Current Status of Low-Grade Minerals and Mine Wastes Recovery: Reaction Mechanism, Mass Transfer, and Process Control

• Other Authors: Yin, Shenghua (Editor), Wang, Leiming (Editor)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2023
• Subjects: Technology: general issues; History of engineering & technology; Mining technology & engineering; unsaturated packed bed; liquid holdup; hysteresis behavior; stepwise irrigation; heap leaching; flow behavior; process mineralogy; tailings; cassiterite; REE; mineral liberation; quantitative mineralogy; ultrafine tailing; flocculating sedimentation; floc microstructure; fractal dimension; gray value; RCF layered composite material (RCF); mechanical properties; acoustic emission (AE); energy dissipation; damage constitutive model; rock-backfill composite materials (RBCM); energy dissipation mechanism; microcrack evolution; low-grade ore; metal recovery; metallurgical methods; bioleaching; environmental pollution; feasibility; pollucite; mineralogical characteristics; tailing; froth flotation; solid-waste filling; roof-contacted rate; influencing factors of roof connection; regulation and improvement of roof-connection measures; downhole uranium mining; X-ray phase studies; particle size characteristics; uranium leaching; tube; stope stability; subsidence area; stress distribution; displacement deformation; 3Dmine-Rhino3D-FLAC3D coupling; underground mining; gem mining waste; rare-earth elements; Sri Lankan gems; tailing management; uranium; magnesium slag; resource utilization; physicochemical properties; backfilling mining; magnesium slag-based cementitious materials; agglomerated heap; liquid retention; solute transport; fluid flow; n/a
• Online Access: DOAB: download the publication; DOAB: description of the publication

This reprint is tightly related to minerals engineering. The solution mining (heap leaching, in situ leaching, etc.) offers an environmentally friendly, low-cost, and efficient method to extract these minerals, especially copper sulfides (chalcopyrite, chalcocite, etc.), sandstone uranium, and sandstone gold deposits. After years of development, solution mining has made great progress, but it has also encountered some technical bottlenecks. To better understand the current status of low-grade minerals and mine wastes recovery, we carefully collected 13 contributions in this Special Issue, which are mainly divided into following three aspects:· Reaction mechanisms of chemical/bio-leaching-includes the leaching kinetics of copper sulfides, assisted leaching (chloride acidic leaching, iodide assisted leaching, etc.), in situ leaching of uranium and salt deposits, etc.· Process detection, characterization, and visualization-includes the detection of reaction products, visualization of fluid flow and mass transfer, pore strucutre characterization of leaching systems (ore-packed beds, etc.), microbial successions of leaching bacteria, etc.· Recovery, recycle, and reuse of mine wastes-includes cleaner leaching, disposal or production methods (dump leaching, etc.), the recovery of mine waste (waste rock, tailings, etc.), assessment of operations problems, etc.