Applied Mineralogy In The Mining Industry

Techniques of performing applied mineralogy investigations, and applications and capabilities of recently developed instruments for measuring mineral properties are explored in this book intended for practicing applied mineralogists, students in mineralogy and metallurgy, and mineral processing engineers. The benefits of applied mineralogy are presented by using in-depth applied mineralogy studies on base metal ores, gold ores, porphyry copper ores, iron ores and industrial minerals as examples. The chapter on base metal ores includes a discussion on the effects of liberation, particle sizes and surfaces coatings of Pb, Cu, Fe, Ca and So4- on the recoveries of sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite. The chapter on gold discusses various methods of determining the quantities of gold in different minerals, including 'invisible' gold in pyrite and arsenopyrite, so that a balance of the distribution of gold among the minerals can be calculated. This book also discusses the roles of pyrite, oxygen, moisture and bacterial (thiobacillus ferrooxidans) on reactions that produce acidic drainage from tailings piles, and summarizes currently used and proposed methods of remediation of acidic drainage.

The Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) of the U. S. Department of Energy commissioned the National Research Council (NRC) to undertake a study on required technologies for the Mining Industries of the Future Program to complement information provided to the program by the National Mining Association. Subsequently, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health also became a sponsor of this study, and the Statement of Task was expanded to include health and safety. The overall objectives of this study are: (a) to review available information on the U.S. mining industry; (b) to identify critical research and development needs related to the exploration, mining, and processing of coal, minerals, and metals; and (c) to examine the federal contribution to research and development in mining processes.

Minerals are nonrenewable natural resources that are essential in the energy, manufacturing and construction industry. Mineralogy refers to a discipline of science that examines all facets of minerals, including their occurrence and distribution in nature, physical characteristics, internal crystal structure and chemical composition, as well as the physicochemical conditions that led to their origin. Mineralogy has significant role in mineral extraction and advancements in this field have resulted in industrialization of minerals. Applied mineralogy is a research field which focuses on the manufacturing of materials, and the prospection, extraction and refinery of ores. It also studies the impact of minerals on human health and the environment. This book unravels the recent studies in the field of applied mineralogy. It explores all the important applications of this field in the present day scenario. The book is appropriate for students seeking detailed information in this area as well as for experts.

This book presents a state-of-the-art analysis of energy efficiency as applied to mining processes. From ground fragmentation to mineral processing and extractive metallurgy, experts discuss the current state of knowledge and the nagging questions that call for further research. It offers an excellent resource for all mine managers and engineers who want to improve energy efficiency to boost both production efficiency and sustainability. It will also benefit graduate students and experienced researchers looking for a comprehensive review of the current state of knowledge concerning energy efficiency in the minerals industry.

This book provides a detailed overview of the operational principles of modern mining geology, which are presented as a good mix of theory and practice, allowing use by a broad range of specialists, from students to lecturers and experienced geologists. The book includes comprehensive descriptions of mining geology techniques, including conventional methods and new approaches. The attributes presented in the book can be used as a reference and as a guide by mining industry specialists developing mining projects and for optimizing mining geology procedures. Applications of the methods are explained using case studies and are facilitated by the computer scripts added to the book as Electronic Supplementary Material.

This volume contains: 18 selected papers from the International Conference on Applied Mineralogy (ICAM 91), held in Pretoria, South Africa on September 2-4, 1991; and 16 papers from the Process Mineralogy Symposia held at the Annual Meetings of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS) in Denver, Colorado, February 22-25, 1993, and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) in Reno, Nevada, February 15-18, 1993.

Minerals are part of virtually every product we use. Common examples include copper used in electrical wiring and titanium used to make airplane frames and paint pigments. The Information Age has ushered in a number of new mineral uses in a number of products including cell phones (e.g., tantalum) and liquid crystal displays (e.g., indium). For some minerals, such as the platinum group metals used to make cataytic converters in cars, there is no substitute. If the supply of any given mineral were to become restricted, consumers and sectors of the U.S. economy could be significantly affected. Risks to minerals supplies can include a sudden increase in demand or the possibility that natural ores can be exhausted or become too difficult to extract. Minerals are more vulnerable to supply restrictions if they come from a limited number of mines, mining companies, or nations. Baseline information on minerals is currently collected at the federal level, but no established methodology has existed to identify potentially critical minerals. This book develops such a methodology and suggests an enhanced federal initiative to collect and analyze the additional data needed to support this type of tool.

During the last decade, software developments in Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) provoked a notable increase of applications to the study of solid matter. The mineral liberation analysis (MLA) of processed metal ores was an important drive for innovations that led to QEMSCAN, MLA and other software platforms. These combine the assessment of the backscattered electron (BSE) image to the directed steering of the electron beam for energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to automated mineralogy. However, despite a wide distribution of SEM instruments in material research and industry, the potential of SEM automated mineralogy is still under-utilised. The characterisation of primary ores, and the optimisation of comminution, flotation, mineral concentration and metallurgical processes in the mining industry by generating quantified data, is still the major application field of SEM automated mineralogy. However, there is interesting potential beyond these classical fields of geometallurgy and metal ore fingerprinting. Slags, pottery and artefacts can be studied in an archeological context for the recognition of provenance and trade pathways; soil, and solid particles of all kinds, are objects in forensic science. SEM automated mineralogy allows new insight in the fields of process chemistry and recycling technology.