The Revolutionary Impact of Automated Mineralogy on Mining and Mineral Processing
This paper reviews the status of automated applied mineralogy today and describes the history and fundamental theoretical and practical bases underpinning the development of automated systems. Details are given of the technical challenges that were faced in creating the new technology and in applying it to a range of applications.In recent years, automated mineralogy has become established as an essential enabling technology for the reliable acquisition of statistically sound comprehensive mineralogical and metallurgical data. This has had a revolutionary effect on the industrial use of such data in the study of geology,mining and mineral processing. Previously, using manual methods, it was not feasible to attempt this work because the large data sets required could not be assembled in a realistic timescale. There was a reliance on individual expert mineralogists and this was not scalable. The speed, reliability, detail and repeatability of the modem automated measurements has now made this type of analysis routine.Automated Applied Mineralogy has come of age! More than 100 systems have been installed around the World.Automated mineralogical analysers such as QEMSCAN(R) were originally developed as diagnostic metallurgical tools to improve mineral processing plants using samples drawn from plant surveys,bench and pilot-scale tests. They were used mainly for the assessment and auditing of size fractions of mill products, such as concentrates and tails. Subsequently, they began to be used for concentrator design and optimisation where ore characterisation was used to help understand the relationship between the feed ore and its subsequent behavioar in the plant.They are now widely used to measure exploration cores and drill chips from drilling programs to predict eventual metallurgical performance. Ore samples can be classified into metallurgical, as well as geological types, by combining mineralogical features in the ores with metallurgical properties related to grade control,separation,comminution,flotation and leaching behaviour.Three-dimensional block models of ore deposits are now being created based on processing response in addition to geological and mining properties.The development of automated systems began in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There were many technical challenges.Mathematical theories of randomness, sampling theory, image analysis and stereology were developed to ensure sample representivity so that meaningful information could be obtained.Sample preparation, presentation and measurement methods were developed to ensure that the random sampling was preserved during the measurements.Methods of automatic measurement and mineral identification evolved from the use of electron microscopes, fitted with backscattered electron brightness and energy dispersive X-ray detectors.Operational procedures were required to ensure that these instruments could accommodate a large number of samples and operate unattended for long periods of time.The new technology was progressively applied to a range of commodities and applications and new analysis methods, such as liberation measurement, were needed for metallurgical interpretation of mineralogical data.The period of development coincided with the routine use of digital computers in instrumentation because they were more reliable, faster, had sufficient memory for complex programs and the storage of image data.Case studies are used as examples. These range from the use of the systems in plant optimisation,ore characterisation and geometallurgy when applied to a number of commodities including heavy mineral and poly-metallic base metal operations.The challenges ahead are to make the systems even faster, smarter, more available and easier to use and to move them from scientific use in research laboratories to routine use in operating mines.
Automated mineralogy Applied mineralogy Automated applied mineralogy Process mineralogy Mineral liberation analysis Automated mineral analysis Geometallurgy Ore characterisation Plant optimization Mine planning Automated scanning electron micros
Paul Gottlieb
Intellection Pty Ltd., Australia
国际会议
XXIV International Mineral Processing Congress(第24届国际矿物加工大会)
北京
英文
165-174
2008-09-24（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）