The increasing demand for sustainable construction materials has driven significant interest in utilizing recycled concrete aggregates (RCA). However, the mechanical performance and durability of RCA are often compromised due to the presence of residual mortar. This study explores an innovative surface treatment approach combining abrasion and cement slurry coating to improve the properties of RCA

The Bushveld Complex in South Africa contains the largest reserves of platinum group elements (PGEs) in the world. It is composed of the Merensky reef, UG2 reef and the Platreef. Unlike the other reefs that have been largely exploited, the Platreef ores have proved to be difficult to process due to their low content of PGE sulphides and the low association of the PGM minerals with the base metal sulphides

Hydrophobic modification of sulfur-containing waste rock is a promising strategy for reducing acid mine drainage (AMD) generation. This study investigated the use of sodium oleate and nano silca to modify sulfur-containing waste rock and evaluated the acid-suppressive properties of the sodium oleate and nano silca treatment through static and dynamic leaching tests. Results from these tests indicated

In this century, our daily life is surrounded by technological devices, and Rare Earth Elements (REE) are at the heart of this technological revolution. They are always listed having the highest supply risk in critical minerals published by different countries. From that point of view, their extraction, and creating a secured supply chain is always crucial. In this research, the influence of calcination

High gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) is a potential method of separating chalcopyrite from copper-arsenopyrite co-flotation concentrate. However, during the co-flotation process the addition of bleaching powder (ClO−), which has been a common depressant for arsenopyrite, deteriorates their separation selectivity in the subsequent HGMS process, and until today this effect of ClO− is unknown to people

Flotation is a potential method for extracting residual copper sulfide (CuS) from the acid-leaching residue of copper smelting dust; however, the inhibitory impact of Bi(III) in the flotation pulp significantly hampers its practical application. In this study, we systematically investigated the inhibition mechanism of Bi(III) on CuS flotation and propose a method to prevent inhibition. Microflotation

X-ray radiography presents a non-invasive and dynamic approach for examining multiphase flows, particularly in complex systems like flotation froths. While this technique has been applied successfully in various multiphase studies, such as granular flows and fluidised beds, its utilisation in understanding flotation froths is novel. This study aimed to investigate the behaviour of particles and bubbles

The Brazilian dolomitic itabirites are considered marginal resources and deposited in waste rock dumps as the cationic reverse flotation circuits present limitations to remove carbonate minerals. This work proposes the synthesis and application of N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)oleamide as a collector in the flotation of carbonates present in dolomitic itabirites. Hematite, quartz, calcite, and dolomite samples

Ash content is a key indicator to evaluate coal flotation concentrate quality and adjust flotation process parameters, which could be determined by analyzing froth images. In this research, a multi-scale multi-task neural network (MSTNet) was developed to realize accurate determination of the ash content of industrial coal flotation concentrate by analyzing froth images. Furthermore, transfer learning

It is of great significance to improve the flotation of copper sulfide minerals at low temperatures. In this study, the reduction mechanism of chalcopyrite flotation performance and the role of copper ions in improving the flotation of chalcopyrite at low temperatures were systematically investigated. The results of the flotation tests prove that the chalcopyrite flotation recovery is lower at low

This study presents the development and validation of a digital twin for a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill controlled by an expert system. The digital twin integrates three key components of the closed-loop operation: (1) fuzzy logic for expert control, (2) a state-space model for regulatory control, and (3) a recurrent neural network to simulate the SAG mill process. The digital twin is combined

In 2020, the European Union officially designated strontium as a Critical Raw Material (CRM) due to its diverse applications and limited global producers, with Spain as one of the primary producers and the only one in the EU. This comprehensive review discusses strontium market dynamics, global reserves, and technological advancements in mineral processing techniques to extract and concentrate its

Fluidized bed flotation involves three phases of gas, liquid and solid, which can be used for the separation of coarse minerals. In this study, a two-dimensional gas–liquid-solid fluidized bed was developed to explore the fluidization characteristics of fluidized bed flotation. The effects of water velocity, air velocity, frother dosage and particle size (Ql, Qg, ρn, Dp) on the average pressure drop

Quartz and feldspar are the primary impurities in the mineral processing of pollucite. Due to the highly similar surface properties of these three minerals in terms of physicochemical characteristics, achieving efficient flotation enrichment of pollucite has been a challenging problem. To address this issue, the development of flotation collectors with high selectivity towards pollucite is crucial

Environmental factors and water scarcity have led to the recirculation of greater quantities of water in mineral processing plants. Recycling water or using alternate water sources, e.g. seawater, for flotation can result in an increase in ionic concentrations and lower water quality. Water recirculation and lower water quality can increase ionic strength which can cause corrosion, scale formation

