At the completion of this course, students will be be able to:

1. Understand the principles governing a range of processes applied in the minerals industry; and
2. Describe typical unit processes and flow-sheets for production of a number of metals; and
3. Apply basic engineering principles to the design of minerals processes; and
4. Produce conceptual designs for simple extraction processes.

Reference Books

B. Wills and T. Napier-Munn, Wills' Mineral Processing Technology, 7th Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann,
2005

P. Mullinger and B Jenkins, Industrial Furnaces, 1st Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann,
2008.

 A. Burkin, Chemical Hydrometallurgy: Theory and Principles, Imperial College Press, 2001.

This course uses a number of different teaching and learning approaches including:

• Lectures
• Problem solving tutorials
• Final examination

Activity	Contact hours	Workload hours
Lectures	33	66
Tutorials	12	24
TOTALS	45	90

1. Introduction
An overview of the minerals processing industry and its importance to the Australian and world economy. Historical development of minerals processing from pre-history to the current time. Basic flowsheets.

2. Ore handling
Crushing, ore transport, stockpiling and pre-blending

3. Comminution
Crushing, grinding, breakage of materials, crushing and grinding laws & particle size analysis. Grinding machinery, milling circuits, sizing, screening and classification, hydro-cyclones, modelling of grinding circuits. Slurry properties, pumping, and transport.

4. Separation and Concentration
Introduction to mass balances and metallurgical accounting calculations. Separation and concentration techniques. Sizing and sorting. Screening and classification. Gravity separation. Dense medium separation. Magnetic and electrical separation. Dewatering. Froth flotation. Practical processes coal washing, minerals sands, iron ore and non ferrous ore concentration. Recovery economics.

5. Pyro-processing
Introduction to combustion processes, basic combustion chemistry and calculations, heat transfer and concept of “available heat” and its influence on furnace efficiency. Introduction to mass and energy balances, practical furnace systems including an overview of pyro-metallurgy in Australian minerals processing. Non-metallic mineral processing, rotary kiln processes, ensuring safe operation of furnace processes.

6. Hydrometallurgy
Principles of electro-chemistry, the electrochemical series, principles of corrosion processes and leaching, solvent extraction & chemistry, pH-Eh, solution separation, purification. Practical hydrometallurgy processes, alumina, gold copper, nickel, uranium. Safety issues in hydrometallurgical processes.

7. Electrometallurgy
The basic principles of an electrolytic cell, the importance of the electro-chemical series in determining energy consumption of electro metallurgical processes, aqueous and molten salt electrolytes, principles of the design of electrochemical reactors, energy consumption, current efficiency, practical electro-refining and electro-winning processes

8. Process Instrumentation and Control
Need for control systems, basic measurement techniques for level, flow, temperature, etc. Measurement errors, actuators, valves, etc.

9. Process Safety
Modern process hazard identification techniques, risk analysis, fatal accident rate & ALARP, hazard analysis and protective systems, case studies.

Assessment activity	Weighting	Summative or Formative	Due date	Learning objective addressed
Tutorial assignments	30%	Formative	As prescribed	All
Final examination (3 hrs Closed Book)	70%	Summative	End of semester	All