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Ore Extraction
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April 2021Neuendorf, K.K.E., Mehl, J.P., Jr., and Jackson, J.A., eds., 2011, Glossary of Geology: American Geological Institute, 799 p. Ore is extracted from the earth through mining and treated or refined, often via smelting, to extract the valuable metals or minerals. The ''grade'' of ore refers to the concentration of the desired material it contains. The value of the metals or minerals a rock contains must be weighed against the cost of extraction to determine whether it is of sufficiently high grade to be worth mining, and is therefore considered an ore. Minerals of interest are generally oxides, sulfides, silicates, or native metals such as copper or gold. Ores must be processed to extract the elements of interest from the waste rock. Ore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banded Iron Formation
Banded iron formations (also known as banded ironstone formations or BIFs) are distinctive units of sedimentary rock consisting of alternating layers of iron oxides and iron-poor chert. They can be up to several hundred meters in thickness and extend laterally for several hundred kilometers. Almost all of these formations are of Precambrian age and are thought to record the Great Oxygenation Event, oxygenation of the Earth's oceans. Some of the Earth's oldest rock formations, which formed about (Year#SI prefix multipliers, Ma), are associated with banded iron formations. Banded iron formations are thought to have formed in sea water as the result of oxygen production by photosynthesis, photosynthetic cyanobacteria. The oxygen combined with dissolved iron in Earth's oceans to form insoluble iron oxides, which precipitated out, forming a thin layer on the ocean floor. Each band is similar to a varve, resulting from cyclic variations in oxygen production. Banded iron formation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Native Copper
Native copper is an uncombined form of copper that occurs as a natural mineral. Copper is one of the few metallic elements to occur in native form, although it most commonly occurs in oxidized states and mixed with other elements. Native copper was an important ore of copper in historic times and was used by pre-historic peoples. Native copper occurs rarely as isometric cubic and octahedral crystals, but more typically as irregular masses and fracture fillings. It has a reddish, orangish, and/or brownish color on fresh surfaces, but typically is weathered and coated with a green tarnish of copper(II) carbonate (also known as patina or verdigris). Its specific gravity is 8.9 and its hardness is 2.5–3. The mines of the Keweenaw native copper deposits of Upper Michigan were major copper producers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and are the largest deposits of native copper in the world. (Web archive; click cancel when it asks for authentication.) Native Americans mined ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Mile (Kalgoorlie)
Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includes the historic townsite of Boulder and the local government area is the City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder. Kalgoorlie-Boulder lies on the traditional lands of the Wangkatja group of peoples.The name "Kalgoorlie" is derived from the Wangai word ''Karlkurla'' or ''Kulgooluh'', meaning "place of the silky pears". The city was established in 1893 during the Western Australian gold rushes. It soon replaced Coolgardie as the largest settlement on the Eastern Goldfields. Kalgoorlie is the ultimate destination of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme and the Golden Pipeline Heritage Trail. The nearby Super Pit gold mine was Australia's largest open-cut gold mine for many years. At August 2021, Kalgoorlie–Boulder had an estimated urban population ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lode
In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fissure (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock. The current meaning (ore vein) dates from the 17th century, being an expansion of an earlier sense of a "channel, watercourse" in late Middle English, which in turn is from the 11th-century meaning of ''lode'' as a ‘course, way’. The generally accepted hydrothermal model of lode deposition posits that metals dissolved in hydrothermal solutions (hot spring fluids) deposit the gold or other metallic minerals inside the fissures in the pre-existing rocks. Lode deposits are distinguished primarily from placer deposits, where the ore has been eroded out from its original depositional environment and redeposited by sedimentation. A third process for ore deposition is as an evaporite. A stringer lode is one in which the rock is so permeated by small veinlets that rather than mining the v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Keith Mine
Mount Keith Mine is an open pit nickel mine in Western Australia. It is operated by BHP. The site's closest landmark is the town of Wiluna, to the north. Overview The mine is located on the north end of the long Norseman- Wiluna Greenstone belt, with nickel sulfide deposits of the dyke-like or sill deposit type. The important known nickel deposits are in the ultramafic rocks of the lower cycle, around 2700 Ma old. In 1971, the mine was thought to be able to provide 10% of the world's demand for nickel; in 1992 it was estimated as containing 270 million tons of sulfide ore, grading 0.6% nickel, enough for about twenty years. Previously owned by WMC Resources Limited, which commissioned the mine in 1995, it was acquired by BHP in June 2005. In 2009, BHP reduced the mine's activity, laying off 300 employees. Production Mount Keith is part of BHP's Nickel West operations, which includes, apart from Mount Keith, the Leinster Nickel Mine, the Kambalda Nickel Concentrator, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kambalda Type Komatiitic Nickel Ore Deposits
Kambalda type komatiitic nickel ore deposits are a class of magmatic iron-nickel-copper-platinum-group element ore deposit in which the physical processes of komatiite volcanology serve to deposit, concentrate and enrich a Fe-Ni-Cu-(PGE) sulfide melt within the lava flow environment of an erupting komatiite volcano. Definition The classification of the type of ore environment sets these apart from other magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE ore deposits, which share many of the same genetic (formational) controls. Kambalda-type ore deposits are distinctive in that the deposition of an immiscible Fe-Ni-Cu sulfide melt occurs within a lava flow channel upon the palaeosurface. This is distinct from other magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE deposits, where Fe-Ni-Cu sulfide melt accumulates within a subvolcanic feeder dike, sill, or magma chamber. Genetic model The genetic model of Kambalda-type Ni-Cu-(PGE) ore deposits is similar that of many other magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE ore deposits: * ''Metal Source'': komatiitic magma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ore Dressing