Fluorite and barite share similar physicochemical properties, making them challenging to separate efficiently using flotation. To address this problem, sodium oleate (NaOL) was used as a collector to study the separation effect of carboxylated chitosan (CCS) as a depressant for fluorite and barite. Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) test, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Zeta potential test, contact

The supply of the strategic metal titanium is of great significance in ensuring the sustainable development of the national economy and national defense. As an irreplaceable raw material in the titanium industry, ilmenite has become increasingly prominent in its commercial demand and strategic position. With high-quality ilmenite resources continuing to be developed, these resources are typically characterized

Gold recovery from wastewater should be cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly. In this study, adsorbents containing Fe(II,III) systems were prepared via thermal modification of pyrite. The effects of thermal modification temperature, the source of pyrite, pH, ionic strength, adsorbent solid–liquid ratio, and coexisting metal ions on adsorption were investigated. Further, the removability

This study aims to optimize the adsorption process of gallic acid (GA) on Cu-Al layered double hydroxides (LDHs) synthesized via a co-precipitation method at various pH levels. The procedure is based on the adsorption of organic pollutants from aqueous solutions, with evaluations carried out based on operational parameters such as pH, initial concentration, and adsorbent quantity. Two series of LDHs

Coal and other mineral resources are also commonly found in bauxite mining. The process of bauxite mining is usually affected by retained ore pillars in other strata, which leads to the formation of combinations composed of different strata. Once these combinations become unstable, they can cause serious disasters that threaten production safety. Aiming at the safe mining of co-associated resources

This study focused on the preparation, characterization and photocatalytic performance of a monolithic composite made from vanadium-titanium magnetite tailings and quartz sand. Rhodamine B was used as a pollutant model and the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B by the prepared composites was investigated. The results indicated that the composite could effectively degraded Rhodamine B, achieving

The leaching liquor extracted from ion-adsorption type rare earth (RE) ores contains large amounts of aluminum (Al) ions. The neutralization-precipitation method for Al removal results in the loss of large amounts of RE, leading to the waste of RE resources. Preliminary research has shown that the introduction of acetic acid (HAc) during the Al removal process could effectively reduce RE loss. However

The liquid alkali decomposition method represents a relatively clean smelting process for the treatment of the mixed rare earth concentrate derived from Bayan Obo. However, the production process generates a considerable quantity of alkaline wastewater, which presents a significant obstacle to the large-scale application of this process. Accordingly, the reduction and high-value treatment of rare earth

The surface composition, coordination environment, and chemical state of arsenopyrite dictate the propensity of the mineral to undergo oxidation, leaching, and flotation separation. Because of this, it is of great significance to study the mechanism by which mechanical ball milling affects the composition and coordination of the surface atoms. In this study, the arsenopyrite powder was ground using

This work attempts to clarify the reason for low gold recovery in Carlin-type gold ores flotation by revealing the correlation of interactions between pyrite and dolomite during the oxidation process with flotation performance. In this paper, the sulfur oxidation rate determined by Ion chromatography (IC) was adopted to evaluate the oxidation degrees of the mixed pyrite and dolomite systems. Flotation

Precious metals (PMs), particularly platinum group metals (PGMs), are of strategic importance due to their high supply–demand imbalance, scarcity, and functionality in high-tech fields. The global supply of PMs is constrained due to the rising demand in clean energy applications. Therefore, the recycling of PMs from secondary resources can effectively alleviate the risk of supply shortages. Pyrometallurgical

Cycle flotation tests have been preferred for obtaining metallurgical projections based on laboratory flotation tests because they can simulate a continuous circuit similar to real flotation plants. However, cycle tests are typically conducted in the laboratory under a limited number of operating conditions, so the behavior of ores in these tests might only partially represent the complexity and variations

The increase in CO2 emission during Portland cement manufacturing has motivated studies on new binder systems. The production of alternative cements with less environmental impact (zero clinker) has been gaining increasing interest, mainly because green cements emit smaller amounts of CO2. One of these binders, the geopolymers, are obtained from the alkaline activation of materials rich in silica and

In China’s rapid development, the metallurgy industry plays a pivotal role. However, the processing and utilization of iron ore results in the production of a significant amount of iron-bearing smelting slags. Iron-bearing smelting slags contains iron, zinc, copper, calcium, potassium, and other metal elements. Challenges in processing technology and cost control in smelting enterprises contribute

Direct aqueous mineral carbonation of olivine minerals has been extensively investigated in the past. However, the effect of inorganic electrolytes, particularly sodium sulfate (Na2SO4), on mineral carbonation rate has not been investigated yet. In this work, we report experimental results on the CO2 uptake rate of ultrafine olivine-rich rocks using Na2SO4 and sodium chloride (NaCl) as inorganic catalysts

A non-invasive technique named positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) is used to study the dynamics of mineral particles found in froth flotation. High frequency tracking is required to fully resolve turbulent flow paths with highly fluctuating velocity components. Tracking frequency is also called “location rate”, which is the number of tracked locations per second. A time interpolation algorithm

