1. DEFINITIONS

2. Metallurgy The science of ore processing and metals.

3. Minerals Engineering. The first major step in extracting metals
Minerals Engineering The first major step in extracting metals. Involves the separation and concentration of minerals from ores using mainly physical processes Often referred to as Mineral Dressing or Ore Dressing.

4. Extractive Metallurgy. Follows Ore Dressing
Extractive Metallurgy Follows Ore Dressing. Includes Pyrometallurgy, Hydrometallurgy, Electrometallurgy for:  the removal of remaining waste,  the decomposition of the metallic mineral to produce metal  the subsequent refining of metal.

5. Hydrometallurgy Uses liquid chemical solutions, treated resins and organics to separate and concentrate metals by processes such as acid, alkaline and pressure leaching, ion exchange, solvent extraction, molecular recognition, precipitation, crystallization.

6. Pyrometallurgy Uses high temperatures for smelting and refining reactions and melting, pouring, casting and solidification processes. Pyrometallurgy involves removing impurities from metals by introducing air and fluxes into the molten metal. The impurities are removed as gases or slag.

7. Electrometallurgy Uses electrical energy, principally for electrolysis or electrowinning to extract and refine metals.

8. Beneficiation Treatment of a crude ore in order to improve it’s quality. Example: beneficiating raw coal to a steam coal for power generation or to a coking coal for furnaces.

9. Poorly Liberated Minerals
Liberation Freeing of valuable minerals/metals in an ore or mineral by crushing and grinding.
Well Liberated Minerals
Poorly Liberated Minerals

10. Plant. Facility for processing ores or gravels
Plant Facility for processing ores or gravels. A plant where ore is milled, usually to fine powder, and the valuable metals are extracted by physical and/or chemical processes.

11. Run-of-Mine Ore Uncrushed ore in its natural state just as it is when blasted. Ore, as accepted for treatment from the Mine.

12. Gangue. Waste rock that surrounds an ore deposit
Gangue Waste rock that surrounds an ore deposit. The waste material in an ore. The valueless tailings/waste fraction of an ore rejected by a separating process.

13. Feedrate/Throughput Capacity of any section of a Plant in terms of tons treated in a given period e.g. tons per hour for coal, tons per month for gold.

14. Recovery Indicates the proportion of valuable material acquired from the processing of an ore. Generally stated as a percentage of the values recovered compared to the total values present.

15. Tailings The neutralized waste discarded after the economically recoverable metals have been extracted from the ore.

16. TECHNOLOGIES

17. HOW TO EXTRACT THE NEEDLE
FROM THE HAYSTACK

18. Metallurgical Approaches
Minerals Processing Engineer : Run the entire haystack through a magnet to retrieve the needle
Pyrometallurgist : Burn the haystack down to find the needle in the ashes
Hydrometallurgist : Chop up haystack, dissolve it all with chemicals, plate out metal of the needle

19. Run-of-Mine
Ore
PREPARATION & SIZING
MINERALS SEPARATION
Mineral
Product
METALS EXTRACTION
METALS PURIFICATION
METAL PRODUCTION
Metal
Product

20. Minerals Engineering The first major step in the extraction of metals, this involves the separation and concentration of minerals from ores using primarily physical processes. Often referred to as Mineral Dressing or Ore Dressing.

21. Screening Sizing separation of ore particles into defined size ranges (fractions).

22. Gravity Separation Recovery of values from crushed rock or gravel using specific gravity differences to separate them.

23. Jigging The vertical pulsing of a mass of particles dry, or in water, to assist the separation of heavy and light ore particles.
Jig Equipment for recovering heavy minerals by gravity settling through a vibrating screen covered with a ragging bed.

24. DMS Dense Media Separation, in which lighter density ore particles (floats) separate from heavier particles (sinks) in an artificial or organic liquid (medium) of intermediate density. Industrially, the medium is very fine magnetite mixed in water for coal separations or very fine ferrosilicon in water for higher density operations such as for diamonds, iron ore, chromites, manganese ores.

25. Magnetic Separator Uses a strong permanent or electro-magnetic field to extract ferro-magnetic materials from para-magnetic or dia-magnetic sands or concentrates.

26. Comminution Particle size reduction, the crushing of coarse ore or grinding/milling of fine ore by impact, abrasion, attrition or compression.

27. Autogenous Milling In milling, selectively sized lumps of ore are used as the grinding media.

28. Semi-Autogenous Milling. (SAG)
Semi-Autogenous Milling (SAG) Grinding/milling of rock to fine powder in which the grinding media (charge) consists of larger pieces of rock and steel balls.

29. Ball Mill A steel cylinder loaded with steel balls into which crushed ore is fed. The ball mill is rotated, causing the balls to roll and fall and grind the ore.

30. Cyclone Hydrocyclone: a centrifugal classifier continuously separating particles in a water slurry on their size, shape and density characteristics. Dense Media Cyclone: a similar vessel with critical differences which uses an artificial high density medium to assist density separation.

31. Flotation A process for concentrating minerals in milled ores, which uses the selective adhesion of certain minerals to air bubbles in water after treatment with chemicals. The right chemicals with air are added to a stirred ground ore slurry so the minerals will float to the surface. The metal-rich flotation concentrate is then skimmed off the surface.

32. Electrostatic Separator Separates mineral particles according to retained static electrical charges induced on them by a high voltage field with the heavy mineral concentrates deflected by an electrode.

33. Thickener. A high capacity solid/liquid separation device
Thickener A high capacity solid/liquid separation device. A large circular tank, often fitted with moving rakes, in which solids settle slowly to form a high density slurry for continuous removal from below, while clear water overflows the tank.

34. Extractive Metallurgy. Follows Minerals Engineering/Ore Dressing
Extractive Metallurgy Follows Minerals Engineering/Ore Dressing. Includes Pyrometallurgy, Hydrometallurgy, Electrometallurgy for:  the removal of any remaining waste,  the decomposition of the metallic mineral to produce a metal  the subsequent refining of the metal.