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The Effects of High-Power Microwaves on Comminution and Downstream Processing

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The Effects of High-Power Microwaves on Comminution and Downstream Processing THE EFFECTS OF HIGH-POWER MICROWAVES ON COMMINUTION AND DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING by Adam Edward Olmsted A thesis submitted to the Department of Mining Engineering In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (August, 2021) Copyright © Adam Olmsted, 2021 Abstract The incentive for this research was to assess the potential of microwave treatment to fracture ores and improve surface area to reduce comminution energy consumption and improve downstream recovery. Pilot-scale microwave treatment was performed on two ores: a gold ore and a copper-nickel sulphide ore. Three microwave tests were done for each ore: batch tests at low-power (BB) and high-power (BP), and a continuous belt test at high-power (CP). Treatment variables investigated were heating time, microwave power and particle size. Treated ore was then used to assess the impacts on comminution (ore competency and liberation). Additionally, impacts on leaching (gold ore) and roasting (sulphide ore) were studied. Surface area measurements showed improvements for each gold ore treatment; between a 2.5% and 21% increase in m2/g. The sulphide ore reported marginal increases to surface area, although the CP test showed a 7% improvement. While the differential heating improved surface area, comminution energy consumption was unchanged apart from the CP test, which reported a 19% decrease in SAG work index, WSDT. The treatments did not weaken the ore enough to reduce the energy consumption, but still promoted grinding that enhanced surface area. Liberation analysis confirmed this, showing increases to value sulphide liberation, particularly for the high-power tests. Cyanidation showed that enhanced surface area improved the gold recovery. Improvements to gold recovery were proportional to the surface area increases reported. After 6 hours, a 26% increase in gold recovery was reported for the BP test; a 16% increase was reported for the CP test. This confirmed that continuous high-power microwave treatment can improve gold recovery by creating rapid thermal stresses. No significant trend was found between fracture and cyanide consumption. Roasting of the sulphide ore showed no trend with surface area. A lower sulphur content after microwave heating occurred due to oxidation of the sample, prior to entering the roaster. This degree of oxidation from the treatment was proportional to higher heating rates, and showed that the roast of the BP sample was adversely affected. For an industry process with shorter residence times, oxidation from microwave treatment would be less impactful. i Acknowledgements The work carried out in this thesis study was very challenging and demanding. I would like to thank my supervisors Dr. Chris Pickles and Dr. Boyd Davis, who provided necessary guidance and expertise to assist in this work. I am thankful for them always setting aside time to meet and discuss my research with me, allowing me to learn from them and always having constant reassurance as to the direction of the project. They provided me with an incredible opportunity to work on this project with them, pushing myself to expand my research and critical thinking skills. For this I am forever grateful. I would like to give a special thank you to my parents for their continuous love and support. Thank you to my father, Paul, who provided endless words of encouragement and support. I also want to acknowledge my incredible mother, Sandra, whose love and support knows no bounds. Thank you to my brother William for always being there. I would also like to declare my appreciation for my grandfather, Charlie, who is a big inspiration and role model for me. Next, I would like to thank Dr. Erin Bobicki and the research team at the University of Toronto for so graciously welcoming me into the team, allowing me to spend a summer term in the Department of Materials Science working on the CanMicro project. Dr. Darryel Boucher is thanked for countless hours of advice, discussion, and guidance throughout this thesis project. I would like to also give special thanks to my colleague, roommate and friend John Forster, who spent the last year side-by-side with me in the lab. I am very thankful to have shared this experience with him and to have learned from him throughout our work. Additional thanks are extended to the entire CanMicro project team who I had the pleasure of working with over the last two years. Thank you to my lab mates Wendy Tian, Izzat Redza, Spencer Gulbrandsen, and Byron Liang who I spent considerable time with, in the laboratory. I wanted to also give thanks to the entire team at Sepro Mineral Systems and Sepro Laboratories, who provided the lab space for the CanMicro project, where I spent the entirety of the 2020 school year collecting data. Thank you to Andrew Gillis and Danny Kwok for the constant support throughout the project campaign. Larry Ratchev, Jonathan Tan and Aaron Bazzana are also thanked for their support and ii advice both in and out of the laboratory. Special thanks to Scott Burgess and Mike McClarty for endless entertainment and warm conversation throughout the year. Thank you to all my fellow mining graduate students whom I shared office and lab space with. Thank you to Wanda Badger, Kate Cowperthwaite and Tina McKenna for all their help throughout my time as a graduate student. Additional thanks to Dr. Sadan Kelebek for everything I learned throughout his classes and discussion. Kingston Process Metallurgy is thanked for generously helping with the roasting work in this thesis. Thank you to Ron Hutcheon of Microwave Properties North for consistent chats and insight on the data acquired. Thank you to James Wei of Sepro Laboratories for assisting in the completion of the leaching work in this thesis. Elizabeth Whiteman and Mike Khouri are thanked for all the ICP, XRD, and QEMSCAN analysis completed at XPS, Glencore. NRCan and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada are thanked for the providing the funding for this research and for providing the opportunity to compete in the Crush It! Challenge. Thank you to Queen’s University for providing me with this opportunity to be a graduate student in the Department of Mining and complete this thesis. iii Statement of Originality I hereby certify that all of the work within this thesis is the original work of the author. Any published (or unpublished) ideas and/or techniques from the work of others are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. (Adam Olmsted) (August, 2021) iv Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... ii Statement of Originality ............................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................ viii List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................... xi List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1 ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 General Overview ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Project Motivation ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Research Scope and Objectives of Experimental Work................................................................ 3 1.4 Organization of Thesis .................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter 2 ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Literature Review .......................................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 Mineral Processing ........................................................................................................................ 5 2.2.1 Comminution ........................................................................................................................ 5 2.3 Downstream Processes .................................................................................................................. 8 2.3.1 Leaching ................................................................................................................................ 9 2.3.2 Roasting .............................................................................................................................
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