The green processing of weakly magnetic iron ore is inseparable from high-intensity and high-gradient magnetic separator (HGMS), which is one of the most energy-intensive magnetic separation equipment. Iron (Fe) armor serves as the key primary structure for enhancing magnetic field conduction efficiency within the magnetic system. The order of magnetic properties of commonly used magnetic yoke materials

This paper investigates an observable dynamic model of froth flotation circuits aimed at online state and parameter estimation and model-based control. The aim is to estimate the model states and parameters online from industrial data. However, in light of limitations in the plant data, additional model analysis is conducted. It is shown that without online compositional measurements, only the states

A laboratory-controlled milling process of silica sand was carried out using aluminum oxide balls of three different sizes. The ball wear kinetic equations were experimentally obtained from the evolution curves of the ball diameter as a function of the operating time. From a generalized model, the ball entrance flux and ball wear consumption were calculated using exact two-parameter solution functions

Due to the lack of tools, which are simple enough to assess the reuse strategy in the concept of circular economy (CE), in the present paper, reuse efficiency index (REI) was introduced as a new indicator, inspired by previously developed indexes, namely circular economy index (CEI) and value-based resource efficiency (VRE). The REI, as a measure of economic efficiency of reuse strategy, is the ratio

The similar physicochemical properties of stibnite and arsenopyrite resulted in the difficult separation by traditional collectors in flotation. Hence, this study utilized Cu2+ and potassium butyl xanthate (KBX) coordinate assembly to form a novel Cu-KBX complex collector, investigating its properties, conformation, and its role in flotation separation of stibnite and arsenopyrite, as well as its diverse

Flotation is a crucial technology for fine coal separation, and accurately acquiring bubble size information during the flotation process is essential for monitoring flotation conditions and achieving intelligent control. However, existing semantic segmentation models encountered issues with boundary disconnection when segmenting flotation bubbles, resulting in deviations between the extracted bubble

The combustion residues derived from coal, lignite, biomass, and spent wash could be recycled to extract critical elements required for energy transition. To recycle these elements from the combustion residues, it is necessary to understand their chemical mode of occurrence in the ash. This study presents the content of critical elements and their chemical mode of occurrence in coal, lignite, biomass

The structure difference of the flotation reagent has a significant influence on its flotation performance. In this work, sodium N-lauroyl glycinate (SNG) was synthesized by introducing an acyl group into sodium N-dodecylglycinate (SN), and was using the collector in the oxide ores flotation. Properties of these two collectors were compared, and the effects behavior and mechanism of introducing the

The employment of hydrocyclones in thickening operations is an attractive option when compared to centrifuges and filters due to their low operating, maintenance, and acquisition costs. However, the performance of hydrocyclone separation is impaired as the concentration of solids and the viscosity of the suspension increases. Using geometric optimization techniques, the Federal University of Uberlândia

Nickel (Ni) is used to fabricate a variety of products, including various alloys- stainless steel being a prominent one, batteries, and catalysts. Global Ni demand is projected to increase by up to 350% by the year 2050 relative to 2017, while the high-grade Ni sulfide ore deposits have largely been depleted. The increasing demand for Ni from emerging markets such as electric vehicles and energy storage

Biohydrometallurgy is a proven industrial method for extracting base metals from sulfidic ores with low-grade content and as a pre-treatment of Au ores. The lack of study of biological aspects related with microbial activity assessment makes it difficult to control and monitor these processes; and the multitude of experimental procedures described in the literature hinders cross-study comparisons among

Thiosulfate leaching is increasingly recognized as an environmentally sustainable alternative tocyanidation for extracting gold. One of the primary challenges in this field is identifying an effective stabilizer for the Cu(II) oxidant that simultaneously ensures efficient gold leaching and low thiosulfate consumption. This work introduces pentetic acid (DTPA) as a stabilizer for Cu(II) oxidant, forming

This study aimed at assessing various energy-based breakage distribution functions Bij within the context of a population balance model (PBM) of copper ore milling in a wet stirred media mill (WSMM). First, drop weight impact tests were performed to determine the size distribution parameters, tn. Second, various tn models called tn-fitted and tn-regenerated approaches were used to fit experimental

In this paper, two artificial magnetic particles (1#, 2#) with known magnetic parameters were taken as the objects, a finite element model based on Gauss’s law was established for the calculation of the transient Maxwell magnetic stress tensor on the surfaces of particles and kinetic study, a high-speed camera was used to obtain the motion behaviors of magnetic particles in comparison with the simulation

