Victor Montenegro

• Institut Pprime

The formation of accretion layers within the waste heat boiler is a serious operational concern as it can potentially increase boiler downtime and, hence, limit continuous production. In previous Computational Fluid Dynamics studies, the accretion formation was predicted for an industrial-scale waste heat boiler, using a dust stickiness sub-routine...

Large amounts of copper slag are produced every year and major fractions of it are currently disposed, not withstanding the multiple ways the material can be used. Application of the slag is often limited by the presence of hazardous elements and their leaching behavior so they can potentially pollute soil, surface water and underground water. To r...

The operation of a copper Flash Smelting Furnace (FSF) is often limited by the availability of the downstream Waste Heat Boiler (WHB). Carry-over of concentrate into the boiler leads to accretion formation, which can cause boiler downtime. Hence, the minimization of flue dust and its accretions is an important operational goal. In this study, a Com...

Field and drill core hyperspectral sensing technologies are cost-effective tools for identifying footprints of hydrothermal mineral systems, vectoring towards potential ore bodies and differentiating domains in ore deposits. Hyperspectral visible-near, shortwave and thermal infrared data were collected from drill core and chip samples from the Cu-Z...

The Flash Smelting Furnace (FSF) is one of the most common reactors for the primary smelting of copper concentrates. Its smooth operation depends on the availability and performance of the downstream Waste Heat Boiler (WHB). The WHB is especially sensitive to problems with its flue dust handling, such as the formation of accretions, which can lead...

While striving for a circular economy of metals, the Flash Smelting Furnace (FSF) is the most common and "green" aggregate for primary smelting of copper concentrates, because of already today low CO 2-emissions compared to other smelting technologies. High dust carry-over often leads to problems with flue dust accretions in its subsequent cooling...

The waste heat boiler (WHB) of the flash smelting furnace (FSF) is often a bottleneck for the primary production process of copper. Common technical challenges in WHB operation are connected to flue dust handling. Above its softening temperature and depending on its chemical and mineralogical composition, flue dust can become sticky and form accret...

Copper losses into slag within the flash furnace settler is an economically important topic for the primary copper production. Since the settler is not easily accessible to experimental studies due to harsh reaction conditions, numerical simulations are a promising alternative to obtain more insights into the settling behavior of matte. This study...

An optical probe for burner monitoring in copper flash smelting, first developed at the University of Concepcion, is being industrially tested in a collaboration between Kingston Process Metallurgy, Aurubis AG, and Queen's University. The sensor uses fibre-optics and optical emission spectroscopy to analyze the light emitted from combusting particl...

A drop tower and methodology were developed to study the impact of mineralogy on the flash combustion behaviour of copper concentrates. Reaction shaft conditions of a flash furnace were simulated using a drop tower reactor and different molar ratios of oxygen gas to sulphur in the feed. Five feeds were tested in the drop tower including pure minera...

Grinding media is very important in the mineral processing, mainly because its consumption involves significant costs of grinding and consequently, of the total mining operational expenditure. During grinding, chemical and physical consumptions take place. In both cases, operational variables play an important role but also mineralogy , because man...

In Latin America many mine sites are located more than 2000 m above sea level, and some over 4000 m above sea level. Portable X-ray ray fluorescence (pXRF) is becoming a routine method for collecting chemical data at different altitudes during mineral exploration campaigns. As altitude increases, air density decreases, and the physics of X-rays bei...

Grinding media is of great concern in the mining industry mainly because its consumption represents an important part of the costs during mineral processing and consequently, of the total mining business OPEX. In addition, grinding media consumption impacts directly on flotation performance through negative contamination by corrosion, affecting the...

Grinding media is of great concern in the mining industry mainly because its consumption represents an important part of the costs during mineral processing and consequently of the total mining business OPEX. In addition, grinding media consumption impacts directly on flotation performance through negative contamination by corrosion, affecting the...

Grinding media is of great concern in the mining industry mainly because its consumption represents an important part of the costs during mineral processing and consequently of the total mining business OPEX. In addition, grinding media consumption impacts directly on flotation performance through negative contamination by corrosion, affecting the...

Molybdenum is commonly associated with copper in porphyry deposits, however, its presence is less spatially continuous, thus it is more difficult to estimate in resource models. Recently, hyperspectral analysis has gained increased relevance and utilisation not only in exploration but also in geometallurgy, especially for clarifying the behaviour o...

The present paper presents a part of the research efforts of the laboratory of Metallurgy, National Technical University of Athens, Greece, aiming at developing a purely hydrometallurgical method, able to treat the zincferous dust, generated during the production of steel from scraps in Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), efficiently and economically and e...

Slurries are widely used in mineral processing and their rheological properties such as viscosity and yield stress strongly determine the energy consumption for pumping, the water requirements for transport, the throughput rate of thickeners and the capacity constraints of tailings impoundments. To investigate the impact of the mineralogy on their...

The collection of spatially continuous mineralogical data is important to address many of the challenges in mining operations. Certain gangue mineral assemblages may be associated with specific ore types and may be used to classify the various domains of the ore body. Selected mineral phases, such as wollastonite, chlorite or kaolinite, may impact...

Automated hyperspectral drill core logging is capable of collecting detailed mineralogical information at close spatial resolution, complementing conventional (visual) logging with objective, data-rich information. An example of this technology is HyLogger-3™, a reflectance spectroscopic instrument equipped with VNIR , SWIR and TIR detectors. The d...

The aim of the current research study was the development of a hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of metals from electric arc furnace dust. The behaviors of zinc, cadmium, iron, and lead in sulfuric acid were investigated. The recovery of the zinc (from zinc oxide) and cadmium is possible with a relatively high yield, as iron and lead rema...

Usualmente, el polvo generado durante el proceso de fusión de concentrado de cobre por el Convertidor Teniente y el Horno Flash en Chile, contienen altos contenidos de cobre, zinc, arsénico y antimonio, entre otros metales. En general, el polvo se recircula al proceso de fusión o se envía a procesos hidrometalúrgicos para recuperación y estabilizac...

Flue dusts generated in Chilean copper smelters are partly recycled to smelting units, such as flash smelters and Teniente Converters, and partly processed separately by hydrometallurgical methods, in order to recover copper and stabilize arsenic in the waste. Flue dust generation is increasing due to increasing copper production and arsenic conten...

Most of the dust generated from the copper smelting process in Chili has been stored after the stabilization by hydrometallurgical process because it contains high concentration of arsenic. However, in recent years, the generation of dust has increased because of degrading the quality of concentrate. In addition, the environmental regulations becom...

Usually dust generated from copper smelting in Chile contains high concentrations of copper and arsenic, but also other metals of considerable value and some environmental interest such as selenium, cobalt and molybdenum. It is desirable to understand the behavior of those elements when the smelting process operates with dust recirculation. In this...

Usually dust generated from copper smelting in Chile contains high concentrations of copper and arsenic, but also other metals of considerable value and some environmental interest such as selenium, cobalt and molybdenum. It is desirable to understand the behavior of those elements when the smelting process operates with dust recirculation. In this...

Interaction between direct current in a liquid slag and external magnetic field induces magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) phenomena, which can accelerate the rate of slag reduction and removal of metals from the slag. The apparent change of specific gravity of the slag affects the buoyancy force or induces horizontal force of metal or matte inclusions. So,...