Mining With deep mining or open-pit mining, the rock is drilled and blasted and then transported or conveyed to the surface. Crushing • Breaker A breaker station crushes the rock, often to rock dust. • Ball mills The wet milling of minerals like copper ore crushes the material. • Screening plant Screening separates granulated ore material into different grades based on particle size. • Jigger The separating machine has a deep tank in which water is used to separate out the materials since they have a specific weight that is different to the gangue. • Hydrocyclone Cyclones are one of the most frequently used plant components for separating solid particles from the liquid flows. Processing and extraction • Flotation Froth flotation selectively separates highvalue, hydrophobic minerals from hydrophilic waste product. In its simplest form, the minerals are skimmed from the surface of a “slurry” of specific chemicals, water and air bubbles. • Leaching This is the process by which precious metals, copper and other compounds are extracted from ores. Because of the chemical reactions, certain materials are absorbed and then separated again from other earth materials. • Precipitation A precipitating agent is added to a batch of metal-containing solution, causing the target metal ions to form insoluble precipitates, which can be separated by filtration or sedimentation. Typical mining processes 1 2 3 1 2 3 M28 Process automation I Learning solutions for education and training Magazine > Current trend topics
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzE0OTAwNw==