Created by orebeneficiation on 2/15/2012 4:00:13 AM
The mining projects involves different mining phases beginning with ore exploration, ore beneficiation and ending with closure period. There are mainly several phases according depending on different mining operations, including exploration and development phase, ore extraction phase, ore processing phase, tailing and waste disposal phase, reclamation and closure phase.
exploration and development phase
The exploration phase provides access to the deposit: the scale of these clearance (or stripping) operations in the case of an open-pit mine and for drilling drifts, shafts or inclines for an underground mine, vary considerably according to the characteristics of the deposit. Opencast pits generally produce about ten times more waste on average than underground mines, which are more selective.
Ore extraction phase
The extraction phase involves crushing or preliminary sorting operations to optimise the transport and grade of "crude ore" before its transfer to the processing unit.
Ore processing or beneficiation phase (in many cases for metallic mines)
The processing or beneficiation phase is generally grouped in a specialised unit (called "concentrator") used to separate the mineral phases containing the useful substances from the waste gangue; the product of the plant, enriched with useful materials, is called the "concentrate". In most cases, the concentrate is the marketable product. However that mines of so-called high assay substances (iron, manganese, bauxite) are often simplified installations only rarely containing ore processing units on site; as a rule, in these cases, the ore is exported without processing to distant sites where its metallurgical conversion is more advantageous, particularly in terms of energy.Note also that methods of chemical, or sometimes biological, processing of the ores are management of mining, quarrying, milling(grinding) and ore processing. Beneficiation includes physical and/or chemical separation techniques such as gravity concentration, magnetic separation, electrostatic separation, flotation, solvent extraction, electrowinning, leaching, precipitation, and amalgamation. This applies in particular to gold ones (cyaniding) more recently to copper and nickel oxide ores (heat leaching or autoclave), and even more recently, to copper and cobalt sulphide ores (bioleaching).
Tailing and waste disposal phase
even high-grade mineral ores consist almost entirely of non-metallic materials and often contain undesired toxic metals (such as cadmium, lead, and arsenic). The beneficiation process generates high-volume waste called 'tailings', the residue of an ore that remains after it has been milled and the desired metals have been extracted. Taking proper disposal of these tailing and waste, they will be reusable as recycled aggregate or other materials for many applications. In this phase, many tailing and waste recycling equipment will be required, such as crushing plants including
jaw crusher,
impact crusher, ball mill, high pressure mill, sand making machine etc. SBM machinery could provide complete sets of recycling equipment, crushing plants, grinding plants and beneficiation plants.
Reclamation and closure
When a mining project is finished, the mining facilities and site should be properly reclaimed and closed in order to avoid environment impacts.
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