Mineralogy and mining

Mining of rare earths is generally divided into three historic eras (i) Monazite-placer, (ii) Mountain Pass and (iii) Chinese. The advent of the Chinese era (mid-1980s) was marked by availability of rare earths at prices that undermined most other mining operations, resulting in cessation of mining activities, although ores were still processed. The Chinese have aroimd 55% of all known rare earth deposits and control over 90% of world supply. Marine deposits may provide a considerable increase in reserves in the future.  

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This chapter provides an overview of the salient points in phosphorite formation, mineralogy, and mining and puts into context the current work being undertaken on the Phosphoria Formation in southeastern Idaho. This chapter does not provide a full description of all the sedimentalogical, mineralogical, and industrial work that has been done on sedimentary phosphates indeed numerous full volumes have been published on phosphorites and more will undoubtedly follow. 

Kalogeropoulos, S.I. and Scott, S.D. (1983) Mineralogy and geochemistry of tuffaceous exhalites (tetsusekiei) of the Fukazawa mine, Hokuroku district, Japan. Econ. Geol. Mon., S, 412—432. 

Shikazono, N. (1985a) Mineralogical and fluid inclusion features of rock alterations in the Seigoshi gold-silver mining district, western part of Izu Peninsula, Japan. Ghent. Geol, 213-230. 

Shikazono, N., Nakata, M. and Shimizu, M. (1990) Geochemical, mineralogic and geologic characteristics of Se- and Te-bearing epithermal gold deposits in Japan. Mining Geology, 40, 337-352. 

Shikazono, N., Utada, M. and Shimizu, M. (1995) Mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of hydrothermal alteration of basalt in the Kuroko mine area, Japan Implications for the evolution of back arc basin hydrothermal system. Applied Geochemistry, 10, 621-642. 

Jambor, J.L. 2003. Mine waste mineralogy and mineralogical perspectives of acid-base accounting. In Jambor, J.L., Blowes, D.W., Ritchie, A.M.I. (eds.), Environmental aspects of mine waste, Mineralogical Association of Canada Short Course, 31, 117-147. 

With this work we have applied a combination of synchrotron-based p-XRD, p-XRF, and p-XANES analyses to determine the mineralogy and the elemental distribution of metals in partially altered sulfide-mineralization fragments deposited within an open-air waste-rock dump (Libiola mine, eastern Liguria, Italy). 

Marescotti, P., Carbone, C., De Capitani, L., Grieco, G., Lucchetti, G., Servida, D. 2008. Mineralogical and geochemical characterisation of open pit tailing and waste rock dumps from the Libiola Fe-Cu sulphide mine (eastern Liguria, Italy). Environmental Geology, 53, 1613-1626. 

Kontak, D.J. Smith, P.K. 1988. Meguma gold studies IV Chemistry of vein mineralogy. In Mines and Minerals Branch Report of Activities 1987, Part B, Nova Scotia Department of Mines and Energy, Report 88-1, Halifax, Nova Scotia. 85-100. 

Chen, T.T. Petruk, W. (1980). Mineralogy and oharacteristics that affect recoveries of metals and trace elements from the ore at Heath Steele Mines, New Brunswick. Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Bulletin, 73, 167-179. 

According to a literature survey conducted by Shahalam [28], the contents of various chemicals found in the natural mined phosphate rocks vary widely, depending on location, as shown in Table 1. For instance, the mineralogical and chemical analyses of low-grade hard phosphate from the different mined beds of phosphate rock in the Rusaifa area of Jordan indicate that the phosphates are of three main types carbonate, siliceous, and silicate-carbonate. Phosphate deposits in this area exist in four distinct layers, of which the two deepest - first and second (the thickness of bed is about 3 and 3.5 m, respectively, and depth varies from about 20 to 30 m) - appear to be suitable for a currently cost-effective mining operation. A summary of the data from chemical analyses of the ores is shown in Table 2 [28]. 

In 1803 William Hyde Wollaston, a British physician who became famous for his research in metallurgy, mineralogy, and optics, succeeded in extracting a white metal from platinum. He named the new element palladium, after the asteroid Pallas, which had just been discovered the previous year. In the same year the English chemist Smithson Tennant obtained two new metals, which he named iridium and osmium, from platinum. And in 1828 the Russian chemist Karl Karlovich Klaus reported that he had obtained three new metals from platinum mined in the Urals. However, the existence of only one of them, which Klaus called ruthenium, was confirmed. 

Singh, B. Wilson, M.J. McHardyW.J. Fraser, A.R. Merrington, G. (1999) Mineralogy and chemistry of ochre sediments from an acid mine drainage near a disused mine in Cornwall, UK. Clay Min. 34 301-317 Singh, B., Sherman, D.M., Gilkes, R.J.,Wells,... 

Since a royal order, transmitted through the Viceroy of Mexico, had decreed that Werner s theory of the formation of veins be taught to the students, the brilliant young Don Andres Manuel del Rfo was sent to Mexico to introduce the most approved mining methods which he had learned at Freiberg (13). Although del Rio had declined the professorship of chemistry, he accepted that of mineralogy, and took with him on the warship San Pedro Alcantara a quantity of equipment for the School of Mines. Soon after his arrival in Mexico City in December, 1794,... 

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