Week 3 - Extracting Mineral Resources.pdf

Mineral Resources EARTH SCIENCE MINING DESIGN, EXPLORATION, AND FEASIBILITY STUDY  MINING DESIGN Project Design: This is the initial stage in formulating a project. This involves review of all available data (geologic reports, mining history, maps, etc.), government requi...

Mineral Resources EARTH SCIENCE MINING DESIGN, EXPLORATION, AND FEASIBILITY STUDY  MINING DESIGN Project Design: This is the initial stage in formulating a project. This involves review of all available data (geologic reports, mining history, maps, etc.), government requirements in acquiring the project, review of social, environmental, political and economic acceptability of the project, and budget and organization proposals.  MINING EXPLORATION Field Exploration: This stage involves physical activities in the selected project area. This can be subdivided into three phases: Regional Reconnaissance: The main objective is to identify targets or interesting mineralized zones covering a relatively large area (regional). In general, the activities involve regional surface investigation and interpretation. Detailed Exploration: This involves more detailed surface and subsurface activities with the objective of finding and delineating targets or mineralized zones. Prospect Evaluation: The main objective is to assess market profitability by (1) extensive resource, geotechnical and engineering drilling (2) metallurgical testing and (3) environmental and societal cost assessment.  FEASIBILITY STUDY Pre-production Feasibility Study: The feasibility study determines and validates the accuracy of all data and information collected from the different stages. The purpose is for independent assessors to satisfy interested investors to raise funds and bring the project into production. MINING PROCESS TYPES OF MINING MINERALS A variety of methods are used based on mineral depth. Surface mining: shallow deposits are removed. Underground mining: deep deposits are removed. SURFACE MINING SURFACE MINING -Utilized to extract ore minerals that are close to Earth’s surface - Different types include open pit mining, quarrying, placer mining and strip mining. TYPES OF SURFACE MINING Open-pit Mining Machines dig holes and remove ores, sand, gravel, and stone. Toxic groundwater can accumulate at the bottom. TYPES OF SURFACE MINING QUARRY a place from which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate has been excavated from the ground. The only non-trivial difference between the quarry and open pit is that open-pit mines that produce building materials and dimension stone are commonly referred to as quarries. TYPES OF SURFACE MINING Area Strip Mining Earth movers strips away overburden, and giant shovels removes mineral deposit. Often leaves highly erodible hills of rubble called spoil banks. TYPES OF SURFACE MINING Contour Strip Mining Used on hilly or mountainous terrain. Unless the land is restored, a wall of dirt is left in front of a highly erodible bank called a highwall. UNDERGROUND MINING UNDERGROUND MINING Utilized to extract ore minerals from the orebody that is deep under the Earth’s surface MINERAL EXTRACTION MILLING RECOVERY METHOD 1. Heavy media separation: The crushed rocks are submerged in liquid where the heavier/denser minerals sink thus are separated from the lighter minerals. 2. Magnetic separation: If the metal or mineral is magnetic, the crushed ore is separated from the waste materials using a powerful magnet. MILLING RECOVERY METHOD 3. Flotation: The powdered ore is placed into an agitated and frothy slurry where some minerals may either sink to the bottom or may stick to the bubbles and rise to the top thus separating the minerals and metals from the waste. 4. Cyanide heap leaching: This method used for low-grade gold ore where the crushed rock is placed on a “leach pile” where cyanide solution is sprayed or dripped on top of the pile. REFERENCES  Tarbuck, E. Lutgens, and F.Tasa, D., Earth Science: 13th Edition, pp 45 – 47 Carlson, D. H., Plummer, C. C., Hammersley L., Physical Geology Earth Revealed 9thed, 2011, pp564-566 Marshak, S., Essentials of Geology, 4th ed., 2013, pp 379-383 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmXT1YgfoTA. https://mining.cat.com/cda/files/2786351/7/GroundRules- MineralsEverydayLife-15-18.pdf http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/eens1110/minresources.htm. http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/hydrothermal+solution. http://www.britannica.com/science/hydrothermal-solution. http://earthsci.org/mineral/mindep/depfile/vei_dep.htm. http://geology.com/rocks/pegmatite.shtml. Frank, D., Galloway, J., Assmus, K., The Life Cycle of a Mineral Deposit – A Teacher’s Guide for Hands-On Mineral Education Activities, USGS General Information Product 17, 2005