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ORE, WASTE and MINERALOGY

ORE, WASTE and MINERALOGY. What is an ore? What is waste? What is the role of mineralogy in MMPE? How do these questions change for different commodities?. Downstream Processing. Mine/mill complex produces ore or concentrate or unrefined metal/product

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ORE, WASTE and MINERALOGY

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  1. ORE, WASTE and MINERALOGY • What is an ore? • What is waste? • What is the role of mineralogy in MMPE? • How do these questions change for different commodities?

  2. Downstream Processing • Mine/mill complex • produces ore or concentrate or unrefined metal/product • product transported by airplane, rail, truck or ship to smelter or refinery • if leaching is used at mine/mill, unrefined metal or final product is produced • Smelting • pyrometallurgical processing (multi-stage) • roasting to partially remove/control sulfur content • melting to separate oxides from sulfides (flux and slag) • oxidation to remove sulfur and iron • need SO2 control and slag disposal system

  3. Downstream Processing • Leaching • hydrometallurgical processing • vat leach, agitation leach, heap leach, in-situ leach • Pressure Oxidation or Biological Leaching • solid/liquid separation or ion adsorption process • solution purification (solvent extraction/ion exchange) • need residue disposal method (dewatering/storage) • Refining • electrometallurgical processing • electrowinning to recover metals from solution • electrorefining to purify unrefined metal • treatment of slime deposits for PMs recovery

  4. What is an Ore? Definition: An ore is a mass of mineralization within the Earth's surface which can be mined - at a particular place; - at a particular time; - at a profit.

  5. What is Waste? Definition: Waste is mineralized rock that is removed from a mine to provide access to an underlying or nearby orebody containing at least one mineral of value. Types of Waste: - footwall material (typically barren material) - hangingwall material (typically contains sulfides) - gangue material contained within the ore

  6. What is Waste? Waste rock can become ore at some later time. - metal/commodity prices can change - other values are discovered within the waste - new technology is developed - environmental protection costs become too high - ore has been exhausted; too costly to close mine

  7. Mineralogy in Mineral Processing Types of minerals in the ore have major impact on operation and control of the processing plant. - relative abundance of ore minerals - feed grade and concentrate grade - types of gangue minerals - slime content (clays, etc.) - pH effects (alkali rock) - pyrite and pyrrhotite (iron sulfides) - association of ore and gangue minerals - liberation characteristics - disseminated vs. massive

  8. Process Mineralogy - establish regular mineralogical analysis of mill feed and other process streams - perform a size-by-size analysis of rock and ore mineral contents and associations - relative abundance - free/locked ratios of grinding circuit streams - perform metallurgical testwork on ore samples containing different mineralogy Virtual Atlas of Opaque and Ore Minerals in their Associations < http://www.smenet.org/opaque-ore/ >

  9. Process Mineralogy - establish metallurgical performance of each process stage for each ore mineral type - determine size ranges where losses occur and examine minerals responsible for these losses - establish impact of impurities on product quality - use all the above information to decide on process changes to improve plant performance with respect to recovery and product quality

  10. Copper Ores Minerals: SulfidesOxides chalcopyrite - CuFeS2 cuprite - Cu2O bornite - Cu4FeS5 malachite - Cu2CO3(OH)2 covellite - CuS pseudomalachite - Cu5(PO4)2(OH)4 chalcocite (Cu2S) azurite - Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 cubanite (CuFe2S3) chrysocolla - CuSiO3·nH2O - (Cu,Al)2H2Si2O5(OH)4·nH2O Gangue Minerals: pyrite quartz feldspars silicates clays arsenopyrite Mn-wad calcite dolomite

  11. Copper Ores Ore Types: Porphyry: igneous rock of large crystal size (phenocrysts) embedded in a ground mass. Typical mineralization is disseminated chalcopyrite with molybdenite (MoS). Massive:pyrite/pyrrhotite host with chalcopyrite, pentlandite, sphalerite, arsenopyrite, galena. Vein-type:quartz host with veins of chalcopyrite, chalcocite and pyrite

  12. Copper Ores Problems: Liberation: fine grinding may be required. Recovery:oxide/sulfide ratio changes, presence of slime particles, poor recovery of coarse copper minerals. Product:poor liberation, presence of As, Bi, Pb Qualityhigh %H2O, variable Cu grade Separation:poor distribution of Co, Zn, Pb, etc.

