Most of the world’s nickel is extracted from the mineral pentlandite, (Ni, Fe)9S8, which frequently occurs in ores containing predominantly pyrrhotite and various non-sulRdes, some of which contain magnesium (Table 1). The nickel content in such sulRde ores is generally low (0.2}3%) and varies from place to place in the same deposit. The low nickel content of the present-day nickel sulRde ores ...

A fractal (power-law) distribution is the only statistical distribution applicable to a scale-invariant process. One of the major problems in petrology is the distribution of trace elements in the Earth’s crust. Extreme values of this distribution result in ore deposits. There is accumulating observational evidence that tonnage–grade statistics of ore deposits are often fractal (powerlaw). Rayl...

A three stage flotation scheme was employed to beneficiate a low grade. high dolomitic phosphate ore from Florida. The reagent scheme used. developed on the basis of our previous fundamental studies. consisted of oleic acid added as collector. mineral oil and ethoxylated sulfonate as co-collectors and 1. hydroxy ethylidene 1.1diphosphonic acid (Dequest 2010) as francolite depressant. The three ...

Some idea of the possibilities of microbeam techniques can be illustrated by examining the following example of a run of mine gold ore sample. Milling and bulk chemical analysis of the ore will provide major and minor element analysis as well as the gold grade. More detailed chemistlY can also reveal the presence of trace elements that may be advantageous or deleterious to downstream processing...

The Eskay Creek gold-silver mine, located in northwest British Columbia, is an unusually high-grade ore deposit. The mining industry continues to spend more than $2 million each year on exploration for similar deposits in the area. The geologic setting at the minesite is well studied, but large tracts in north-central British Columbia require more detailed surveys to determine if favourable sit...

Aluminium, the third most abundant element in the earth’s crust, occurs in nature in combination with silicon and oxygen (i.e. as aluminium silicate). When subject to tropical weathering, aluminium silicate may react to form aluminium hydroxide. Rock containing high concentrations of aluminium hydroxide is called bauxite. This rock is the usual starting material for the production of aluminium....

in the open-pit mining, one of the first decisions that must be made in production planning stage, after completing the design of final pit limits, is determining of the processing plant cut-off grade. since this grade has an essential effect on operations, choosing the optimum cut-off grade is of considerable importance. different goals may be used for determining optimum cut-off grade. one of...

The mining industry is looking forward for bacterial consortia for economic extraction of copper from low-grade ores. The main objective was to determine an optimal bacterial consortium from several bacterial strains to obtain copper from the leach of chalcopyrite. The major native bacterial species involved in the bioleaching of sulphide ore (Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus t...