Minerals Recovery and Processing

Abstract Minerals recovery from the earth’s crust and the subsequent processing of economic mineral deposits, ie, ores, constitutes a wide variety of steps. Taken together these represent one of the world’s largest industries. Liberation of the value minerals from the ore matrix is a significant undertaking as is the disposal of the gangue materials or tailings once processing is complete. Materials handling is a significant problem in minerals processing as is process or plant control. Massive quantities of material, ie, ores, solvents, additives, and gangue, must be handled for separation procedures. Most mined ore undergoes size reduction, ie, grinding or crushing, and size separation and classification prior to minerals concentration. Minerals separation or concentration methods may include ore sorting, gravity concentration, magnetic or electrostatic separations, flotation, or combinations of these methods, depending on the ore, the mineral, and economic considerations. These methods are described as are the various solid–liquid separation, ie, dewatering, procedures, which may include thickening, filtration, centrifugal dewatering, or thermal drying. The methods of choice for several minerals are given as examples.