  13. Copper Ores Anhedral chalcopyrite (yellow, top right) is inter-grown with quartz (light grey, right centre). Pounded to euhedral rutile (grey-white, centre left) is disseminated throughout the host rock. The poorly polished dark grey gangue is phyllosilicate. - El Salvador, Chile

  14. Copper Ores – Concentrating Simplest Copper Flotation Circuit

  15. Copper/Gold Ores – Concentrating Copper/Gold Flotation Circuit

  16. Copper/Moly Ores – Concentrating Copper/Moly Flotation Circuit

  17. Copper Ores – Concentrating Multiple Sulfide Differential Flotation Circuit

  18. Copper Ores – Concentrating Mixed Oxide/Sulfide Copper Flotation Circuit

  19. Copper Ores – Direct Leaching Copper Oxide Processing to final metal

  20. Copper Ores – Concentrating Copper Oxide Processing - LPF

  21. Copper Ores – Concentrating T.O.R.C.O. Processing of Cu Ores (Segregation Process) - Requires at least 4%Cu

  22. Copper – Downstream Processing Kidd-Creek Smelter flowsheet

  23. Copper Anode Casting Wheel

  24. Nickel Ores Minerals:pentlandite (NiFeS) chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) Gangue Minerals: pyrrhotite (FexSy where x:y = 0.9-1.1) quartz feldspars silicates clays Mn-wad calcite

  25. Nickel Ores Ore Types: Massive:pentlandite and chalcopyrite in relatively equal quantities in massive pyrrhotite (FexSy). Massive:low copper content in pyrrhotite host. Massive:presence of clay slimes, talc chalcopyrite/pentlandite with pyrrhotite

  26. Nickel Ores Problems: Ni-associations:3 types - as pentlandite - solid-solution in pyrrhotite - "flame" pentlandite in pyrrhotite Liberation:fine grinding may be required for "flame" pentlandite. Recovery:solid-solution losses. magnetic vs. flotable pyrrhotite Product:clay contamination Qualityhigh %H2O, variable Cu/Ni grade

  27. Nickel Ores Problems: Cu-Ni separation:- at milling stage - at the smelting stage - at the matte separation stage Pyrrhotite - magnetic (low intensity) for Recovery:monoclinic FeS (x:y > 1.0) - flotation for hexagonal FeS (x:y < 1.0) Synthetic Minerals: heazlewoodite (Ni3S2) chalcocite (Cu2S) Fe-Ni alloy (PMs)

  28. Nickel Ores Chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and cubanite - Stillwater, Montana, USA Notice flame pentlandite in chalcopyrite

  29. Nickel Ores 125µm Pyrrhotite (brown) has pentlandite (light brown, higher reflectance, centre) exsolution bodies as flames, aligned along (0001). Minor amounts of chalcopyrite (yellow, centre right) are associated with cleavage and fractures within pyrrhotite. Silicates are black.

  30. Nickel Ore Rhomb-shaped areas of deeply etched hexagonal pyrrhotite are surrounded by more lightly etched monoclinic pyrrhotite, which is the main phase. Very lightly etched monoclinic pyrrhotite (pale brown, bottom right) has a rim of granular pentlandite (light brown, higher reflectance). Pyrrhotite is intergrown with chalcopyrite (yellow, centre) and encloses magnetite (grey, top left).

