Surface analysis for the concentration and extraction of metals using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

全球气候意识正在推动对储能应用关键材料（如锂、镁、石墨）的需求增加，这些材料来自环境监管严格的司法管辖区，并希望减轻所有商品类别现有采矿作业对环境的影响。在加拿大，电池关键矿物的生产面临障碍，环境可持续工艺在商业上采用的步伐缓慢，这是由于加拿大矿床原生矿石加工过程中遇到的技术挑战。该提案旨在通过提高罗伯特·M·史密斯的两个世界级实验室的分析能力，以有效、环保和经济的方式，在矿物浓缩和金属提取领域进行开创性研究。女王大学巴肯矿业系这一领域的研究人员迫切需要所要求的仪器，以促进加拿大矿床中锂和其他电池关键矿物的商业生产，并提高无氰化物浸金的经济可行性，以减轻加拿大和国际金矿的环境风险。矿物加工：与从加拿大矿石中浓缩锂矿物相关的技术挑战对商业生产造成了障碍。许多锂矿物及其相关废矿物的物理化学性质的相似性使得它们的分离过程虽然是浮选，但具有挑战性且成本高。傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）可用于分析在不同条件下处理后矿石和废矿物表面的浮选试剂，从而确定最佳工艺条件并设计专门的化学品以选择性地吸附在目标矿物上，从而有可能从加拿大矿床中经济地生产锂和镁。湿法冶金与环境：从初级资源中提取金属和矿物的创新湿法冶金工艺可用于确定和促进替代化学品的商业化，以取代黄金提取工艺中的氰化物。FTIR可用于分析来自两种潜在氰化物置换系统（硫代硫酸盐和硫氰酸盐）的浸出溶液，当用作金提取中的浸提剂时，这两种置换系统的毒性均显著低于氰化物。通过对不同工艺条件下浸出液中目标物的识别，可以提高无氰浸金工艺的效率，开发出经济实用的工艺。这两个研究项目都将通过生产原材料（使车辆广泛电气化）以及减少与现有采矿作业相关的环境风险，使加拿大的环境和经济受益。

Global climate consciousness is driving an increase in demand for materials critical to energy storage applications (such as lithium, magnesium, graphite) sourced from jurisdictions with strong environmental regulation and a desire to mitigate the environmental impact of existing mining operations across all commodity groups. In Canada, the barrier to production of battery critical minerals and the slow pace at which environmentally sustainable processes are commercially adopted is due to technical challenges encountered in the processing of primary ore from Canadian deposits. This proposal aims to enable ground breaking research in the area mineral concentration and metal extraction in an efficient, environmentally conscious, and economical manner through the enhancement of analytical capabilities of 2 world class laboratories in the Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining at Queen's University. The requested instrument is urgently needed by researchers in this area to advance the commercial production of lithium and other battery critical minerals from Canadian deposits and to improve the economic viability of cyanide free gold leaching to mitigate the environmental risk of gold mines in Canada and internationally. Mineral Processing: Technical challenges associated with concentration of lithium minerals from Canadian ores create a barrier to commercial production. Similarities in the physicochemical properties of many lithium minerals and their associated waste minerals make their separation process, though flotation, challenging and costly. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy can be used to analyze flotation reagents on the surface of ore and waste minerals after treatment under different conditions, allowing for the identification of optimal process conditions and the design of specialized chemicals to selectively adsorb on target minerals, with the potential to enable the economic production of lithium and magnesium from Canadian deposits. Hydrometallurgy and the Environment: Innovative hydrometallurgical processes for the extraction of metals and minerals from primary resources can be used to identify and promote the commercialization of alternative chemicals to replace cyanide in the gold extraction process. FTIR can be used to analyze leach solutions from two potential cyanide replacement systems (thiosulfate and thiocyanate), both of which are significantly less toxic than cyanide when used as a lixiviant in gold extraction. Through the identification of target species in the leach solutions under different process conditions, the efficiency of cyanide free gold leaching process can be improved to develop an economic process that can be adopted commercially. Both of these research programs will benefit the Canadian environment and economy through the production of raw materials that will enable widespread electrification of vehicles and through reduction of environmental risk associated with existing mining operations.