Mineral Mining Industry

Traditionally, the focus of mining industry has been the extraction of metals from minerals using several methods of extraction and beneficiation. However, changes have not been fast else slow, perhaps following the development found by other industries and engineering fields. Now, mining industry recovers and treats ores that were not treated many years ago due to lack of knowledge and skills.

There several reasons for this slow development. The first is that, over the years people have become sensitized to the damage inflected on the environment at the moment of processing no problematic ores which have originated improper handling of materials. It means that the necessity for treatment processes with environmental criteria has developed the search for new routes of processing which never were though before. So, many metallurgists have focused their concern and attention to better performance by using new strategies of treatment. The second reason is that in many industrialized countries, the mining industry has got a certain level maturity, because the scarcity of new ore bodies to exploit, and the constant necessity of cheaper processes. In fact, many people consider that the mining industry will get an important development in the short time.

The mining industry involves the application of extractive methods in the field of minerals. In this way, it is possible to imagine and consider the complexity of the processing techniques applied in the treatment of specific ores. A special chapter is related to mineral processing which is the key part of any system of extracting metals around the world. However, processes are several and the most used are classified in three field: pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and electrometallurgy. The first is related to operation developed at high temperature. The second involves leaching processes by using several types of solvents, and the third, deals with electrochemical techniques.

Under this classification, most advances in mining industry will be focused in three areas: first, the improvement of processes and better separation techniques for minerals and metals recovery from primary and secondary sources. Second, the development of processes in order to reduce or minimize the amount of non-useful material, or perhaps, to obtain residues which can be disposed closely. And third, the application of new techniques on material science.

Actually native metals practically have disappeared, and it’s necessary each day to apply techniques to the treatment of ores or concentrates in order to get a particular metal. Many times, people are used to consider the metal extraction as mechanical processes that involve only routine operations. However, this statement is not exact because each operation is done considering chemical and physical principles. Then, to know, to understand and to find out the concepts to be used in each extraction process is very important because each metal is extracted following a particular route which can not be avoided. Knowledge of the basic needs and requirements lead to the formulation of several processes to be used which can be correlated and thus choose the more appropriate. The mineral processing industry is dynamic each day more and more, and the attitude to accept new ideas is always welcome because processes are not perfect.