university of oulu · activities obey the principle of sustainable development: ... flash flotation...

University of Oulu Oulu Mining School

Sustainable mining

1 Hallintopäällikköpäivät Oulussa 15.8.2013

Hannu Kuopanportti

Finland’s Mining Vision 2020

Source: Finland’s Minerals Strategy 2010, GTK


Hannu Kuopanportti


Hannu Kuopanportti

Source: Finland’s Minerals Strategy 2010, GTK

The research challenge of sustainable mining

• The research task is technically and scientifically challenging and it requires multidisciplinary (ore geology, geochemistry, process engineering, mechanical engineering, measurement technology, and physics, economics) cooperation involving several research groups and companies.


Hannu Kuopanportti

Fields of University of Oulu


Hannu Kuopanportti

What is OMS? The Oulu Mining School is the network organization of the University of Oulu.

The core members of OMS are

1. The Department of Geosciences,

2. The Department of Process and Environmental Engineering,

3. The Extension School at the University of Oulu.

The most important cooperation partners of the OMS are

1. The Geological Survey of Finland (GTK),

2. The Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT),

3. Luleå Technical University (LTU),

4. Aalto University,

5. University of Eastern Finland and

6. a number of exploration , mining and mineral companies.


Hannu Kuopanportti

What is OMS’s field of activity? Oulu Mining School education and research covers the whole life cycle of a mine:

1. Environmental and social effects in mining activity

2. Exploration using geological mapping, petrography, geochemistry and geophysics

3. Establishment of a mine (legislation, licensing system etc.)

4. Mining geology, open pit and underground mining

5. Research and development of beneficiation (= enrichment or concentration) processes

6. Mining safety, service and maintenance.

7. Tailings impoundments and mine wastes

8. Mining entrepreneurship, financing, economy

9. Closing of mines


Hannu Kuopanportti

Principles of OMS’s green mining

Green mining = mining of sustainable development Activities obey the principle of sustainable development: 1. Develop beneficiation processes that are energy-efficient and consume as little chemicals as

possible

2. Develop beneficiation processes which are safe, highly automated, and which include modernisation and repair of used process machines, and whose maintenance is high-quality, mostly remote controlled

3. Develop environmentally friendly beneficiation processes, i.e., closed processes or processes where use of fresh water and tailings formation are minimised.

4. Educate specialists capable of understanding the various and often conflicting interests in the exploitation of natural resources.

5. Educate specialists capable of identifying environmental and social consequences of mining, and to design procedures that ensure responsible mining


Hannu Kuopanportti

Inducements of green mining

1.Naturals resources have limited availability

2.Environmental concerns and regulations

3.Saving energy and chemicals save money

4.Media


Hannu Kuopanportti

The role of mining research in the university

• The University of Oulu has 50 years of training experience and research know-how in the field of mining.

• The University of Oulu has formed extensive networks of contact involving technology companies in the mining industry and the university is a keen participant in the endeavour to further develop Finland's exceptionally strong global position in beneficiation technology (e.g. Metso Minerals, Metso Automation, Outotec, and Sandvik).

• No other university in the world has such a continuously-running mini-pilot as there is at Oulu Mining School, and once crushing and dry-beneficiation pilots become available for research purposes in the next few years, the University of Oulu will have excellent preconditions for becoming a world leader in beneficiation research.


Hannu Kuopanportti

Mini-pilot beneficiation plant at the University of Oulu


Hannu Kuopanportti

Structure of Sustainable Comminution and Beneficiation Research and Innovation Centre SCBRIC


Hannu Kuopanportti

The research focus of mining in the university

• The research comprises the as yet very little researched initial part of the value chain in mining, from exploration to excavation and beneficiation, including tailings basins and their environmental impacts.

• By targeting research and development into excavation, comminution, and beneficiation we will be in a position to gain the biggest advantages from the point of view of developing sustainable mining, these advantages being reduced usage of natural resources, energy, and chemicals.

• The planning of a sustainable process is based on the mineralogical analysis of the ore (the mechanical properties of the minerals, density, and magnetic, optical, and electrostatic properties).

• Mining heeding the environment promotes the social acceptability of the mining industry as a whole and thus improves companies' opportunities for carrying out this activity (e.g. opening new mines, recruiting of labour) and it reinforces the profitability of mining.


Hannu Kuopanportti


Hannu Kuopanportti

Mineralogical analyses:

mechanical, magnetic and electrostatic properties

Coarse and fine crushing and removing of gangue minerals

Non-destructive identification of valuable and gangue ore grains

Coarse grinding, gravimetric, magnetic or electrostatic separation of valuable

minerals

Concentrate analysis Grinding - conditioning

Flotation of fine ore particles

Dewatering and concentrate analysis

Bulk leaching

Precipitation, dewatering and

concentrate analysis

Current research activities • Controlling environmental impacts of flotation concentration

of sulfide content ores: – means of controlling gangue fines during grinding and flotation

• separate processing fines and easily floating ore fraction: effects on total economy and total impacts

– use of regrinding, flash flotation and inverse flotation?

– means of monitoring and controlling water cycles of flotation concentration • recognizing of risk stages of the process: most dissolving process

conditions, over-grinding • application new purification technologies in the flotation concentration:

we are starting co-operation with one company in mini-pilot

– means of controlling selectivity of multi sulfide ores: Boliden might be interested • applying new concepts of conditioning


Hannu Kuopanportti

The examples of the products and services developed by the research group

• Innovative research methods for crushing, grinding, and sorting concepts • Overall control over crushing-grinding-beneficiation processes with the purpose of estimating the

consumption of energy and chemicals, and for estimating the quality of the tailings and process water • Development expertise related to new ore-specific dry-beneficiation methods (incl. based on electrical

charge produced by corona discharge) • Ore-specific methods in applying air-sorting and cyclone-sorting when separating light mineral material

from the <1mm fraction resulting from crushing • Gangue mineral identification-and-sorting methods suitable for various ores and based on on-line optical

techniques (machine-vision, spectroscopy etc.) targeted at gangue minerals • Ore-specific optimization of the functioning of the comminution device, monitoring of maintenance based

on fault diagnostics and predicting methods • Planning/design and modelling/simulation procedures for formulating ore-specific crushing/grinding circuit

and for formulating process diagrams for whole beneficiation circuit • Measurement system for predicting the amount and quality of beneficiation tailings • Utilisation of waste materials in mine backfill - design and testing guidelines • Risk-based approach to the design of liners in tailings impoundments


Hannu Kuopanportti

Sweden’s Vision – Smart Mine of the Future

• One control room • No human presence in

the production areas • Attractive work places • Continuous mechanical

excavation • Pre-concentration • Resource

characterisation • Final products


Hannu Kuopanportti

Source: Smart Mine of the Future – SMIFU, Anders Lundkvist, Miljöchef LKAB

university of oulu · activities obey the principle of sustainable development: ... flash flotation...

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