Busy Little Bacteria II: One way to deal with ores which contain gold trapped in the crystal lattice of arsenopyrite is to feed it to microscopic bacteria. These little microbes oxidize the sulphides, thus liberating the gold. Cyanide can then be used to recover the gold. Giant Bay Resources of Vancouver, B.C., has been working on this biotechnology for five years now. Last year, the company teamed up with Wright Engineers to form International Bioleach, a company which offers turn-key bioleaching operations to the world’s mining industry. At presstime, the company announced it is constructing a 60,000-gal tank, 21 ft in diameter, to treat 600 tons of gold concentrate from the Congress gold deposit in B.C.
Researchers have found other uses for microbacteria in recent years. But commercial use is still some time off.
The Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (canmet) has two biotechnology processes ready for commercialization. Possibly four, according to Dr Robert McCreedy, secretary of the Mineral Leaching and Metal Recovery Network (biominet).
One uses microbes to re cover selenium from smelter wastes. The other project uses micro-organisms to degrade organic pollutants.
Another project which has a 50-50 chance of be coming commercially viable involves using bio- absorption to recover uranium from leach solutions. It could be ready to go to the pilot plant in two to two- and-a-half years.
The final project uses mi crobes to metabolize nickel from dilute effluent streams. It might be another two years before a pilot plant is built for this process. CONVEYING RECORD?
Underground conveyors for transporting ore and waste rock are fast becoming an alternative for some of Canada’s largest mines. Inco Ltd., for example, is developing a continuous mining system that incorporates conveyors to transport ore from production workings to ore passes. However, it’s unlikely that in the foreseeable future a Canadian mine will install anything like the conveyor that’s at work at an underground coal mine in Kentucky. At Big Black Mountain, near Cumberland in Harlan Cty., the Arch of Kentucky’s No. 37 mine is using a 2.5-mile-long boost er conveyor haulage system. Thought to be the longest such underground conveyor, the roof-mounted rigid structure conveyor has a single 60-inch belt running its full length and four 54-inch-wide, 1,000-ft-long booster belts nested inside and driving the main belt.
The entire booster conveyor system is driven by five, twin 300 hp drive units. The Falk Corp. provided the drive units. The total driving force of 3,000 hp can move the belt at 620 ft per minute and at a haulage rate of 4,600 tons per hour. The booster conveyor, with its single continuous coal carrying belt, eliminates trans fer points, which usually are the source of many prob lems. It also permits the use of smaller, less expensive drive systems. The conveyor has a smooth “soft” start-up feature. PLATINUM LOOKS PROMISING Ore: 2. a source from which valuable matter is extracted. — Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
That troublesome but central question of “value.” This country does have platinum group metal deposits. But at current prices can they be called “valuable matter”? Can anyone make money out of them? Maybe not today, but according to a study on the future world demand and supply of pgms it may be only a matter of time.
The demand for pgms should continue climbing to the year 2000, according to the study entitled Platinum Group Metals 1986- 2000. Total world demand for pgms should increase 32% over the period 1986 to 2000. And the best news of all for Canadian platinum explorers is that supplies will tighten over the period 1995 to 2000.
The study is a definitive work written by Thomas Mohide, former president and chief executive of the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange and a noted and active pgm analyst and Dr A. E. Abrahams, an economics professor with extensive industrial experience in pgm technology and former research vice- president (platinum and palladium) of the New York Mercantile Exchange
The study examines in detail future and current mine sources of platinum, exploration activity, platinum for investments and other physical inventories, advances in refining techniques and consumption trends and future effects of investment potential. It also analyses South African domestic problems, including the attitude and plans of the African National Congress, and it forecasts the probable effects of the Soviet Union’s glasnost and perestroika policies. The book is being sold for $11,000 through Hull & Co. Technical Business Research Corp., 5 Oak St., Greenwich, Conn.
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