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The Use of QEMSCAN Automated Mineral Analyser at the Candelaria Concentrator

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Abstract

A concentrator survey was performed to quantify the influence of copper and gangue mineralogy on metallurgical performance and to identify specific optimization areas of the circuit. All samples were subjected to a combination of QEMSCAN automated mineral analysis to establish a size-by-size mineralogical and metallurgical testing. The mineralogical data were correlated with material balances and bench-scale flotation testing. These analyses revealed that gold and copper recovery optimization would have to focus on fine chalcopyrite losses and losses of liberated gold. Based on the quantitative investment of the circuit’s size-by-size mineralogy in concert with metallurgical testing, the operation budgeted a copper recovery for 2001 of 95.7% and achieved an actual recovery of 95.9%. Gold recovery increased by over 10% and reagent consumption was reduced.
... As illustrated by Kendrick et al. (2003), a detailed concentrator survey with robust sampling of all ore types and plant streams, subsequent quantitative mineralogy and rougher kinetics float testing achieved significant metallurgical and economic improvements (Figs. 7a and 7b). ...
... Gold recovery improvements after Mineralogy/Metallurgy Survey (modified afterKendrick et al., 2003). ...
... Reduction of copper losses in tails after Mineralogy/Metallurgy Survey (modified afterKendrick et al., 2003). ...
Article
Modern Process Mineralogy has been making significant advances in methodology and data interpretation since it was assembled in the mid-1980s as a multi-disciplined team approach to obtaining mineralogical information from drill core and plant samples so as to infer the metallurgical processing requirements of that ore. This hybrid discipline consists of teams that include geologists, mineralogists, samplers, mineral processors and often others, working together. The degree of cross-training, communication and trust dictates the potential capacity of the team and it is possible to develop technical capabilities that surpass those of conventional teams. A pivotal tool for technically efficient and plant-oriented process mineralogy is, of course, the use of modern, automated laboratory technology. In these cases, process mineralogy, though associated with some capital investment, is a valuable risk reduction tool and an operations optimization tool for any mining company, not only in terms of finances but also in terms of human and intellectual capital. However, if the teams are dysfunctional and information is not interpreted correctly due to limited experience in the team or less than best practice, or it is not implemented or used, much of the value can be lost. Process Mineralogy can then be regarded as ‘time consuming and expensive’. In this paper, the business value of best practice Process Mineralogy is outlined and discussed. Case studies that include ‘green fields’ new design applications and ‘brown fields’ interventions to mature operations have been selected to demonstrate the tremendous financial value that can be achieved are presented, along with those where costly disasters could have been averted. The list is not intended to be exhaustive or complete, and the reader is referred to the extensive literature available. Examples are selected for this publication specifically to illustrate the delicate balance between generating additional business value through potentially expensive mineralogical analyses and the lost opportunities of underperforming flowsheets, unanticipated losses due to high feed variance, inadequate liberation or deleterious minerals, over-reagentised circuits, or extra costs of unnecessary or underutilised equipment.
... The adverse effects of high pH on the flotation of metallic gold when lime is added have been reported in the literature. An evidence of the loss of free gold due to depression induced by surface-bound calcium and hydroxyl ions was provided (49,50). ...
Article
Full-text available
Gold exploration and production activities have intensified considerably over the recent years due to a substantial rise in the price of gold. This high price has compelled the mining industry to develop many new conventional ore deposits and to continue the search for improvements in existing operations. Simultaneously, public concern to the impact of mining industry on the environment has increased substantially, too, over the years. Gold is generally recovered by cyanidation which accounts for 84% of the world gold production. Due to environmental concerns or issues, however, the use of cyanide may not be permitted at certain developing mining operations located near or next to agricultural and ecologically sensitive areas. This has lead to a continuing search for different processing alternatives to the cyanidation in the recovery of gold. This paper presents experimental results of flowsheet designs excluding cyanidation to maximize the gold recovery for a refractory Turkish gold ore with a leach recovery of 82 %. Different processing alternatives included gravity concentration, flotation and a combination of both. First, a laboratory type Knelson gravity concentrator was evaluated at different centrifugal forces and particle sizes. A recovery of 71.4 % with a concentrate gold grade of 91.1 g/t was obtained with a particle size below 106 µm. A recovery of 85.1 % with 44.1 g/t gold grade was achieved with flotation tests. A combination of Knelson and flotation circuit brought the recovery to 92.2 %.
... As a consequence of this, the data can be associated to flotation rates, collision frequencies and the turbulent dissipation to viscosity ratio [5,6,10,14]. The available market technologies connected with automated mineral analysis offer major advantages in the understanding of mineralogical characteristics of the plant and in this way provide the opportunity to investigate the influence of, for instance the impeller radial velocity and air flow on metallurgical performance of the flotation process [8,10]. For the purpose of this study, two sampling campaigns have been done, each of them focused on the different process parameters. ...
