Here are the ten most read articles on this mining blog during the past year. And it seems year after year, it’s a cement-related story at the top. Take a look below and read the ones you missed. Some of them are a bit dated, but are still useful and tens of thousands found them still of great interest.
1. The Cement Manufacturing Process
Cement manufacturing is a complex process that begins with mining and then grinding raw materials that include limestone and clay, to a fine powder, called raw meal, which is then heated to a sintering temperature as high as 1450 °C in a cement kiln. In this process, the chemical bonds of the raw materials are broken down and then they are recombined into new compounds. The result is called clinker, which are rounded nodules between 1mm and 25mm across. The clinker is ground to a fine powder in a cement mill and mixed with gypsum to create cement. The powdered cement is then mixed with water and aggregates to form concrete that is used in construction. Learn about the various laboratory and online systems that can be employed to ensure process control and a quality product.
2. Technology Focus: X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) in Mining
What is XRF, and how does it work? And how is it used in mining? Handheld XRF analyzers are a reliable method to analyze ore samples in open pits and underground mines – achieving the accuracy required to provide defensible information for process oversight, quality assurance, and various other operational decisions (such as grade control). Portable XRF technology can help ascertain the viability of lower grade resources and find localized high-grade enrichments, delineate ore from waste boundaries to reduce the randomness of digging, and obtain defensible data and minimize the need to send samples to external testing labs.
3. Better Together: XRF and XRD
Both types of XRF equipment are used in applications as diverse as cement manufacturing, metallurgy, mining, petroleum, polymers, paints and chemicals, forensics investigations, and environmental analysis. XRF analysis determines the elemental composition of a sample but does not provide information about how the various elements are combined together. Such mineralogical information is only available through X-ray diffraction (XRD).
4. XPS Reference Table Of Elements for Mining and Minerals
X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometry (XPS) helps scientists understand the surface chemistry of materials, and it can be used to explore nearly every element, Minerals encompass many of the elements found in the periodic table, particularly transition and post-transition metals, as well as metalloids. These elements may combine with the reactive alkali and alkaline-earth metals such as sodium, calcium and potassium. Most metallic materials combine with oxygen as oxides.
5. Pyrite: The Real Story Behind “Fool’s Gold”
Pyrite is called “Fool’s Gold” because it resembles gold to the untrained eye. While pyrite has a brass-yellow color and metallic luster similar to gold, pyrite is brittle and will break rather than bend as gold does. Gold leaves a yellow streak, while pyrite’s streak is brownish black. Learn about other reasons this Sulfide mineral is often mistaken for gold, and how XRF analyzers can help identify the real thing.
Enjoy reading!
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