Efficiency upgrading in selective mining of high-grade ore by means of preliminary physicochemical softening

The article analyzes the data on using surface active substances (SAS) in mining and the testing results on softening of high strength rocks with determination of their strength in uniaxial compression and tension. After saturation of high-strength rocks of medium fracturability with aqueous solutions of SAS, the uniaxial compression strength and uniaxial tension strength of these rocks decreased by 21–42% and by 26–41%, respectively. Such reduction in the strength of rocks after saturation with SAS solutions allows putting the treated rocks in the class of easily fracturable high-strength rocks. The authors propose an improved mining technology for local areas of exceptionally high-grade ore from structurally complex deposits. This technology ensures better accuracy of delineation of exceptionally high-grade ore areas and higher completeness of their extraction. The outlines of the exceptionally high-grade ore areas are refined by densening of small-diameter well patterns in the zones with the revealed high content of the useful component. Later on these wells are used for softening the local areas by filling aqueous solution of SAS in them. Advanced ripping and extraction of the softened local areas containing exceptionally high-grade ore can use a single-bucket excavator with changeable hydraulic hammer and a hydraulic grabbing excavator. High selectivity of exceptionally high-grade ore mining can increase high-value metal recovery in the further mineral processing.

Cheban A. Yu., Sekisov A. G., Rasskazov M. I., Tsoi D. I., Tereshkin A. A. Efficiency upgrading in selective mining of high-grade ore by means of preliminary physicochemical softening. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2022;(9):29-41. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/ 0236_1493_2022_9_0_29.

The studies used resources of the Shared Use Center for Processing and Storage of Scientific Data of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under Project No. 075-15-2021-663.

A.Yu. Cheban¹, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Leading Researcher, e-mail: chebanay@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2707-626X,
A.G. Sekisov¹, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Chief Researcher, e-mail: sekisovag@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5780-6150,
M.I. Rasskazov¹, Researcher, e-mail: rasm.max@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9130-8072,
D.I. Tsoi¹, Researcher, e-mail: denis.tsoi@mail.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4501-3724,
A.A. Tereshkin¹, Researcher, e-mail: andrey.tereshkin@bk.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7376-9169,
¹ Mining Institute, Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, 680000, Khabarovsk, Russia.

A.Yu. Cheban, e-mail: chebanay@mail.ru.

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