In the field of extractive metallurgy, mineral processing, also known as ore dressing, is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores. History Before the advent of heavy machinery the raw ore was broken up using hammers wielded by hand, a process called "spalling". Before long, mechanical means were found to achieve this. For instance, stamp mills were used in Samarkand as early as 973. They were also in use in medieval Persia. By the 11th century, stamp mills were in widespread use throughout the medieval Islamic world, from Islamic Spain and North Africa in the west to Central Asia in the east. A later example was the Cornish stamps, consisting of a series of iron hammers mounted in a vertical frame, raised by cams on the shaft of a waterwheel and falling onto the ore under gravity. The simplest method of separating ore from gangue consists of picking out the individual crystals of each. This is a very tedious process, particularly when the indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mineral Processing
In the field of extractive metallurgy, mineral processing, also known as ore dressing, is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores. History Before the advent of heavy machinery the raw ore was broken up using hammers wielded by hand, a process called "spalling". Before long, mechanical means were found to achieve this. For instance, stamp mills were used in Samarkand as early as 973. They were also in use in medieval Persia. By the 11th century, stamp mills were in widespread use throughout the medieval Islamic world, from Islamic Spain and North Africa in the west to Central Asia in the east. A later example was the Cornish stamps, consisting of a series of iron hammers mounted in a vertical frame, raised by cams on the shaft of a waterwheel and falling onto the ore under gravity. The simplest method of separating ore from gangue consists of picking out the individual crystals of each. This is a very tedious process, particularly when the in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mineral Processing
In the field of extractive metallurgy, mineral processing, also known as ore dressing, is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores. History Before the advent of heavy machinery the raw ore was broken up using hammers wielded by hand, a process called "spalling". Before long, mechanical means were found to achieve this. For instance, stamp mills were used in Samarkand as early as 973. They were also in use in medieval Persia. By the 11th century, stamp mills were in widespread use throughout the medieval Islamic world, from Islamic Spain and North Africa in the west to Central Asia in the east. A later example was the Cornish stamps, consisting of a series of iron hammers mounted in a vertical frame, raised by cams on the shaft of a waterwheel and falling onto the ore under gravity. The simplest method of separating ore from gangue consists of picking out the individual crystals of each. This is a very tedious process, particularly when the in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Froth Flotation
Froth flotation is a process for selectively separating hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic. This is used in mineral processing, paper recycling and waste-water treatment industries. Historically this was first used in the mining industry, where it was one of the great enabling technologies of the 20th century. It has been described as "the single most important operation used for the recovery and upgrading of Sulfide#Geology, sulfide ores". The development of froth flotation has improved the recovery of valuable minerals, such as copper- and lead-bearing minerals. Along with mechanized mining, it has allowed the economic recovery of valuable metals from much lower grade ore than previously. Industries Froth flotation is applied to a wide range of separations. An estimated 1B tons of materials are processed in this manner annually. Mineral processing Froth flotation is a process for separating minerals from gangue by exploiting differences in their hydrophobicity. Hydrophob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gangue
In mining, gangue () is the commercially worthless material that surrounds, or is closely mixed with, a wanted mineral in an ore deposit. It is thus distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or materials overlying an ore or mineral body that are displaced during mining without being processed, and from tailings, which is rock already stripped of valuable minerals. The separation of valuable mineral from gangue minerals is known as mineral processing, mineral dressing, or ore dressing. It is a necessary, and often significant, aspect of mining. It can be a complicated process, depending on the nature of the minerals involved. For example, galena, an ore of lead, is usually found in large pieces within its gangue, so it does not normally need extensive processing to remove it; but cassiterite, the chief ore mineral of tin, is usually disseminated as very small crystals throughout its gangue, so when it is mined from hard rock, the ore-bearing rock first needs to be crushed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ore Genesis
Various theories of ore genesis explain how the various types of mineral deposits form within Earth's crust. Ore-genesis theories vary depending on the mineral or commodity examined. Ore-genesis theories generally involve three components: source, transport or conduit, and trap. (This also applies to the petroleum industry: petroleum geologists originated this analysis.) *''Source'' is required because metal must come from somewhere, and be liberated by some process. *''Transport'' is required first to move the metal-bearing fluids or solid minerals into their current position, and refers to the act of physically moving the metal, as well as to chemical or physical phenomena which encourage movement. *''Trapping'' is required to concentrate the metal via some physical, chemical, or geological mechanism into a concentration which forms mineable ore. The biggest deposits form when the source is large, the transport mechanism is efficient, and the trap is active and ready at the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
