Course description

The main task for mineral processors is to find a reliable technology for testing of mining feasibility and the efficiency of mineral extraction procedures. Among various mineral processing and sample preparation approaches of extraction and concentration there are two alternative cost-effective methods that can be described as the most environmentally benign and complementary: electric-pulse disaggregation (EPD) and hydroseparation (HS). Their combination is defined as “3D-Technologyof Mineral Processing and Sample Preparation for Mineral Research ”(hereafter, 3D-Technology, and 3D-Laboratory), see www.cnt-mp.com. These techniques were tested on many different rocks and ore types, as well as process products with great success providing a precise and comprehensive determination of crystal morphology, real grain size and mineral chemistry of different accessory precious metals, base and REE metals, and other useful constituents of the geological samples containing their low and very low (<0.1 ppm) concentrations. This includes Critical Raw Materials (CRMs), strategic and other valuable materials derived from mining tailings that concerned to challenges that for so long have prevented a more circular economy in mining waste. 3D-Technology makes it possible to enhance the chances of finding all accessory minerals for their identification and characterisation, carry out prospecting and technological mapping at the phase level from small samples (100-2000g); produce ultraclean separates of fossils/microfossils and accessory minerals for any analytical purpose etc.

Course content

The course is provided in 5 Modules of 2 academic hours each. Each Module is a combination of two parts - theoretical (45 min) and experimental/practical (45 min). The first part is provided by Zoom presentations with trainer's guidance. Ten minutes Q&A session is after the first part during the coffee break. The second part is streamed live via YouTube (also has Q&A option) directly from the 3D-Laboratory, where one real geological sample (drill core, field sample, process products or composite material) is processed “online”throughout the course. Each time before the course the trainees are able to vote in Instagram for selection of sample from the collection that is available at 3D-laboratory for processing during the course. The following 5 Modules correspond to 5 steps of the practical part of the 3D-Technology, such as:

Module 1

• Theory: 3D-Technology and 3D-Laboratory equipment
• Practice: Electric-pulse disaggregation of the bulky sample by means of EPD Spark-2

Module 2

• Theory: Application of the 3D-Technology for accessory mineralogy
• Practice: Wet-sieving of EPD products

Module 3

• Theory: Application of the 3D-Technology for indicator mineralogy
• Practice: Electric-pulse disaggregation of the coarse fractions of the sample by means of EPD Spark-10

Module 4

• Theory: Application of the 3D-Technology in materials testing
• Practice: Hydroseparation of different EPD products

Module 5

• Theory: Production of the unified 3D-Technology Report
• Practice: Hand-picking and monolayer polished sections of HS-concentrates

All presentations after each Module are sent to trainees together with the link to special Intagram quizzes that have comments of the results of each Module. This way all the trainees' performance is monitored after each training Module. The Autorized Certificates are provided to trainees in exchange to their essays that will be evaluated and qualified by trainers as Standard or Research paper quality. The best performing trainees could be selected for working in various consulting projects (i.e. writing the reports, or joint research articles together with trainers).

Objectives and outcomes

Trainees will be able to: understand importance of environmentally-friendly clean approach of mineral processing and sample preparation techniques for their own future research; understand and use most up-to-date and comprehensive methods of data recovery from geological samples; get the idea about means of process mineralogy, sample preparation for mineral analysis of precious metals, accessory & indicator minerals; elaborate the 3D-Technology process flowchart for the test project; understand all the technical parameters for operation of the 3D-Laboratory; perform manual wet-sieving, hand-picking of mineral grains, produce monolayer polished sections from finest fractions of mineral grains; evaluate and interpret the results of the 3D-Technology application in mineral research; study the research publications in the peer-reviewed journals related to EPD and HS; select their own niche interest where 3D-Technology will be the key to their own outstanding research results; define the typical tasks of process mineralogy by means of 3D-Technology; develop the scope of work for any type of the mineral processing project (academic or industrial project, including new challenging tasks); work in the team together with trainers; bring in new ideas for more test projects that can result in very interesting data recovery and publication; produce research paper quality essay; publish their own original essay in the scientific journal together with CNT team; post essays and test results at personal LinkedIn accounts; get professional recommendation on Linkedin and sufficient Letter of recommendation from triners for supporting respective sholarships, reseach fundings for projects, and job applications.

Qualification: Students, geoscience professionals, consultants, engineers, technicians

Field: Mineralogy, process mineralogy, geometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, mineral processing, geochronology, sample preparation for mineral analysis, assay, paleontology, micropaleontology, geochemistry, precious metals, base metals, indicator minerals, accessory minerals