Understanding microwave induced sorting of porphyry copper ores
Global demand for minerals and metals is increasing. It has been established that the impact of mining and mineral processing operations must be reduced to sustainably meet the demands of a low grade future. Successful incorporation of ore sorting in flow sheets has the potential to improve energy e...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30606/ |
| _version_ | 1848794023046676480 |
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| author | John, R.S. Batchelor, A.R. Ivanov, D Udoudo, O.B. Jones, D.A. Dodds, Chris Kingman, S.W. |
| author_facet | John, R.S. Batchelor, A.R. Ivanov, D Udoudo, O.B. Jones, D.A. Dodds, Chris Kingman, S.W. |
| author_sort | John, R.S. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Global demand for minerals and metals is increasing. It has been established that the impact of mining and mineral processing operations must be reduced to sustainably meet the demands of a low grade future. Successful incorporation of ore sorting in flow sheets has the potential to improve energy efficiency by rejecting non-economic material before grinding. Microwave heating combined with infra-red temperature measurement has been shown to distinguish low and high grade ore fragments from each other. In this work, experimentally validated 2-D finite difference models of a theoretical two phase ore, representing typical fragment textures and grades, are constructed. Microwave heating is applied at economically viable energy inputs and the resultant surface thermal profiles analysed up to 2 minutes after microwave heating. It is shown that the size and location of grains can dramatically alter surface temperature rise at short thermal measurement delay times and that the range of temperatures increases with increasing fragment grade. For the first time, it is suggested that increasing the delay time between microwave heating and thermal measurement can reduce the variation seen for fragments of the same grade but different textures, improving overall differentiation between high and low grade fragments. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:09:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-30606 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:09:36Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-306062020-05-04T20:06:05Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30606/ Understanding microwave induced sorting of porphyry copper ores John, R.S. Batchelor, A.R. Ivanov, D Udoudo, O.B. Jones, D.A. Dodds, Chris Kingman, S.W. Global demand for minerals and metals is increasing. It has been established that the impact of mining and mineral processing operations must be reduced to sustainably meet the demands of a low grade future. Successful incorporation of ore sorting in flow sheets has the potential to improve energy efficiency by rejecting non-economic material before grinding. Microwave heating combined with infra-red temperature measurement has been shown to distinguish low and high grade ore fragments from each other. In this work, experimentally validated 2-D finite difference models of a theoretical two phase ore, representing typical fragment textures and grades, are constructed. Microwave heating is applied at economically viable energy inputs and the resultant surface thermal profiles analysed up to 2 minutes after microwave heating. It is shown that the size and location of grains can dramatically alter surface temperature rise at short thermal measurement delay times and that the range of temperatures increases with increasing fragment grade. For the first time, it is suggested that increasing the delay time between microwave heating and thermal measurement can reduce the variation seen for fragments of the same grade but different textures, improving overall differentiation between high and low grade fragments. Elsevier 2015-12 Article PeerReviewed John, R.S., Batchelor, A.R., Ivanov, D, Udoudo, O.B., Jones, D.A., Dodds, Chris and Kingman, S.W. (2015) Understanding microwave induced sorting of porphyry copper ores. Minerals Engineering, 84 . pp. 77-87. ISSN 0892-6875 microwave ore copper sorting modelling http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892687515301023 doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2015.10.006 doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2015.10.006 |
| spellingShingle | microwave ore copper sorting modelling John, R.S. Batchelor, A.R. Ivanov, D Udoudo, O.B. Jones, D.A. Dodds, Chris Kingman, S.W. Understanding microwave induced sorting of porphyry copper ores |
| title | Understanding microwave induced sorting of porphyry copper ores |
| title_full | Understanding microwave induced sorting of porphyry copper ores |
| title_fullStr | Understanding microwave induced sorting of porphyry copper ores |
| title_full_unstemmed | Understanding microwave induced sorting of porphyry copper ores |
| title_short | Understanding microwave induced sorting of porphyry copper ores |
| title_sort | understanding microwave induced sorting of porphyry copper ores |
| topic | microwave ore copper sorting modelling |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30606/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30606/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30606/ |