Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from underneath, above or on the ground. Mining engineering is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, and metallurgy, geotechnical engineering and surveying. A mining engineer may manage any phase of mining operations, from exploration and discovery of the mineral resources, through feasibility study, mine design, development of plans, production and operations to mine closure.
Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, local environmental regulations, and other factors.
Froth flotation is a process for selectively separating hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic. This is used in mineral processing, paper recycling and waste-water treatment industries. Historically this was first used in the mining industry, where it was one of the great enabling technologies of the 20th century. It has been described as "the single most important operation used for the recovery and upgrading of sulfide ores". The development of froth flotation has improved the recovery of valuable minerals, such as copper- and lead-bearing minerals. Along with mechanized mining, it has allowed the economic recovery of valuable metals from much lower grade ore than previously.
In the field of extractive metallurgy, mineral processing, also known as ore dressing, is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores.
The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) is a UK engineering institution whose activities encompass the whole materials cycle, from exploration and extraction, through characterisation, processing, forming, finishing and application, to product recycling and land reuse. It exists to promote and develop all aspects of materials science and engineering, geology, mining and associated technologies, mineral and petroleum engineering and extraction metallurgy, as a leading authority in the worldwide materials and mining community.
Antoine Marc Gaudin was a metallurgist who laid the foundation for understanding the scientific principles of the froth flotation process in the minerals industry. He was also a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and during World War II developed there the ore-processing techniques needed to extract uranium from its low grade ores for the Manhattan Project. He was a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Mount Isa Mines Limited ("MIM") operates the Mount Isa copper, lead, zinc and silver mines near Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia as part of the Glencore group of companies. For a brief period in 1980, MIM was Australia's largest company. It has pioneered several significant mining industry innovations, including the Isa Process copper refining technology, the Isasmelt smelting technology, and the IsaMill fine grinding technology, and it also commercialized the Jameson Cell column flotation technology.
Geometallurgy relates to the practice of combining geology or geostatistics with metallurgy, or, more specifically, extractive metallurgy, to create a spatially or geologically based predictive model for mineral processing plants. It is used in the hard rock mining industry for risk management and mitigation during mineral processing plant design. It is also used, to a lesser extent, for production planning in more variable ore deposits.
James McDonald Hyde (1873–1943) was a metallurgist who designed the first significant froth flotation plant in the United States. He also served as a member of the Los Angeles, California, City Council from 1931 to 1939.
Jarosław Drelich (1957) is a Polish-born surface engineer and professor of materials science at Michigan Technological University. He also holds an adjunct professorship in the department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta. He is known primarily for his contributions to the field of wetting phenomena, which include the effect of drop/bubble size on apparent contact angle on a rough surface, in addition to fundamental work on structured hydrophilic/hydrophobic alternating surfaces.
Tadimety Chakrapani Rao, also known as T.C. Rao, is an Indian mineral processing scientist and researcher.
The Jameson Cell is a high-intensity froth flotation cell that was invented by Laureate Professor Graeme Jameson of the University of Newcastle (Australia) and developed in conjunction with Mount Isa Mines Limited.
The School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering is one of seven schools in the University of the Witwatersrand's Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. The School offers 4-year undergraduate degrees and post-graduate degrees in chemical and metallurgical engineering.
Ponisseril Somasundaran is a US mineral engineer of Indian origin and a LaVon Duddleson Krumb Professor of Mineral Engineering at Columbia University, New York. In 2010 the Government of India honoured him with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the fields of science and technology.
Graeme John Jameson is an engineer, professor and Director of the Centre for Multiphase Processes at the University of Newcastle, Australia, in New South Wales, Australia. He is notable for being the inventor of the Jameson Cell mineral separation device, which he devised in the 1980s. The Jameson Cell uses bubbles to separate super fine particles during mineral processing. It is based on the froth flotation mineral separation process, first invented in 1905.
Bhakta B. Rath is an India-born American material physicist and Head of the Materials Science and Component Technology of the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. He is the chief administrative officer for program planning, interdisciplinary coordination, supervision and control of research and is the associate director of research for Materials Science and Component Technology at NRL.
Hong Yong Sohn is an American engineer, currently a Distinguished Professor in Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Utah.
Alban Jude Lynch AO is a mining engineer and academic who helped develop the mineral processing teaching experience for mining students in Australia.
Georges John Kipouros is a Greek Canadian materials engineer, university professor, and former dean of the University of Saskatchewan College of Engineering. He presently serves as adjunct professor at the Faculty of Engineering of both Dalhousie University and University of Waterloo. He is the winner of the 20th Canadian Metal Chemistry Award, and is known as an ambassador for the engineering profession in Canada. At Dalhousie University he served as the vice chair of the Senate, assistant dean of the Faculty of Engineering, director of the Minerals Engineering Centre and head of the Mining and Metallurgical Engineering Department. He is known for his contributions to the processing of aluminum, magnesium, rare earth metals and molten salts, as well as the analysis of corrosion in additive manufacturing. In addition he is known as a major expert in powder metallurgy. He is the inventor of a technique for measuring metal corrosion in active pipelines, allowing for early detection of problem areas. At General Motors, he integrated the recovery and recycling of reactants into the production of neodymium from its oxide, rendering the process more cost-effective. He also led the technology transfer from laboratory research to plant production.
