Traceability of Base Metals Ores Using Mineralogical and Microtextural Parameters Julie Machault, Luc Barbanson, Thierry Augé, Laurent Bailly, Jean-Jacques Orgeval To cite this version: Julie Machault, Luc Barbanson, Thierry Augé, Laurent Bailly, Jean-Jacques Orgeval. Traceability of Base Metals Ores Using Mineralogical and Microtextural Parameters. 13th SGA Biennal Meeting , The Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits, Aug 2015, Nancy, France. pp.1547-1550. insu-01289689 HAL Id: insu-01289689 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01289689 Submitted on 17 Mar 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives| 4.0 International License Traceability of Base Metals Ores Using Mineralogical and Microtextural Parameters Julie Machault, Luc Barbanson Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans (ISTO), Université d’Orléans/CNRS-INSU/BRGM, UMR 7327, 1A rue de la Férollerie 45071 Orléans Cedex 2, France. Thierry Augé, Laurent Bailly Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM), Direction des Géoressources (DGR/MIN), 3 avenue Claude Guillemin BP 36009 45060 Orléans Cedex 2, France Jean-Jacques Orgeval 16 Allée du Houx 45160 Olivet, France Abstract. The demand in mineral resources is increasing All diamonds must be accompanied by a certificate of rapidly, but there is a lack of transparency in the trade of origin (Kimberley process). The development of the concentrates raw mineral materials because of 18O/16O isotopic identity card for emeralds helps to speculation and involvement in the finance of armed distinguish the source of a large number of high quality conflicts. Because of the distance between primary emeralds (Giuliani et al. 1998b). Fingerprints of coltan extraction and the final production sites it is difficult to check the origin of these products. An identity card is can be determined to find the place of origin of the mineral required for mineral commodities, so that trading in the (Gäbler et al. 2011, 2013; Melcher et al. 2008a, b, 2013; industry can be verified and the traceability of Savu-Krohn et al. 2011). A similar need sometimes arises concentrates ensured. This problem may be considered during mineral processing when multiple sources are as an inversion process: studying the products sold to used. The Luossavaara Kiirunavaara AB-plant (LKAB) in identify the original ore. The discriminant parameters are Sweden produces iron ore from Kiruna and Malmberget mineralogical composition, identification of textural mines. These minerals are mixed. Iron oxides of microfacies of the target minerals (pyrite, sphalerite and Malmberget are different from those from Kiruna chalcopyrite), “pseudo-paragenetic sequence”, and the (coarser-grained, different types of joints of grains,…) contents and distributions of minor elements of target minerals. Statistical tests are used to compare the (Oghazi et al. 2009) and behave differently during chemical composition of three target minerals. The treatment. To clarify the importance of the source of the application to Volcanic Massive Sulphide ore deposits ore on the difficulties observed during treatment, a shows that it is possible to distinguish target minerals traceability study was attempted (Kvarnström and Oghazi between ore deposits in the Iberian Pyrite Belt province 2008; Machault et al. 2013). However, there are very few and from the Urals province using the selected studies on the tracea-bility of base metals. These metals characteristics. Ore deposits from different provinces may are mainly used in industrial sectors and the evolution of be discriminated using the identity cards, as well as their price depends to a large extent of the growth of the different deposits in the same province. global economy. Keywords. Traceability, identity card, target minerals, The aim of this work is to establish parameters to be Volcanic Massive Sulphide included in an identity card for each deposit, which will allow it to be discriminated from other deposits. This Figure 1. Schematic model of the Energy Test Bed 1 Introduction requires a method of traceability with low analytical cost, using easily accessible techniques mineralogical and The scientific impact of this new infrastructure will Acknowledgements Metal mining and marketing have an impact on the microtextural characterization allow an unique signature be far reaching, including understanding of subsurface economy, society (negative or positive) and the to be established for each ore and each deposit studied flows, geoche-mistry and physics of rock matrices, and BGS is funded by the Natural Environment Research environment. The metal market is a major factor in (Machault et al. 2014). The ultimate objective of this the interaction of surface carbon and other geochemical Council (NERC UK). This proposal underpins the economic development. This is a major concern in study, which is part of a global programme to create an cycles and subsurface flows. British Geological Survey strategy (2014). developed countries, which are anxious to secure supplies ore identity card, is the establishment of a database The new infrastructure will act as a catalyst for in view of the strong demand for mobile phones, digital incorporating the characteristics of each deposit and each industry both onshore and offshore to stimulate References tablets, solar panels, batteries, … It is also growing mineral processing plant (Machault et al. 2013). Periodic investment and speed new technology options to concern for the “citizen-consumer”, who needs to be sure reviews of the database will ensure monitoring of commercialisation. It will thus act as a bridge from British Geological Survey (2014) Gateway to the Earth: science for that these items have not been produced contrary to his or traceability parameters over time. the next decade. Keyworth, Nottingham: British Geological ideas to application and would attract support and her ethical or moral values. To avoid parallel markets of possible co-funding from oil and gas companies, mining Survey. Available from http://resources.bgs.ac.uk/ebooks/gateway_to_the_earth/index. certain mineral resources, solutions have been proposed 2 An approach for the traceability of base companies, utilities and energy and environment html#/1/ to locate the extraction sites of these resources for metals in Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide consultancy. diamond via Kimberley Process (www.kimberleyprocess .com), for emeralds (Giuliani et al. 1998a, b), sapphire Traceability refers to the ability to track a product at (Giuliani et al. 2005), ruby (Giuliani et al. 2005) and different stages of its production, its transformation and “coltan” (Gäbler et al. 2011, 2013; Melcher et al. 2008a, its commercialization from the source of the product up to b, 2013; Savu-Krohn et al. 2011). A chain of control and the end of its life, including possible recycling. It must certification has been set up by the diamond producer allow the origin of the source concentrate to be countries under the supervision of international experts. determinated at each of these stages. Procedures to Sustainable mining and environmental issues 1547 achieve a good traceability are governed by standards identification of characteristics microfacies, the presence 6 Discussion criteria. At this stage of method development, the and/or national or international control organizations. In of trace minerals and finally the minor elements contained establishment of a hierarchy between the retained the case of mineral resources, traceability consists of in the “target minerals”. The “target minerals” are: (1) 6.1. Appropriateness of the methodological characteristics, valid for all VMS deposits, seems associating a commodity to the mine from which it has Pyrite for its ubiquity in the studied bulk ore deposits approach used premature. However we are able to produce flow charts been extracted. For base metals, the bulk ores bear which allows to compare bulk ores from different mines; for each parameter showing their discriminative or mineralogical differences, which may provide (2) Sphalerite, which can incorporate into its structure a We have established an original traceability method for satisfactory features (Fig. 4). characteristics to track the bulk ore. These characteristics large number of potentially valuable elements (Ge, Ag, In, base metals. This traceability method can be used to may “survive” during mineral processing, so that we can Ga) or non-valuable elements (Fe, Cd, Hg, Mn, Sb); (3) obtain a comprehensive identity card of the deposits. find “footprints” of bulk ore in the concentrate. Hence Chalcopyrite that is repeatedly found associated with Mineral chemistry is considered to be the most promising metal ore traceability implies that, in the ideal case, for pyrite and sphalerite. tool for provenance analyses. The comparative results each province and also for each deposit, valuable mineral obtained from the statistical tests (Kolmogorov Smirnov have an unique signature.