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Grade Ore - an overview _ ScienceDirect Topics

The document discusses the categorization and economic considerations of mineral ores, emphasizing the need for mineral processing to make them suitable for use. It outlines the factors affecting the economic viability of mining, including mining methods, ore properties, and market prices. Additionally, it highlights the importance of understanding particle characteristics and mineralogy for effective processing and separation of valuable minerals.

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Xie Do
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2 views

Grade Ore - an overview _ ScienceDirect Topics

The document discusses the categorization and economic considerations of mineral ores, emphasizing the need for mineral processing to make them suitable for use. It outlines the factors affecting the economic viability of mining, including mining methods, ore properties, and market prices. Additionally, it highlights the importance of understanding particle characteristics and mineralogy for effective processing and separation of valuable minerals.

Uploaded by

Xie Do
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapters Chapter
and Mineral Processing
Articles
Related I Concepts
Terms The various elements that make up the Earth's
Recommendedcrust are not evenly distributed; rather, they exist
Publications as mixtures of minerals, each of which contains
only a few major elements. In turn, these
minerals can be concentrated in particular areas
by geological and weathering processes. When a
concentration is large enough for the mineral to
be economically exploited, the concentration is
known as an ore body.
Exploited minerals can be categorized into three
main groups: (1) metallic ores, used as sources of
metals (e.g., iron, copper, titanium); (2) fuel
minerals, used as fuels (e.g., coal, petroleum,
sources such as tar sands, oil); and (3) industrial
minerals (sometimes called nometallic), used
either without chemical processing (e.g.,
aggregates) or for the production of chemical
compounds (e.g., titanium dioxide). (Gemstones,
while often considered a separate group, can be
grouped with the industrial minerals.) This
categorization depends on the end use and does
not prohibit a mineral from having applications
in more than one category.
I.A The Need for Mineral Processing
Virtually no mineral, as mined, is suitable for
immediate application or for chemical
conversion to a final product; rather, it requires
some physical processing. There are several
typical reasons for physical processing. The first
is to control particle size. Materials used for road
paving or concrete have to be suitably sized to
minimize voidage. Second, there is often the
need to expose or liberate a constituent mineral
for subsequent processing. Exposure and
liberation (freeing) are achieved by size
reduction (comminution). For leaching
processes, exposure of the valuable mineral is
sufficient. However, when the minerals are to be
separated by physical methods, adequate
liberation of the constituent minerals from each
other is a prerequisite. A third reason is to
control composition. Here the aim is to eliminate
from the ore material that will be detrimental to
subsequent chemical processing (e.g., smelting).
Typical is the production of a concentrate,
containing the bulk of the valuable mineral, with
the elimination of most of the waste or gangue
minerals.
I.B Economic Considerations
Whether or not a mineral body is economically
exploitable depends on the total cost of
production. With metallic ores this includes the
cost of mining, (physical) mineral processing,
and (chemical) extractive metallurgical
processing. Even though the marketplace
determines the selling price of a metal, the
methods, and thus the production costs in the
three intermediate stages, can vary considerably,
depending on the ore body and its location, and
on current technology. The following are several
economic factors of significance.
THE MINING METHOD. Mining may be
underground, open pit, or alluvial. The method
employed will depend on the geological
formation of the ore, the properties of the
surrounding rock, and the location of the ore
body relative to the surface.
THE NATURE OF THE ORE. Four ore
properties are significant: the hardness, the
grade (or richness), the grain size of the valuable
mineral, and the ore mineralogy. The last
includes the existence of other potentially
valuable minerals, the nature of the gangue
(waste) minerals, and the texture and association
of the various minerals.
AMENABILITY TO PROCESSING. To allow
physical processing, the valuable and waste
minerals must have a property difference that
can be exploited. For subsequent chemical
processing, such as in the production of a metal,
the valuable mineral must have a composition
that is amenable to chemical treatment.
SELLING PRICES. Metallic and nonmetallic
mineral prices are primarily determined by
worldwide market prices. Most mineral products
are, or can be considered to be, sold under
contracts (known as smelter schedules in the
case of metallic concentrates) tied to metal-
exchange quotations. A typical smelter schedule
is shown in Table I. In this example payments
are made for the primary (Cu) and selected
secondary metals (Au, Ag). Deductions are then
made: first, from the primary and secondary
metals (to allow for losses in the smelting
process); second, a cost to cover the operation of
the smelter (treatment charge); and third,
deductions for excessive amounts of elements
detrimental to the smelting process (As, Sb, Bi,
Ni, Zn). This concept of payments and
deductions is characteristic of all mineral sales,
whether sold on the open market or transferred
within a company.

