaching with small volumes of solution and by cycling the leaching solution through more than one heap in a staged manner. The resulting pregnant solution is passed directly through an electrowinning circuit. The barren solution from electrowinning is recycled to the leaching circuit. Bench-scale research on the development of the staged leaching system and on the development of an efficient electrowinning cell are described. The Bureau of Mines developed agglomeration- heap leaching technology. This technology was readily adopted by the mining Industry for heap leaching crushed ores and mine wastes. Current research involves the application of this technology to finely ground feed materials such as precious metal-bearing milled tailings. Tailings agglomeration-heap leaching has also been used commercially.

Jan 1, 1984

By Dave Bulled, Jim Thompson, Tim Leriche, Mark Blake, Troy Wilkie

"A commitment to a core testing, plant modeling and reconciling technique has shown substantial economic benefits to IOC in terms of accurate production forecasting, smoother operation of the mill, improved expectations of throughput and co-operation across production departments from geology, planning, mining, and processing, to shipping of concentrate to market.This paper describes a successful seven year program of forecasting throughput of the autogenous milling circuit at the Carol Lake concentrator of IOC. Work started with audits of the grinding circuit in 2001 and benchmarking of the data collected from samples of mill feed and plant operation to the CEET mill design and throughput forecasting model.Initially 390 drill core samples were tested for SAG Power Index (SPI) to measure the energy required in milling, and the data distributed using a geostatistical technique across the two operating pits, so that hardness was estimated in each of the 40,000 blocks (or 1500 million tons) of potential ore. In 2004 a forecast of energy requirement, i.e. forecast of throughput for a given power availability at the mill, was produced for each ore block using the CEET model and used for mine planning to smooth plant throughput. The forecast for blocks mined on a monthly basis was reconciled with plant results over the next 2 years and minor changes made to the CEET model. The forecasting exercise was repeated in 2006 and in 2008 with the latest model based on the testing of almost 1300 samples of drill core at closer spacing.INTRODUCTIONThe contracting of sales to clients and the timely supply of products to meet those contracts is a cornerstone of good business practice. Ensuring the correct scheduling of production is a major concern of mining companies where the supply and qualities of the raw material is uncertain and production facilities are not flexible. This is particularly challenging when the product is of high volume and produced far from the customer, such as iron ore.Apart from the metal content of the ore being mined, the greatest impact on production scheduling is the throughput of the comminution section of the extraction plant; most notably when size reduction is achieved by autogenous grinding. The response of the mills to variability in the hardness of the ore can change throughput by as much as 50% from day to day at some plants."

Jan 1, 2009