Article
Full-text available
A rougher flotation study has been done to analyze the effects of copper feed mineralogy, air flow rate and impeller radial velocity on metallurgical performance. During the performance testing the trials were exposed to metallurgical examining and computerised mineral analysis to establish a size-by-size mineralogy. The mineralogical and metallurgical information was compared to the material balance for rougher flotation results. These samples showed that copper recovery optimization should focus on the losses of liberated Cu-minerals and how they are associated with fine particles. The result of variable impeller radial velocity for each flotation cell cascade on metallurgical performance has been explored on a known-sized and an unknown-sized base, to gauge the input from the fine particles. An industrial application is discussed in this paper, and it validates that divergence of the impeller radial velocity and air flow has positive influence on the recovery.
... Automated SEM-based quantitative mineralogy tools have greatly advanced characterization capabilities through image analysis, increased speed, and increased accuracy. They are widely used for metallurgical, mineral-processing, and geometallurgical applications and the economic benefits of enhanced characterization of materials have been utilized by many entities (e.g., Kendrick et al., 2003). ...
Conference Paper
Characterization of ore and waste-rock material using automated quantitative micro-mineralogical techniques (e.g., QEMSCAN® and MLA) has the potential to complement traditional acid-base accounting and humidity cell techniques when predicting acid generation and metal release. These characterization techniques, which most commonly are used for metallurgical, mineral-processing, and geometallurgical applications, can be broadly applied throughout the mine-life cycle to include numerous environmental applications. Critical insights into mineral liberation, mineral associations, particle size, particle texture, and mineralogical residence phase(s) of environmentally important elements can be used to anticipate potential environmental challenges. Resources spent on initial characterization result in lower uncertainties of potential environmental impacts and possible cost savings associated with remediation and closure. Examples illustrate mineralogical and textural characterization of fluvial tailings material from the upper Arkansas River in Colorado.
... In the then Phelps-Dodge Candelaria operation, which was regarded as the best-performing copper concentrator in that company with a 95.3% copper recovery to saleable concentrate, a Process Mineralogy team surveyed the plant and diagnosed the remaining performance opportunities (Baum et al., 2004;Kendrick et al., 2003). The thinking was to the effect that, if performance gains could be found at this operation by using Process Mineralogy, then larger gains could be expected at other copper and gold concentrators in that company. ...
Chapter
Metallic copper has been known to man since about 10,000 B.C. Although its use gradually increased over the years, it was only in the 20th century, with the global adoption of electricity, that copper usage really expanded. Copper is essential to economic and technological development, so substantial growth in its applications has continued in the 21st century, driven by the rapid industrialization of China and other emerging market economies. This chapter discusses production and use of copper around the world. It gives production, use, and price statistics, and identifies and locates the world's largest copper-producing plants.
Chapter
This chapter (a) describes the investment and production costs of producing copper metal from ore, (b) discusses how these costs are affected by such factors as ore grade, process route, and inflation and, (c) indicates where cost savings might be made in the future. The discussion centers on mine, concentrator, smelter, and refinery costs. Costs of producing copper by leach/solvent extraction/electrowinning and from scrap are also discussed.
Article
The application of flotation on a reasonable scale within the gold-mining industry began after the introduction of water-soluble flotation collectors (specifically xanthates and dithiophosphate collectors) that allowed differential flotation of sulfide minerals. Gold occurs in a number of minerals, and the most important of these is metallic gold and the gold metal alloys. Gold particles in an ore deposit vary in size from large nuggets to particles locked in the crystal lattice of sulfide minerals. These sulfide minerals are referred to as gold carrier minerals and contain trace to minor amounts of gold. Most of the reported fundamental work on the flotation of gold has been conducted using high-purity gold and gold–silver alloys with the purpose of determining collector–gold interactions, and the nature of adsorption of collector ions or molecules onto the gold surface. In addition, some work has been conducted to decide whether or not pure gold has a natural hydrophobicity, and hence some degree of natural floatability.
Article
Quantitative automated mineralogy is the acquisition of mineralogical and textural data by scanning electron microscopy-based energy dispersive analytical methods. The technique is used in the metals and energy resource extraction industries to provide accurate mineral characterization information over large data sets. We have employed this method to three projects related to diamonds: mantle peridotite, kimberlite, and garnet concentrate. The first example assesses the metasomatic clinopyroxene-phlogopite modal mineralogy in peridotite xenoliths from Premier/Cullinan (South Africa). Understanding mantle mineral variability can be coupled with measureable mineral properties to develop mantle geophysical and geochemical models. The second example compares kimberlites from Letšeng Satellite Pipe (Lesotho) and Ngamiland (Botswana), to assess the variability of kimberlite mineralogy. Kimberlite domains can be identified on a micro scale with potential to understand parameters such as hardness and grindability, or to identify kimberlite clusters with discrete mineral assemblages. The third example applies mineral compositional variability in garnet concentrate samples as a possible tool for evaluating exploration projects. Application of garnet definitions to concentrates through digitally grouping grains into discrete populations results in improved understanding of large sample populations and hence diamond prospectivity. Quantitative mineralogy applied to diamond-related projects utilizes the principles of geometallurgy in evaluating large data sets for greater understanding of the variability of mantle materials.
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