Metallurgical Testing Laboratory Lab

Using a Metallurgical Testing Laboratory allows you to determine of best method for treating a given ore, practicability and best method of operating a given process. In general, testing for a process requires the application of several processes to the same ore, while testing of processes involves subjection of different ores to the same process.

The work requires painstaking attention to detail, close and accurate observation and record of the results and incessant inquiry into causes. Correct interpretation of results requires wide experience in testing and mill operation, and healthy balance between pessimism and optimism. Although the best laboratory results can often be bettered in a mill operation, it maybe impracticable in the mill to expend the care lavished on laboratory tests, a mill operation is rarely economically subject to as close control of quantities treated, and purity and uniformity of substances used as is the lab conditions.

Time is usually an element in testing work. On the hand is the demand for quick results, on the other, the necessity for deeply investigation before announcing conclusions. Clear recognition of this situation should be a sufficient guide.

The procedure followed involves some steps. Obtain a proper sample, determine qualitative mineralogical composition, determine content of valuable minerals, determine distribution of valuable minerals, determine aggregation of valuable minerals, study existing flowsheets for treatment similar ores, design a tentative flowsheet for laboratory procedure, determine the best conditions of treatment and corresponding results, prepare metallurgical balances of the batch tests, and make a continuous run to confirm the results.

A testing laboratory rarely has sufficient equipment, properly balanced as to size, to make a continuous run on a scale that will give reliable indications of mill performance, except to an experienced interpreted, and the greater his experience the greater his doubt as to his interpretation. In fact, if the size of the mill facility justifies the cost, the continuous run should be made in a pilot plant which must be fed with freshly ore as nearly as representative of what the final mill will treat, and run long enough to answer definitely with minimum interpretation what will be the performance of the plant. Cost of a pilot plant is usually a small fraction of that of the main plant is fully justified as insurance and is quickly saved.

The proper laboratory work of a new mineral deposit is a complex task and involved process requiring input from many disciplines including exploration geologists, mineral processors, chemist, and technicians. The result obtained in the laboratory is a key element in the project and has the task of finding a treatment process that is both economical and robust enough to handle the expected variations in ore types.

The future of the mining industry lies in its ability to find and develop new mineral deposits and the work developed by the metallurgical lab is the ship that transports the development of a mining project to good port trying to avoid tempests. When there is a tempest, the lab must know how to sail although many times the solution does not appear in the right moment.