A Review of How Heat Treatments Have Been Used in Mining
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…