Minerals and Metallurgical Processing

We like to describe mineral and metallurgy processing as the post-extraction steps used to refine ore concentrate into pure or engineered ingredient materials. In the extraction workflow, raw ore is extracted from the earth and separated from waste materials into an ore concentrate. This ore concentrate is then sent to a refining facility where the mineral or metallurgical processing workflow begins. This workflow can consist of any number of chemical, physical, and thermal unit operations to produce refined commodities and advanced blends.

Minerals are defined as solid earth-borne substances that possess a crystallographic structure, a well-defined chemical profile, and are formed from naturally occurring geological processes. Examples include limestone, quartz, iron, marble, and coal.

Metallurgy is defined as the material science and engineering domain that deals with metallic elements. Some metals are minerals as they are naturally occurring, such as iron and copper. However, most metallurgy applications today focus on engineered metals, which result from combining and processing mixes of multiple raw metals and other ingredients. Examples include steel, stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, and similar alloys.

Lodige offers a broad spectrum of unit operations in the mineral and metallurgy industry. In particular, Lodige’s systems support mixing, granulating, homogenizing, drying, cooling, coating, and recycling steps. With over 1,000 installed systems serving this industry, we’ve seen and dealt with it all, in both pilot-scale and multi-site scale production volumes.

Here is a quick snapshot of mineral and metallurgy process applications that we have solved:

• Metal ores and concentrates
• Carbon and graphite material blending
• Sinter mixes for the steel industry
• Coal mixes for coking plants
• Ceramic masses and raw materials
• Catalyst mixes
• Non-ferrous metal treatment
• Welding and soldering agents
• Glass mixes for the glass industry
• Raw materials for refractory products
• Salts/potash crude salt for industrial applications
• Abrasives (metal working tooling)

Yes! Mineral and metallurgy applications are routinely some of the most aggressive and unforgiving out there, requiring diligent technical, performance, and safety review during initial design. Here are three key considerations to keep in mind when evaluating process equipment for this industry:

• Abrasion: both localized and broad abrasion are notorious equipment-killers when not addressed properly by compatible material selection, internal coatings, velocity/rate/speed limits, and linings.
• Explosion-Proofing: mineral and metal processes always produce dusts, and dusts are an explosion risk that must be mitigated through fully NFPA/ATEX-compliant designs.
• Long Run Cycles: ore refining runs are generally very high in volume and quite long in duration (days or weeks at a time). As such, this equipment must be designed for continuous use, low maintenance, and premium energy efficiency.