Abstract
The 2.05-Ga Bushveld Complex in South Africa, host to many lucrative ore deposits (e.g. platinum group elements (PGE)), is surprisingly pristine and unaltered, given its geological age. In some areas, however, there is evidence of low-temperature weathering and alteration, most commonly observed when the ore is near the surface. The Pilanesburg Platinum Mines (PPM) operation in South Africa treats ore from an open pit and routinely suffers from low and erratic PGE flotation recoveries. This article investigates the effect of low-temperature alteration on the mineralogy and flotation performance of the PPM “silicate reef” ore. Bulk density measurements of the various lithologies show a clear decrease in density with decreasing depth, and similarly, a decrease in PGE flotation recovery. Various factors from the mineralogical investigation show supporting evidence that loss of platinum group minerals (PGM) recovery is due to low-temperature alteration. Several recovery improvement strategies are also investigated.
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Acknowledgments
Thanks go to all at Boynton Investments and PPM for their valuable advice and support of this study.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Becker, M., Ramonotsi, M., Petersen, J. (2012). Effect of Alteration on the Mineralogy and Flotation Performance of PPM Platinum Ore. In: Broekmans, M. (eds) Proceedings of the 10th International Congress for Applied Mineralogy (ICAM). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27682-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27682-8_9
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