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Development and Testing of a Method to Estimate the Mineral Composition of Ore from Chemical Assays with a View toward Geometallurgy: Application to an Iron Ore Concentrator
Department of Mining, Metallurgical and Material Engineering, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada
Department of Mining, Metallurgical and Material Engineering, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada
Quebec Iron Ore, Fermont, Canada
Quebec Iron Ore, Fermont, Canada
- 1 Department of Mining, Metallurgical and Material Engineering, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada
- 2 Department of Mining, Metallurgical and Material Engineering, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada
- 3 Quebec Iron Ore, Fermont, Canada
- 4 Quebec Iron Ore, Fermont, Canada
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Abstract
For complex orebodies in which the valuable metal is carried by several minerals that respond differently to the concentration process, an ore block model should not be characterized solely with elemental assays, as this information is not sufficient to anticipate the mill performances. Data from an iron ore concentrator is used to demonstrate the idea. A method is then proposed to estimate the mineral contents of ore samples from elemental assays. The method can readily be extended to combine the estimation of the mineral contents in the feed of the mill with an estimation of the recovery of these minerals into the products of the concentrator. These mineral recoveries can subsequently be incorporated into a block model to predict the concentrator response to the processing of an ore block.
KeywordsBlock ModelEstimationGeometallurgyIron Ore ConcentratorMill PerformanceMineral ContentModal
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