Microwave Treatment of Minerals and Ores: Heating Behaviours, Applications and Future Directions
A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 April 2024) | Viewed by 7308
Special Issue Editors
Interests: microwaves; comminution; ore sorting
Interests: rock mechanics; mining; numerical modeling
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Research and development into the microwave treatment of minerals and ores is continuing to advance. While the commercialization of the application of microwaves in the mining industry has not been widespread, there are a considerable number of research papers concerning this technology. There has been a shift away from primarily experimental research to the production of studies that combine experimental and numerical modeling approaches. Some commodities have been extensively studied such as coal, copper, nickel, gold, and iron. However, there are many other commodities without an abundance of existing papers investigating their features, including kimberlite ores, rare earth ores, and PGE-containing ores.
Scaling up from bench to pilot-/commercial-level application remains a challenge. Therefore, there is interest in the research and development of the application of microwaves in the mining industry. As society requires more green processes, microwaves provide a potential solution if the energy source is clean. The numerous processing parameters and heterogeneity of ores cause complications in the development of feasible novel processes.
The attempt to find an alternative means of providing microwave energy, such as via solid-state radio frequency (SSRF), is a new area of research. While the conversion of electrical to the microwave energy is relatively inefficient in comparison to magnetrons, SSRF may be beneficial in microwave-assisted comminution via pulsing.
This Special issue is organized into three sections:
- Section 1 Microwaves in mining: Advancements in the field of rock excavation at the mine face using microwaves include open waveguide systems and powerful numerical models.
- Section 2 Microwave pre-treatment in mineral processing: This includes studies involving microwave pre-treatment to assist in grinding, sorting, and other downstream unit operations such as flotation, gravity, electrostatic, magnetic separation, etc.
- Section 3 Microwaves in extractive metallurgy: Papers, where microwaves have been used to improve hydrometallurgy and/or pyrometallurgical unit operations, are welcomed.
Dr. John Forster
Dr. Yanlong Zheng
Dr. Khashayar Teimoori
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- microwaves
- mining
- mineral processing
- sorting
- comminution
- rock mechanics
- drying
- energy
- modeling
- extractive metallurgy
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