TABLE I. Illustrative Copper Smelter Schedule

Item Amount o
Copper Deduct 1.3% from wet Cu assay, and pay
(e.g., Metals Week) price less a deductio
than 4% Cu.)
Gold Deduct 0.7 g/t and pay for 90% of remai
of 3.0 c/g.
Silver Deduct 35 g/t and pay for 90% of remain
0.3 c/g.
Item Amoun
Treatment $70 /t.
charge
Labor Treatment charge is based on an
adjustment or decrease by 14 c/h for each 1 c/
Arsenic If 0.5% or more, charge for all at
Antimony Allow 0.2% free, charge for exces
Bismuth Allow 0.05% free, charge for exce
Nickel Allow 0.4% free, charge for exces
Zinc Allow 5.0% free, charge for exces
 

MILL AND MINE LOCATION. Location can


affect the operating costs (e.g., transport, fuel,
power, water, labor), and construction and
development costs (which may include town
development).
LEGISLATION. Legislation may impose
constraints (such as environmental
requirements) or offer incentives (as in subsidies
or tax benefits).
I.C Unit Operations
Because even subtle variations in mineralogy can
cause appreciable changes in processing
requirements, no two ores are treated “best” with
the same equipment layout. However,
examination of even widely differing
equipment flow sheets shows that only three
basic “unit operations” are used: size reduction,
separations, and materials handling.
Each of these operations can be further
subdivided. Coarse (greater than approximately
25 mm) size reduction is termed crushing, and
finer size reduction, grinding, although in fact
the subdivision is determined largely by the
equipment used rather than by particle size.
Separations may be either solids from solids, or
solids from liquids. The former, found in
virtually all mineral processing plants, may be
either sizing or (mineral) concentrating
separations, depending on whether the primary
interest is particle size or particle composition,
respectively. Solid–liquid separations are the so-
called dewatering processes.
Materials handling includes all of
the auxiliary operations associated with the
transportation, storage, and analysis of materials
approaching, within, or leaving the plant.
Because mineral particles are never
homogeneous and separations are never perfect,
product specification and the analysis of
efficiency can be extremely complex. Two
interdependent parameters, grade and recovery,
are commonly used to describe the effectiveness
of a separation. Grade is a measure of the quality
of any process stream entering or leaving a
separator, and is defined as

Grade ( % ) =
mass of component in stream
× 100 (1)
total mass of stream

Recovery measures how effectively a component


has been extracted from the input stream and
can be defined as

(2)
mass of component in product stream of int
Recovery ( % ) = mass of component in input stream
 

Because grade and recovery represent a trade-off


(in that an increase in one causes a decrease in
the other), no single number is truly capable of
describing separator efficiency.
I.D Particle Characteristics
Each ore body is unique, and therefore requires
the specific development of its own processing
circuit. Furthermore, once the circuit is
operating, it must be continually evaluated,
because of variations within the ore body. Since
all separators employ differences in particle
characteristics to bring about a separation, both
the initial development and the continuing
evaluation of a plant require appraisal of the
important characteristics of the mineral
particles: mineralogy, grade, hardness,
liberation, and particle size.
I.D.1 Mineralogy
Because separators exploit differences in particle
properties, it is essential to have knowledge of
both valuable and waste minerals. Essentially,
this means identification of all major and most
minor minerals present in the ore. Elemental
chemical analyses are by themselves insufficient,
because elements are capable of existing in more
than one mineralogical form and frequently do
so in a given ore. Information about the waste or
minor elements is also essential, not only for
their potential separation properties, but also
because they may contain valuable secondary
products or cause processing difficulties.
The optical microscope is a useful tool for
mineralogical examination. Two main techniques
can be distinguished. Reflected light examination
of polished sections is relatively simple, requiring
less experience and giving information that is
adequate for many routine situations. Although
transmitted light examination requires
appreciably more skill, it allows more positive
examination of the mineralogy.
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) with
energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX)
facilities can give valuable information on the
distribution of elements present in the minerals,
and modern units have sufficient accuracy to
indicate mineralogy. The QEM * SEM is a fully
automated SEM image analyser that can
determine kind, amount, size distribution, and
interassociations of the variety of minerals
present in mineralogical samples. X-ray
diffraction is still the most positive method
available for identifying minerals present, since it
evaluates the chemical compounds rather than
the elements.
Software packages can be used to analyze all
forms of microscopic images. Such an approach
not only removes the tedium from the data
collection and analysis, but also provides a wider
range of information.
I.D.2 Particle Size
Although the evaluation of particle size is clearly
important when a product has to meet a size

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