  31. Cu/Ni Downstream Processing • Nickel • Typical Mine/Mill Treatment

  32. Downstream Processing • Nickel • Matte Separation processing

  33. Lead/Zinc Ores Minerals: galena (PbS) sphalerite (ZnxFeyS) where x:y = 0.0-0.1) marmatite (high-Fe sphalerite) anglesite (PbSO4) cerrusite (PbCO3) smithsonite (ZnCO3) hydrozincite (Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6) hemimorphite (Zn4Si2O7(OH)2·H2O) Gangue Minerals: pyrite/marcasite (FeS2) quartz pyrrhotite (FexSy) feldspars silicates clays Mn-wad calcite/dolomite/limestone

  34. Lead/Zinc Ores Ore Types: Massive: galena and sphalerite in a variety of relative quantities in massive pyrite/marcasite (FeS2). Massive:carbonate-hosted ore - Mississippi Valley. Massive:presence of clay slimes, talc galena/sphalerite with pyrrhotite

  35. Lead/Zinc Ores Ore Types: Pb/Zn: galena, sphalerite and pyrite Cu/Pb:chalcopyrite, galena and pyrite Cu/Zn:chalcopyrite, sphalerite and pyrite Cu/Pb/Zn:chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite and pyrite

  36. Lead/Zinc Ores Problems: Pb-Zn separation:- two-stage flotation - differential (Pb first/Zn second) Cu-Pb-Zn ores:- combined bulk/selective and differential flotation - Cu/Pb bulk followed by Zn float Pb-Zn oxide flotation: use of sulfidizing agents

  37. Lead/Zinc Ores Problems: Zn depression: ZnS is readily activated by Cu ions Cu/Pb separation: essential to avoid smelter penalties Liberation:difficult to assess without mineralogy Product:Zn conc > 55-58%Zn QualityPb conc > 60-65%Pb Cu conc > 25%Cu

  38. Copper/Lead/Zinc Ores Euhedral arsenopyrite (white, high reflectance, left) is inter- grown with galena (light blue- white with triangular cleavage pits, centre), chalcopyrite (yellow, centre) and sphalerite (light grey, centre right), with fine chalcopyrite inclusions (top left) or submicroscopic chalcopyrite (grey to brown-grey, centre right). A lath of poorly polished molybdenite (light grey, centre) is enclosed within chalcopyrite and galena and has partially rimmed arsenopyrite (bottom right). Minor amounts of rutile (light grey) form acicular crystals within the gangue (right centre). Black areas are polishing pits.

  39. Copper/Lead/Zinc Ores Reniform (kidney-shaped) sphalerite (light grey, centre) is interbanded with galena (white, centre bottom) and chalco- pyrite (yellow) in successive growth rings. Chalcopyrite in the centre of the right sphalerite Has replaced poorly crystalline pyrite (white, top right). Chalcopyrite can be seen to have higher relief than galena (bottom left). The gangue (dark grey) is sulfate. Black areas are polishing pits.

  40. Lead/Zinc Downstream Processing Simplified Lead Extraction and Refining

  41. Lead/Zinc Downstream Processing Simplified Zinc Extraction and Refining

  42. Iron Ores Minerals: hematite (Fe2O3) magnetite (Fe3O4) martite (Fe2O3:Fe3O4) goethite/limonite (Fe2O3·nH2O) siderite (FeCO3) ilmenite (FeTiO3) Gangue Minerals: quartz feldspars silicates clays MnO2 calcite

  43. Iron Ores Ore Types: high grade hematite: Carajas, Brazil (pure mineral) low grade hematite:Shefferville ores, N. Quebec (yellow/red/blue ores) hematite/magnetite:Iron Ore Company of Canada disseminated magnetite: Taconite ores in Minnesota hydrated/weathered ores: Itabirite and Limonitic ores carbonate ores:Siderite ores (Sault St. Marie)

  44. Iron Ores Problems: magnetite recovery: associations with hematite gravity separation: fine size liberation flotation:reverse flotation of gangue Product:SiO2 content < 2% Qualityproduct size (lump, sinter feed, pellet feed) magnetite content

  45. Samarco Iron Ore Flowsheet

  46. Samarco Iron Ore Concentrator

  47. Samarco Iron Ore Pipeline

  48. Labrador Iron Mining - Shefferville

  49. Iron Ore Processing Iron Ore Pellet Plant

  50. Iron Ore Pellets Malmberget, Norway

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