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Minerals
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Surface and Interface Physical Chemistry Applied to Mineral Separation and...
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Surface and Interface Physical Chemistry Applied to Mineral Separation and Element Extraction Processes

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 February 2024) | Viewed by 3144

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gonzalo Atenas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Minerals and Metals Characterisation and Separation Research Group, Department of Mining Engineering, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 2069, Chile
Interests: applied surface chemistry to mineral and element separation processes
Prof. Dr. Fernando Valenzuela

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Unit Operations and Hydrometallurgy, Department of Food Science and Chemical Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 2069, Chile
Interests: hydrometallurgy; ore leaching

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The "Surface and Interface Physical Chemistry Applied to Mineral Separation and Element Extraction Processes" Section is devoted to gathering state-of-the-art research of how the properties of mineral surfaces and interfaces impact different processes related to mineral processing and extractive metallurgy. It is well-known that solid–liquid interfaces take place in these processes, where solids usually refer to mineral phases while the liquid phase is often associated with aqueous solutions. It has been proven (at least to some extent) over the last few decades that the efficiency of many of these processes would depend on the chemical/mineralogical composition and the physical structure of each bulk phase, as well as on the properties of the interface formed between them, also named as mediators. In spite of the progress in knowledge throughout history to understand such processes, several questions remain unanswered. For example: How do physicochemical properties of the surface/interface translate into process efficiency in mathematical models? Can particle surface states be customized to improve the leaching of specific elements? What are the best practices for sample preparation when the outmost surface layers of mineral samples are characterized to avoid misleading data interpretations? This Section is expected to shed some light on some of these challenges. Therefore, research studies addressing these questions are welcomed, including, but not limited to, topics such as: how different analytical surface techniques provide information that can be connected to mass balances to provide a better estimation of process efficiencies; new trends in data interpretation coming from techniques for surface and interface analysis techniques; novel insights on surface and interface stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric structures produced during these processes; and the development of new and improved analytical techniques to capture and correlate surface/interface information coming from different depths of analysis, among others.

Dr. Gonzalo Montes Atenas
Prof. Dr. Fernando Valenzuela
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • surface chemistry of mineral surfaces
  • ore and mineral leaching
  • ore froth flotation
  • thickening

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 5561 KiB  
Article
Insights on Determining Improved Conditions for Multipurpose Reagent Dosing to Increase Froth Flotation Efficiency: NaSH in Cu-Mo Selective Flotation Case Study
by Braulio Fernandez, Gonzalo Montes-Atenas, Fernando Valenzuela and Juan Luis Yarmuch
Minerals 2024, 14(3), 240; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14030240 - 27 Feb 2024
Viewed by 641
Abstract
The assessment of mineral surface hydrophobicity at the industrial scale is a challenge. In some industrial situations, such information is indirectly obtained from other proxy variables. A well-known example of this is observed in the Cu-Mo selective flotation operation, where sodium hydrosulphide is [...] Read more.
The assessment of mineral surface hydrophobicity at the industrial scale is a challenge. In some industrial situations, such information is indirectly obtained from other proxy variables. A well-known example of this is observed in the Cu-Mo selective flotation operation, where sodium hydrosulphide is used to change the redox potential and, controlling this value, determine when Cu-sulphide floatability is inhibited. Preliminary experiments indicate that this reagent may also promote the formation of solid precipitates, reducing its impact on the redox potential. This study aims at designing a simple strategy at the laboratory scale to report and quantify NaSH losses due to parallel, irreversible, and/or fast reactions, such as precipitation. Experiments carried out using process water coming from a Cu-Mo selective flotation plant in Chile show that departing from different pH conditions and the addition of hydrosulphide ions effectively triggers the precipitation of specific metal ions, decreasing its availability to reduce the redox potential of the aqueous solution. For this specific case scenario and water quality, around 5% of the NaSH dosed precipitated. An SEM-EDX analysis of the produced solid phase shows that it is composed of mainly iron sulphide and hydroxide, along with other metal hydroxides. More importantly, it was found that dosing the reagent at the same concentration, but in the form of small increments, allows reaching the redox potential more efficiently, reducing to some extent the precipitate production and the unnecessary NaSH consumption in up to 30% of the NaSH dosed. Preliminary 1-D modelling of the process, based on mass transport coupled with reaction mechanisms, provided a first indication of the best dosing conditions for this reagent. The latter is expected to contribute to the development of better and improved reagent dosage technologies in froth flotation environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface and Interface Physical Chemistry Applied to Mineral Separation and Element Extraction Processes)
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21 pages, 8125 KiB  
Article
Agitation Leaching Behavior of Copper–Cobalt Oxide Ores from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
by Chaozhen Zheng, Kaixi Jiang, Zhanmin Cao, Derek O. Northwood, Kristian E. Waters, Haibei Wang, Sanping Liu, Kun’e Zhu and Hao Ma
Minerals 2023, 13(6), 743; https://doi.org/10.3390/min13060743 - 30 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1858
Abstract
Agitation leaching is a promising technology in hydrometallurgy for treating copper–cobalt oxide ores. In this work, the behavior of oxide ores containing around 2.3% Cu and 0.3% Co received from Congo was investigated for varying particle size, acidity, pulp density, temperature, leaching time, [...] Read more.
Agitation leaching is a promising technology in hydrometallurgy for treating copper–cobalt oxide ores. In this work, the behavior of oxide ores containing around 2.3% Cu and 0.3% Co received from Congo was investigated for varying particle size, acidity, pulp density, temperature, leaching time, and reduction potential. XRD, optical microscopy (OM), and ICP-OES methods were used to examine the chemical composition, morphology, and metal content of the samples. The copper and cobalt recovery reached 88.2% and 82.5%, respectively, at room temperature, with a leaching time of 4 h, a pulp density of 33%, an acidity of 178 g/L, and no reductant. The Cu and Co remaining in the leaching residue were found to be in their sulfide forms and coated with dense and fine calcium sulfate. To improve the metal recovery, a combination of flotation and agitation leaching of the flotation tailings method was adopted, after which the Cu and Co recovery reached 96.6% and 86.0%, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface and Interface Physical Chemistry Applied to Mineral Separation and Element Extraction Processes)
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