Recent Advances in Mining and Processing of Low-Grade and Submarginal Mineral Deposits reviews advances in the mining and processing of low-grade and submarginal mineral deposits, taking into account the environmental considerations that increasingly are being regarded as a necessary prerequisite to acceptable mineral resources development. The focus is on marginal and sub-marginal ores, as well as ores of above normal cut-off grades which for some reason cannot be mined and/or processed economically at current technological or economic levels. This book is comprised of 12 chapters and begins with an overview of low-grade ore potential, followed by a discussion on the theoretical and practical aspects of in situ mining. Block cave-in place leaching, biological leaching of sulfide ores, and nuclear chemical mining of primary copper sulfides are also considered. Subsequent chapters explore the economics and safety of nuclear chemical copper mining; hydrometallurgy of low-grade copper ores; trends in process metallurgy; and environmental aspects of mining and processing low-grade and submarginal mineral deposits. This monograph should be of interest to mining officials and professionals.

Obstacles to Mineral Development: A Pragmatic View covers the most common obstacles to mineral development in the developing countries. The text also encompasses the factors that dilute the value of foreign assistance, with special reference to mineral exploration; and the past as well as prospective role of the United Nations in overcoming these obstacles and, in particular, in avoiding some of the pitfalls of bilateral assistance. The book also presents case studies of specific obstacles, including resource depletion; taxation of mining enterprises; mining taxation policy in Canada; the prevention of ghost-mining towns in arid or desert zones; and small-scale mining in the developing world. The book will prove invaluable to people engaged in all phases of resource development.

Due to the increasingly complex mineralogy, and lower grade of many current ore reserves, technology has, over the past decade, had to evolve rapidly to treat these materials economically in an industry which has undergone severe periods of recession. However, most of the technical innovations, such as the increasing use of solvent-extraction, ion-exchange etc., have been in the field of chemical ore processing, and, apart from the use of computers and ever larger unit process machines, there have been few major evolutionary changes in the field of physical mineral processing, where conventional crushing and grinding methods, essentially unchanged in half a century, are followed by the 'old-faithfuls'- flotation, gravity, magnetic and electrostatic methods of separation. Many of these techniques have major limitations in the treatment of 'new' ores such as complex sulphides, and the main purpose of the NATO Advanced study Institute (ASI) "Mineral Processing at a Crossroads" was to review the future of mineral processing. One of the great failings of physical methods is their inability to treat ultra-fine particles, and much research effort is required in this area. Flotation is still the most widely used and researched method for separating minerals, and is the only method which can be used to produce separate concentrates from complex sulphide ores. However, its performance on these 'modern' ores is poor, and it is in this area particularly that chemical methods will increasingly be integrated into plant circuits.