Company insight
Getting to the core of the mining industry
Petrolab is about to mark its 30th birthday and despite all of the obstacles around the global pandemic the company has had another record-breaking year. Excited about the future and meeting the challenges of the coming EV revolution which were outlined in World Mining Frontiers, Volume 1 2021, the company takes the opportunity to reflect a little on its journey as a technical services company, what it has discovered about mining and its processes in general and its relationship with clients.
ver the past 30 years from when Dr. Alan Bromley set up Petrolab as a small niche spin out from Camborne School of Mines, the company may have changed in size, but its ethos to be at the cutting edge of mineralogical investigation has remained constant. This is best exemplified with the work on metalurigical test samples for mineral processing consultants and mine site operational teams. The core of this has been the development of process and automated mineralogy.
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The arrival of commercial products like Intellection’s QEMSCAN in the early 2000’s made rapid quantitative mineralogical analysis a reality. Other systems developed by technology providers such as Zeiss, Tescan, FEI and Oxford Instruments have all further improved the quality and speed of analysis, however the core metrics remain the same and these are principally the bulk mineral composition of the sample and the elemental deportment of key commodities. However, in terms of understanding process performance, the measurement of liberation and association, together with grain and particle morphological measurements for target minerals have been the real game changers, giving unparalleled quantitative insights into ores and processing samples. There have been untold process improvements made on the back of these datasets, but the question this raises is why – nearly 20 years on – is there not more mineralogy being done on and off the mine site? Assay remains the metallurgist’s principal tool and for good reason; it is quick, cheap and the results are simple numerical values, with just one value per element per sample. Data is, therefore, very easy to integrate/communicate to other systems and databases. Mineralogy datasets on the other
World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com Petrolab working on Zeiss machinery, one of the companies that have improved the efficiency of analysis.
hand are much more complex, with data on many levels from grains, particles, often across multiple size fractions. The challenge has been and remains one of communication, not just between systems, but refining and distilling the data down to answer the key questions for the various stakeholders Assays can be returned within hours and in some cases with online systems almost in real time. The speed and availability of data can be absolutely critical for making informed decisions within a mineral processing plant. Typically, mineralogical samples require screening, sizing and multiple stages of sample preparation, therefore, even with on-site systems the best turnaround is measured in days. This is why monthly audits, specific projects or early- stage characterisation are perhaps the most common types of automated mineralogy investigation. The value of the potential insight is clear for higher frequency analysis, however there is still a communication issue within even monthly or project specific data, which can often be hard to integrate and/or interpret, so questions remain over whether the available data will be fully utilised. Petrolab has worked hard in this space
over the last ten years and are proud to be market leaders with interactive reporting, however it is just at the beginning of what could be achieved.
The next generation of analysis tools are coming onto the market and the potential of some of these systems will be another step change. The development of 3D analysis of unsized samples, for example, could unlock rapid liberation analysis, not only removing much of the sample preparation requirements, but also the stereology issues of analysing cut 2D surfaces of 3D particles. Petrolab relishes the opportunity to work with technology providers to develop process mineralogy applications and will hold communication and integration at the centre of those discussions.
The journey has certainly not been straight forward, however it has been highly rewarding and at the centre of it have been all the incredible passionate people and teams the company has worked with across the mining industry, technology providers and academia, and Petrolab very much looks forward to that continuing into the future. ●
www.petrolab.co.uk 35
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