resource.

Mineralogical investigation during exploration provides an early indication of likely

later extraction processes required. It can also be used to constrain end­member
variability for geometallurgical mapping and for process control modelling.

Mineralogy for feasibility studies includes 
1) Quantification of significant minerals
2) Determination of mineral compositions, and 
3) The description and quantification of factors such as size, shape, texture,
associations, and liberation characteristics of the minerals in ore samples.

• Mineral identification, description and quantification by using X­ray Diffraction,

Optical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared
Spectroscopy.
• Determination of mineral compositions by using electron microprobes with light
element detection capabilities.
.
Equipments
• X­ray Diffraction Analysis – using Siemens D500 diffractometer controlled with the
DiffracPlus® software package and a Bruker D8 X­ray Diffractometer, with TOPAS
software.
• Optical Microscopy – a full range of optical microscopes with various attachments.
• Quantitative Microanalysis – choice of one Electron Microprobe and one Scanning
Electron Microscope.
• Image analysis facilities – three automated scanning Electron Microscopes
equipped with Energy­ Dispersive X­ray Analysers and Image Analysers, including
QEMSCANTM (quantitative evaluation of minerals) and MLA (Mineral Liberation
Analyser) systems.
• Well equipped sample preparation facilities, including cutting, crushing, milling,
screening, sub sampling and preparation of polished and thin sections.

                                             

                                                          By : Prof. S.B.S.Tekam, Head Mining Engg.

What is mineral dressing?

It is commonly regarded as the processing of raw materials to yield marketable

products by means that do not change the physical properties as well as chemical
properties of the mineral. 

History: Before the advent of heavy machinery the raw ore was broken up using
hammers wielded by hand, a process called "spalling". Before long, mechanical
means were found to achieve this. For instance, stamp mills were used in
Samarkand as early as 973. They were also in use in medieval Persia. By the 11th
century, stamp mills were in widespread use throughout the medieval Islamic world,
from Islamic Spain and North Africa in the west to Central Asia in the east. A later
example was the Cornish stamps, consisting of a series of iron hammers mounted in
a vertical frame, raised by cams on the shaft of a waterwheel and falling on to the
ore under gravity.

The simplest method of separating ore from gangue consists of the

a) Picking out the individual crystals of each. This is a very tedious process,
particularly when the individual particles are small. 
b) Another comparatively simple method relies on the various minerals having
different densities, causing them to collect in different places: metallic
minerals (being heavier) will drop out of suspension more quickly than lighter
ones, which will be carried further by a stream of water. The process of
panning and sifting for gold uses both of these methods. Various devices
known as 'buddles' were used to take advantage of this property.[when?] Later,
more advanced machines were used such as the Frue vanner, invented in
1874.
Other equipment used historically includes the hutch, a trough used with some 
ore­dressing machines and the keeve or kieve, a large tub used for differential 
settlement.

Objects of mineral dressing: The purpose of mineral processing is to turn the raw ore 
from the mine into a marketable product.
Main objectives are

1) It prepares the ore for extraction of the valuable metal in case of metallic ore.
2) To produce a commercial end products of the  nonmetallic minerals  and coal
Scope of mineral dressing: In past, the aim of the mining was to extract only those
minerals which were of good quality and easier to extract, therefore only those
deposits were taken into consideration which was paying them more with least cost
of their beneficiation (because of the crude stage of dressing technology as well as 

                                                             By : Prof. S.B.S.Tekam, Head Mining Engg.

the metallurgical process which were unable to treat the poor quality ore /minerals)
As we all know that these resources are limited and if we only extract these good
quality ore then in future we will be not having good quality of deposits and therefore
it will become very important for us to take the inferior deposits also only then we can
survive. For doing so, we will have to improve our mineral dressing technology so
that we can extract metal economically from the poor deposits. Thus we find that the
scope of the mineral dressing is very good   

Economic justification:

1) Savings in freight:
2) Reduced loss of metal at the smelter: because of reduction in the amount of   

   metal bearing slag produced at the smelter.

3) Reduction in total smelting cost: because reduction in tonnage to be handled

Operations involved in mineral dressing: Basically there are two main operations in
any mineral dressing plant. 1) Comminution and 2) separation. After extraction of
mineral or ore from the mine we find that these minerals or ore lumps contains large
amount of impurities in the form of waste material and therefore these cannot be
used directly. For making it useful to the man kinds they should be first make free
from the impurities. The valuable minerals are surrounded by the impurities i.e. there
is locking between the mineral and waste material. The mineral particles are first
unlocked from the waste by reducing the size of the lump with the help of crushing
and grinding. This size reduction process of lump is called comminution.

After comminution we get a mixture of crushed mineral and waste which are
fully liberated (unlocked) from each other.

Now we separate the minerals from the waste material, which is called concentration
operation. There are so many operations other than these two basic operations that
is dewatering which is required to get the dry concentratesif the separation operation
is wet. Some other operation like sampling, weighing, storing and transportation are
also required in any mineral dressing plant.