Beryllium (Be) is mainly produced by magnesiothermic reduction of beryllium fluoride (BeF2). This research aims to improve the extraction rate of Be by investigating the reaction mechanism and kinetics during the magnesiothermic reduction of BeF2. It was found that the solid product layer composed of MgF2 and Be metal produced during the magnesiothermic reduction process is the main reason hindering

In industrial contexts, the stratification of materials by size is a common requirement, particularly in sectors such as food production, construction, and mineral extraction. Vibrating screens, which have been in use for over a century, play a crucial role in this process by applying forced vibration to classify materials according to particle size. In mineral processing facilities, these screens

Ionic liquid (IL)-based extraction is a promising and environmentally benign separation technology. Processes for quaternary ammonium-based IL extraction of vanadium have been extensively studied, but the vanadium extraction mechanism has not been accurately confirmed. This study investigated vanadium extraction from sulphuric acid leachate of shale by solvent extraction with tri-n-octylmethylammonium

With the rise of the new energy battery industry, the demand and processing volume of nickel laterite ore—a crucial source of nickel for electrode materials—have steadily increased. This paper systematically reviews the traditional hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes used to extract valuable metals such as nickel, cobalt, magnesium, and iron from nickel laterite ore, and briefly discusses

The dry closed circuit ball mill circuits of Tata Steel’s pelletizing plant in IJmuiden receive a variable mixture of ores to produce a dry ground iron ore mixture. A population balance model was developed to help study circuit unit performance, the impact of installation modifications and influence of input materials on the performance of the circuits. Batch grinding tests were done on input materials

Steelmaking slag and steel pickling waste liquor (SPWL) are two kinds of by-products in steel plants. The existence of phosphorus (P) in steelmaking slag is the main factor affecting its reuse within the steelmaking process. To remove P from steelmaking slag with a low-cost method, selective leaching was proposed by using SPWL as a leaching agent. SPWL generally contains a small amount of Fe3+ ions

Acid surface pretreatment was employed to realize the selective hydrophobic agglomeration of micro-fine ilmenite in flotation. Microflotation and artificially mixed mineral experiments manifested that after acid surface pretreatment, the recovery of micro-fine ilmenite with the increase of NaOL concentration and the floatability difference of micro-fine ilmenite and titanaugite increased significantly

The surface chemistry of chalcopyrite (Cpy) and pyrite (Py) in presence of water containing with Mg and Ca was studied using gum acacia (GA), xanthomonas campestris (XC) and guar gum (GG) as depressants. The adsorption density of XC and GA beyond IEP of Cpy and Py in absence of metal ions was nil, whereas that of GG increased with increase in pH till at pH 9.4. However, in presence of Mg and Ca, the

Iron ore is the raw material for smelting steel, and the steel smelting industry occupies an important position in the development of the national economy. In China, the reserves of iron ore are large, but the iron ore has the characteristics of low grade and sorting is difficult, which limits the application of domestic iron ore. In order to meet the demand for raw materials in China’s steel industry

The global shift towards electrification has led to an unprecedented demand for lithium (Li) – a key element in Li-ion battery technology. Sedimentary claystones found in Nevada have recently emerged as a new resource for Li. However, these claystones pose challenges to process due to their intricate and complex mineral composition. One of the significant challenges is that the claystones contain significant

Nickel sulfide concentrate was an important raw material for battery-grade nickel sulfate. To efficiently separate nickel from saprolitic laterite to product nickel sulfide concentrate, a novel and clean sulfidation-flotation process aimed to enhance selective sulfidation and particle growth through sodium carbonate was proposed herein. The effects of temperature, time, sulfur dosage, Na salts, and

The recovery of valuable minerals in froth flotation industry relies on finding inexpensive and environmentally friendly reagents that selectively adsorb upon surfaces and interfaces. Computer simulations, especially when extended, provide access to detailed mechanistic information on solvent configurations and may ascertain crucial dynamical events over the adsorption process. Further, in silico throughput

A sulfidic secondary raw material rich in Ni (millerite) and Zn (sphalerite) as well as mixed Ni-Fe-S sulfides was characterized and investigated for its leaching behavior under atmospheric direct acid leaching system utilizing air or oxygen, H2SO4, temperature ranges, and gas flow rates. The goal was to investigate extractability of the main elements (Ni, 15 wt% and Zn, 16 wt%) in the raw material

Base metals are among the key drivers propelling the economy’s expansion due to their widespread uses and applications. They are used as input factors in the construction of houses, transportation, plants, machinery, pipes, electrical cables, etc. As high-grade base metal sulphide deposits continue to diminish rapidly, the focus is shifting towards recovering these metals from lower grade oxidised

High-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) is an energy-efficient size reduction equipment widely used in the mining industry. Simulating and analyzing its performance is of significant importance. This paper focuses on the comminution process of HPGR and simulates it using the discrete element method (DEM) and particle replacement model (PRM). Furthermore, the combination of DEM simulation and Box-Behnken