Mineral Resources Quiz 2023

Fundamentals of Mineral Dressing

• This course covers the fundamentals of mineral dressing, specifically waste treatment and recycling.
• The lecturer is Assoc. Prof. Dusan Orac, PhD.
• The study program is Waste treatment and Recycling.

Minerals Processing

• Ore is crushed and sorted as the INPUT.
• Processes include crushing, sorting, grinding, gravity separation, magnetic separation, flotation, a chemical substance, and decanting.
• The OUTPUT is a concentrate and decanting plant.

Lecture 1 Content

• Course meaning, goals, and content
• Conditions for course completion
• Basic ore dressing terms
• Raw material resources and critical raw materials in the EU
• Iron ores: overview, properties, composition, and processing

Lecture 1 Learning Outcomes

• Explain ore dressing processes and individual operations.
• Define terms like nerast, mineral, ore, batch, yield, and sieve analysis
• Calculate technical indicators (e.g., mass/waste yield, process efficiency)
• Recommend a primary raw material dressing process outline (in a block diagram)
• Practically test ore dressing processes (crushing, grinding, sieve analysis, dewatering, flotation, and magnetic separation) using assigned project tasks

Lecture 1 Evaluation

• Mid-term evaluation (30 points)
• Credit examination (20 points)
• Semestral project (10 points)
• Final evaluation (exam) (70 points)
• Overall maximum score: 100 points, minimum passing score: 51 points

Outline of Lectures

• Meaning, goals, conditions for completing the course
• Basic terms in ore dressing, material resources, critical raw materials in EU
• Iron ores: overview, properties, composition, and processing
• Heavy and light non-ferrous ores, precious metal ores, and fire-resistance materials General Information on Ore Dressing
• Basic division of ore dressing procedures, technological indicators of ore dressing
• Diminution, principles of diminution, crushing (division and characteristics of crushers),
• Grinding (division and characteristics of grinders),
• Separation (principles of recycling, mechanical separation),
• Devices, types, and usage (sieve analysis, hydraulic separation)
• Separation in heavy liquids (separation on jiggs, usage, separation on water tables)
• Magnetic and electric separation (devices, types, usage),
• Flotation (theory, principles, additives, schemes),
• Auxiliary ore dressing processes,
• Excursions

Raw Materials/Material Resources

• Mineral raw materials are parts of the earth's crust (elements, compounds, minerals, and rocks)
• Mineral resources are categorized by source into iron and ferro-alloy metals, non-ferrous metals, precious metals, industrial minerals, and mineral fuels.
• Specific types include energetical (coal, petroleum, natural gas, uranium), ores (iron, gold, copper), and non-ore (baryte, dolomite and magnetite).
• Mineral deposits are natural concentrations of minerals used in industry. These can be mines, dumps, or decanting plants.
• Reserves are classified as balance (currently usable) or off-balance (potentially usable in the future).

Primary Raw Materials/Material Resources:

• Primary raw materials form deposits of reserved minerals,
• Natural rock structures and underground spaces, for example, petroleum, gas, or salt storage.
• Mineral resources are owned by the state.
• Mineral resources are non-renewable.

Reserved and Unreserved Minerals

• Reserved minerals are the state's mineral wealth.
• Unreserved minerals are part of land, for example, gravel-sand, stone, and brick raw materials.

Reserves of Reserved Deposit - Classification

• Reserves that can be currently used according to current technical, technological, and economic conditions (e.g., balance).
• Reserves that can be used in the future, taking current conditions into account (e.g., off-balance).

Additional Material

• Types and properties of iron ores

• World supplies and top producers of iron ore (2019 data)

• Top 10 iron ore mining centers (2014).

• Non-traditional resources of raw materials.

• Ores of non-ferrous metals (heavy/light), noble and precious metals, materials for refractory materials.

• Industrial classification of metals: iron-iron alloys, non-ferrous metals

• Technical division of metals: iron-iron alloys, heavi non-ferrous metals, light non-ferrous metals, precious metals, and rare metals.

• Properties of iron- color, hardness, reactivity, mechanical properties, density, and melting point;

  • Use in pure state and as an alloy,

• Properties of copper- color, hardness, reactivity, mechanical properties, density, and melting point,

• Use in alloys and pure form (electrical engineering, engineering, construction, etc)

• Properties of nickel- color, hardness, and reactivity,

• Use in alloys ( anti-corrosion, surface treatment, heat-resistant steels, electrical resistance).

• Properties of cobalt- color, hardness, and reactivity.

• Use in alloys (alloys, magnetization enhancement, anti-corrosion, etc.)

• Properties of lead- color, hardness, reactivity, density, melting point, and use.

• Properties of zinc- color, hardness, reactivity, density, melting point, and use.

• Properties of manganese- color, hardness, reactivity, and use in alloys.

• Properties of antimony- color, hardness, and reactivity.

• Properties of tin- color, hardness, and use in alloys (alloy, food tins, tinfoil).

• Properties of mercury- color, density, and use.