Comminution and Mineral Separation—Geological Input to Metallurgy

Editor’s note: The aim of the Geology and Mining series is to introduce early-career professionals and students to various aspects of mineral exploration, development, and mining, in order to share the experiences and insight of each author on the myriad of topics involved with the mineral industry and the ways in which geoscientists contribute to each. Abstract Communication and collaboration during mine development and operation are essential if the maximum value of a mineral deposit is to be realized, since there are many links between the geology and mineralogy of an orebody and the complex task of an effective plant design. This is only achieved when geologists, metallurgists, and mining and environmental engineers jointly assess the results of metallurgical characterization. This requirement is examined here, albeit for only two of the three metallurgical ore-processing activities—comminution and mineral separation. Wealth is not captured (i.e., is destroyed) unless the most efficient and effective methods for comminuting and separating the mineral(s) of value in a deposit are identified. Benchmarking metallurgical test work requirements for the next mine development based solely on past experience does not address the variability that is unique to the mineralogy of each mineral deposit. Metallurgists are now slowly advancing from using a few (so-called) representative samples to assess the processing characteristics of a deposit to applying metallurgical testing to tens, or hundreds, of samples, with the increase in number of samples allowed by technological advances. More still needs to be done. Identifying the characteristics of different mineralization types of a deposit and grouping it into domains are crucially important. These steps simplify processing by separating ore into relatively few (4–6) types with similar expected metallurgical performance. Understanding what metallurgical tests are measuring and how representative the samples and tests are of the orebody domains are essential considerations for a testing program. No knowledge is bad; some is better or more useful than other. Testing for penalty elements (As, Bi, Hg, F, etc.) and, more importantly, for penalty-element minerals allows their effects to be mitigated during design of the processing plant; this should start during the early exploration stage. Continued evolution of orebody knowledge and confidence in processing ores will lead to better performance of the processing plant, thereby reducing investment risk.

Recovery of Coal Values from Middling and Rejects by Froth Flotation and Mozley Mineral Separation

The recovery of coals values from Middling and Rejects carries out by using Froth flotation and Mozley Mineral Separation. The middling and rejects are the waste products from gravity beneficiation process, it has been noted that most of washery plants are selling this product at low cost because they have less values.The independent variables selected for Mozley Mineral Separator and their ranges were indicated in the parentheses as follow, water flow rates (400, 600, 800ml/s), amplitude (1.25, 1.5, 1.75inch) and collection time (30, 40, 60 s) while the independent variables for froth flotation were; Pulp density (10, 12.5, 15 %), collector dosage (39.3, 44.4, 49.5 g/t) and frother dosage (61.8, 65.3, 68.8 g/t). The number of experimental runs and regression equation determined by using Design Expert softwareThe d80 for middling and rejects samples were 10.5mm and 12.89mm respectively. The ash contents for the middling sample treated by froth flotation decrease from 37% to 15.85% at the reagent concentration of 49.5g/t collector, 65.3g/t frother and pulp density of 10%. The froth flotation results of middling sample shown to have a great reduction of ash contents. The overall optimum middling recovery and yield for washery grade I and II attain at reagent concentration and pulp density of 47.703g/t, 68.568g/t and 13.2% for collector, frother and pulp density respectively. The feed of reject coal was 71% and the ash contents reduced to 28.87% with the recovery of 0.85%. The analysis through Mozley mineral separator did not show significant changes in the reduction of ash from both middling and rejects. The ash contents achieved were above the scope of the studies for recovering of coal values. The experiments for middling and reject by froth flotation and Mozley mineral separator may be carried out by varying other parameters as well as the type of methods.

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of UrSMU Mineral Processing Department

UrSMU Mineral Processing Department celebrates its 100th anniversary (1921–2021). During this period the department trained 4,601 mineral processing engineers providing technical personnel for concentrating mills all over the country. There are 2 Heroes of Socialist Labour, 21 Doctors of Science, 169 PhDs, 14 State Prize laureates, Heads of mining and processing works and concentrating mills among the graduates of the department. Professors of the department prepared and published textbooks and manuals for all the courses and developed new educational courses (“Information processing methods”, “Hydrochemical processing methods”, “Mineral sampling”, “The theory of the mineral separation”, “The theory of engineering experiment”, “Modern concentrating mills”, etc.). The laboratory of the department is equipped with the full set of equipment allowing students to carry out experiments when taking any course, as well as do individual studies on ore washability. The department holds an annual international conference “Scientific basis and practice of ore and technogenic material treatment”. The department received the delegates of the Plaksin Readings twice and took part in the International Mineral Processing Congress 2018 in Moscow.