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Placer mining is the mining of stream bed (alluvial) deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment.
In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlies an ore or mineral body and is displaced during mining without being processed.
Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from underneath, open pit, 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.
Industrial wastewater treatment describes the processes used for treating wastewater that is produced by industries as an undesirable by-product. After treatment, the treated industrial wastewater may be reused or released to a sanitary sewer or to a surface water in the environment. Some industrial facilities generate wastewater that can be treated in sewage treatment plants. Most industrial processes, such as petroleum refineries, chemical and petrochemical plants have their own specialized facilities to treat their wastewaters so that the pollutant concentrations in the treated wastewater comply with the regulations regarding disposal of wastewaters into sewers or into rivers, lakes or oceans. This applies to industries that generate wastewater with high concentrations of organic matter, toxic pollutants or nutrients such as ammonia. Some industries install a pre-treatment system to remove some pollutants, and then discharge the partially treated wastewater to the municipal sewer system.
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.
Sand filters are used as a step in the water treatment process of water purification.
In the field of extractive metallurgy, mineral processing, also known as ore dressing, is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores.
In the mining industry or extractive metallurgy, beneficiation is any process that improves (benefits) the economic value of the ore by removing the gangue minerals, which results in a higher grade product and a waste stream (tailings). There are many different types of beneficiation, with each step furthering the concentration of the original ore.
Heap leaching is an industrial mining process used to extract precious metals, copper, uranium, and other compounds from ore using a series of chemical reactions that absorb specific minerals and re-separate them after their division from other earth materials. Similar to in situ mining, heap leach mining differs in that it places ore on a liner, then adds the chemicals via drip systems to the ore, whereas in situ mining lacks these liners and pulls pregnant solution up to obtain the minerals. Heap leaching is widely used in modern large-scale mining operations as it produces the desired concentrates at a lower cost compared to conventional processing methods such as flotation, agitation, and vat leaching.
A coal breaker is a coal processing plant which breaks coal into various useful sizes. Coal breakers also remove impurities from the coal and deposit them into a culm dump. The coal breaker is a forerunner of the modern coal preparation plant.
A drywasher is a common desert mining tool for gold mining.
A coal preparation plant is a facility that washes coal of soil and rock, crushes it into graded sized chunks (sorting), stockpiles grades preparing it for transport to market, and more often than not, also loads coal into rail cars, barges, or ships.
Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the environment, such as uranium, thorium and potassium and any of their decay products, such as radium and radon. Produced water discharges and spills are a good example of entering NORMs into the surrounding environment.
Gravity separation is an industrial method of separating two components, either a suspension, or dry granular mixture where separating the components with gravity is sufficiently practical: i.e. the components of the mixture have different specific weight. All of the gravitational methods are common in the sense that they all use gravity as the dominant force. One type of gravity separator lifts the material by vacuum over an inclined vibrating screen covered deck. This results in the material being suspended in air while the heavier impurities are left behind on the screen and are discharged from the stone outlet. Gravity separation is used in a wide variety of industries, and can be most simply differentiated by the characteristics of the mixture to be separated - principally that of 'wet' i.e. - a suspension versus 'dry' -a mixture of granular product. Often other methods are applied to make the separation faster and more efficient, such as flocculation, coagulation and suction. The most notable advantages of the gravitational methods are their cost effectiveness and in some cases excellent reduction. Gravity separation is an attractive unit operation as it generally has low capital and operating costs, uses few if any chemicals that might cause environmental concerns and the recent development of new equipment enhances the range of separations possible.
A Knelson concentrator is a type of gravity concentration apparatus, predominantly used in the gold mining industry. It is used for the recovery of fine particles of free gold, meaning gold that does not require gold cyanidation for recovery.
Sepro Mineral Systems Corp. is a Canadian company founded in 1987 and headquartered in British Columbia, Canada. The outcome of the acquisition of Sepro Mineral Processing International by Falcon Concentrators in 2008, the company's key focus is the production of mineral processing equipment for the mining and aggregate industries. Sepro Mineral Systems Corp. also provides engineering and process design services. Products sold by Sepro include grinding mills, ore scrubbers, vibrating screens, centrifugal gravity concentrators, agglomeration drums, and dense media separators. The company is also a supplier of single source modular pre-designed and custom designed plants and circuits.
Sensor-based sorting, is an umbrella term for all applications in which particles are detected using a sensor technique and rejected by an amplified mechanical, hydraulic or pneumatic process.
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.
In metallurgy, mineral jigs are a type of gravity concentrator, separating materials with different densities. It is widely used in recovering valuable heavy minerals such as gold, platinum, tin, tungsten, as well as gemstones such as diamond and sapphire, from alluvial or placer deposits. Base metals such as iron, manganese, and barite can also be recovered using jigs.
References
- ↑ "Jig concentrators, jig separators gold diamond gemstone recovery". dovemining.com.
