being used to develop plans for mine expansion,.
develop mining schedules for yearly, quarterly and.
in some cases, weekly operations. At the.
operating stage, this new technology is.
everywhere6. Both in research and operational.
applications, automated mine monitoring systems.
now determine immediate information on the status.
of equipment in underground or remote locations.
Canada produces its 60 mineral products from.
roughly 300 mines across the country7. Before.
these products can make the trip from mines to the.
marketplace, they must be searched for, staked,.
tested, analyzed, developed. There are many.
difference methods to mine for minerals, an "open.
pit" mine is one of the method we use today. The.
ore - waste material along with the minerals, is.
recovered directly from the surface. Drilling rigs.
are used to drill holes into the ore areas and.
blasting charges will be set in them to break loose.
the ore. The ore: first stop is at the primary.
crushing station, often located underground, where.
the large chunks of ore are crushed to a finer size.
Further crushing is required prior to sending the.
ore to the mill where it is ground to a fine.
powder8. The purpose of crushing and grinding is.
to free the minerals from the rock. Treatment may.
consist of gravity or chemical concentration.
techniques. The end product of the mill is a.
concentrate, whereby the percentage of valuable.
mineral has been increased by a factor of 10 to as.
much as 50 times contained in the ore9. The.
concentration operation may be complicated or.
relatively simple, depending on the mineral content.
of the ore. Milling processes are designed to.
separate the valuable minerals from the undesired.
minerals. Although the milling process separates.
valuable minerals from waste, it does not actually.
recover the metals in final form. The smelting.
operation treats the metal-bearing concentrate.
further, up-grading it to purer form called "matte".
Basically: The ore concentrates are mixed with.
