From the past, we have observed heat treatments being used in the mining industry in different ways. The earliest recording of this was in Greece, in the 1st century BC. Diodorus Siculus of Sicily, an ancient Greek Historian, shows fire setting being used in mining.
This was done by putting a large fire to the rock face which needed mining. This caused internal fractures in the rock face due to uneven heating which weakened the rock, enough to be worked. Water was added to the rock face when the fire had reduced and then it was worked to extract the soft ore one foot at a time. This process was repeated when they ran into hard rock. Temperature fluctuations caused stress on the rock, fracturing it in the process.
In heat treatment, there are three basic steps. These are heating, soaking, and cooling. Elementary heat treating processes include tempering, hardening, normalizing, annealing and case hardening.
However, there has been speculation that the practice is likely much older than this. Archaeological evidence suggests the practice’s use is several thousand years BC. With the arrival of gunpowder in 1613, thermal treatment became unpopular and was subsequently replaced with more efficient methods; blasting and drilling.
The following are modern heat treatment methods used in mining.
Calcination
Here, the mineral is placed into a vacuum chamber and heated to extremely high temperatures. Thereafter, the mineral is dried to get rid of any moisture then it is raised to the desired temperature in the calcining stage. Next, is the soaking stage where a constant temperature is maintained. The resulting product is then cooled to a safe temperature.
In order to achieve hydrated mineral decomposition, calcination is used in the processing of gypsum and bauxite. Calcination may also be used to remove unstable matter from raw petroleum coke as well as change anatase to rutile, a mineral form of titanium oxide.
Thermal drying
This process involves dehydration of moist products. Heat is transferred to the substance that needs to be dried. This can be done through various ways, either by heated gas or convective heat transfer or via contact with a hot surface. Other methods use high-frequency currents or radiation. This process is commonly used in the drying of raw coal coke and in wastewater sludge treatment.
The presence of modern day technology and machines have made mining, among many other industries, more efficient as well as make work easier.
Conventional heat treatment
This is a proposed method through the use of microwave energy. Studies showed that the introduction of darker compounds to microwave energy would induce more rapid heating while lighter colored compounds tended to get heated up more slowly but could be heated to higher temperatures easily, especially with temperatures of 10,000°C being reached rapidly.
Experts say different mining operations conducted by mineral sector players like Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU) (TSX: EFR) may require different heat treatments as opposed to others, but the general trend is that methods that are energy-efficient and reach the desired temperatures faster are being developed.
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