Africa mine production

Ore Processing. Vanadium is recovered domestically as a principal mine product, as a coproduct or by-product from uranium—vanadium ores, and from ferrophosphoms as a by-product in the production of elemental phosphoms. In Canada, it is recovered from cmde-oil residues and in the Repubhc of South Africa as a by-product of titaniferous magnetite. Whatever the source, however, the first stage in ore processing is the production of an oxide concentrate. 

The chief mined ore of titanium is ilmenite (iron titanium oxide, FeTiC>3) and it occurs as vast deposits of sand in Western Australia, Canada and the Ukraine. Large deposits of rutile (titanium dioxide, TiO ) are known in North America, and South Africa. World production of the metal itself is around 90,000 tonnes per year, small compared to titanium dioxide production which is 4.3 million tonnes per year. Reserves of titanium amount to more than 600 million tonnes and while there is an abundance of this element it is extremely costly because it has to be extracted by a complicated process, and yet it could be so much more useful if it was cheaply available. 

World production of antimony is about 68,000 tons per year. Table 6 shows world mine production by main countries . China, Bolivia, Mexico, the Republic of South Africa and the USSR accounted for 84% of the total world estimated mine production during 1989. 

Production of refined cadmium in the western world (except of Central and Eastern European countries) in 1993 was approximately 15 000 tons. Japan is the largest producer (2808 tons in 1993), treating concentrates from South Africa, Asia and Australia as well as from its own mines. Production in countries with economies in transition was estimated to be around 4500 tons in 1990, but fell to 3000 tons more recently with more than half produced in the former Soviet Union (OECD, 1994). 

The types of igneous deposits in which commercially important concentrations of apatite have been found are nepheline-seyenite and carbonatites. The world s largest apatite deposit, located in Russia s Kola Peninsula, is associated with nepheline-seyenite. Carbon-atite deposits that are mined for their phosphate content include Siilinjarvi in Finland, Araxa and Jacupiranga in Brazil, and Phalaborwa in South Africa. By-product recovery from carbonatite ores is common. At Siilinjarvi, by-product calcite is recovered for use as agricultural lime, whereas copper concentrate and baddeleyite (zirconium oxide) are byproducts at Phalaborwa. 

Between 35-40 per cent of mined lead concentrates in the Western World enters international trade. On average in recent years about 900 000 tons or more have been traded, compared with total mine production of some 2.4 million tons, see Table 14.1. The major exporting countries at present are Canada and Peru, which together account for about one-half of total trade. These are followed by South Africa, Australia and the USA, each with some 10 per cent of Western World exports. This trading pattern has... 

Outside of the United States, there are six primary producers in China, France, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, and Spain. Mines in Newfoundland, Canada, were closed in 1990. Both Mexico and South Africa have lost market share to China which has high grade, low cost fluorspar. China is expected to dominate world markets because reserves are vast and production cost is low. Table 3 (2) shows a Hst of world producers by country of fluorspar in the early 1990s. 

Electrolysis of Aqueous Solutions. The electrolytic process for manganese metal, pioneered by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, is used in the Repubhc of South Africa, the United States, Japan, and beginning in 1989, Bra2il, in decreasing order of production capacity. Electrolytic manganese metal is also produced in China and Georgia. 

South Africa is by far the largest producer of primary (newly mined) PGMs. It suppHed 76% of the platinum used in the West in 1993, and over 50% of all PGMs. South African PGMs are mined as primary product. Other metals such as nickel, copper, and cobalt are by-products. The principal PGM mining houses in South Africa are Anglo American Platinum Corporation (Amplats), Impala Platinum, Lonrho South Africa, and Northam Platinum. 

Pyrite is the most abundant of the metal sulfides. Eor many years, until the Erasch process was developed, pyrite was the main source of sulfur and, for much of the first half of the twentieth century, comprised over 50% of world sulfur production. Pyrite reserves are distributed throughout the world and known deposits have been mined in about 30 countries. Possibly the largest pyrite reserves in the world are located in southern Spain, Portugal, and the CIS. Large deposits are also in Canada, Cypms, Einland, Italy, Japan, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, the United States, and Yugoslavia. However, the three main regional producers of pyrites continue to be Western Europe Eastern Europe, including the CIS and China. 

For the noble metals used in oxidation, the loading is about 0.1 oz per car, with calls for a million ounces per year. The current world production rates of platinum, palladium, and rhodium are 1.9, 1.6, and 0.076 million ounces respectively the current U,S. demand for platinum, palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium are 0.52, 0.72, 0.045, and 0.017 million ounces respectively (72, 73). The supply problem would double if NO reduction requires an equal amount of noble metal. Pollution conscious Japan has adopted a set of automobile emission rules that are the same as the U.S., and Western Europe may follow this creates a demand for new car catalysts approaching the U.S. total. The bulk of world production and potential new mines are in the Soviet Union and South Africa. The importation of these metals, assuming the current price of platinum at 155/oz and palladium at 78/oz, would pose a balance of payment problem. The recovery of platinum contained in spent catalysts delivered to the door of precious metal refiners should be above 95% the value of platinum in spent catalysts is greater than the value of lead in old batteries, and should provide a sufficient incentive for scavengers. 

As Britain is relatively poor in mineral deposits, this type of mining is less important here than in other countries of the world. The gold mines in South Africa, metal mines in the U.S.A., Canada and Sweden all use considerable amounts of explosive. In such mines the methods of working are often appreciably different from those described above and adapted to very large-scale production. 

There are two main reasons for the economic importance of Fischer-Tropsch production in South Africa (a) the existence there of extremely large coal deposits which can be mined at low cost, and (b) that nation s wish to become independent of external oil supplies. 

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