Professor Jacques Eksteen Archives - International Mining

Experts led by the University of Adelaide are looking to help the mining industry find a pathway to more efficient, green, sustainable and safer mining operations by transitioning to battery-supported electric vehicles (BEVs).

In a new project funded by the Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre (FBI CRC), researchers are providing the Australian mining industry with a suite of decision-making tools and guidelines that will aid their transition towards BEVs and associated stationary machinery in their mining operations, the FBI CRC said.

“About 30-50% of the total mine site energy usage is related to diesel-powered mining vehicles,” Dr Ali Pourmousavi Kani, the University of Adelaide’s, Lecturer, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, said. “This represents a significant proportion of current mining operational costs, and the prevalence of diesel fuel usage presents significant health and safety concerns.

“Mining is a critical industry in Australia. It is great to see a growing movement in this industry to reduce their carbon emissions in line with the global transition to renewable energy and electric transportation. Electric vehicles and machinery, combined with partial or standalone renewable energy powered microgrids, will provide a pathway to more efficient, sustainable and safer mining operations.”

Dr Pourmousavi Kani will work on the project, named ‘Assessment, Design and Operation of Battery-Supported Electric Mining Vehicles and Machinery’, or Mine Electrification for short, with Associate Professor, Wen Soong, and Associate Professor, Nesimi Ertugrul, who are also from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

The project was developed in conjunction with and funded by the FBI CRC and its participants which are: BHP Nickel West, IGO Limited, Energetics Pty Ltd, Galaxy Resources Limited, Multicom Resources Limited, the South Australian Department for Energy and Mining, Queensland’s Department of Energy and Public Works, the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia and the University of Western Australia.

The project, which has a budget of approximately A$2.76 million ($2.02 million), of which A$1.16 million is in cash and the remainder in-kind support, and lasts for 3.5 years, will, the FBI CRC says, enable the resources sector to:

Reduce the costs and improve the reliability of energy;
Improve occupational health and safety; and
Reduce the carbon footprint of production.

“The project will allow mining companies to understand the benefits and technical risks and costs of implementation,” Dr Pourmousavi Kani said.

“It will also assist equipment, technology and service providers to service mining companies during the transition to BEVs. End users will benefit from a de-risked strategy to transition, reduced production costs, reduced energy costs, reduced emissions and an upskilled work force.

“Overall, this project will help the Australian mining industry to remain competitive globally by greening their production and lowering their operational costs.”

Dr Jacques Eksteen, a Research Director of the FBICRC, said: “This project is highly significant for the FBI CRC as it serves as an important development and demonstration project of the uptake of battery technologies in mining vehicles and mobile equipment.

“This application of battery technology offers significant potential benefits to industry, and we are keen to invest in developing and enhancing capability in the field of mobile mine electrification.”

South Australia’s Minister for Energy and Mining, Dan van Holst Pellekaan, added: “Sustainable mining operations is a focus for South Australia, and the Mine Electrification project demonstrates our leadership and ability to collaborate as we work towards reducing our carbon emissions.”

Curtin University researchers say they have improved their award-winning glycine leaching technology by “significantly enhancing” the leaching rates for gold ore by using a low concentration of a strong oxidising agent known as potassium permanganate.

The Curtin team is currently working with minerals industry partner, Mining and Process Solutions Pty Ltd (MPS), to commercialise the new process.

The research, published in Hydrometallurgy and led by Professor Jacques Eksteen and Dr Elsayed Oraby both from the Western Australia School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering, found that adding potassium permanganate to the process could solve the problems currently associated with leaching gold with glycine (in the absence of cyanide), such as the need for higher temperatures, glycine concentrations and oxygen addition levels.

Professor Eksteen said the research team evaluated various oxidants for their new alkaline glycine gold leach system, with the most successful results observed with potassium permanganate.

“Traditionally, leaching or separating gold and other precious metals from an ore deposit or e-waste materials requires the use of cyanide – a highly toxic chemical compound that is known to have detrimental effects to the environment and to the human body,” Professor Eksteen said. “Industrially, it is very expensive to detoxify cyanide, but it still does not eliminate the risks associated with transporting, handling and processing the chemical.”

Professor Eksteen said glycine is naturally produced by the human body and is essential for life, while cyanide, on the other hand, is dangerous.

“Permanganate and glycine partially decompose to form insoluble manganese dioxide, insoluble calcium oxalate, and nitrogen all of which are naturally occurring, low-toxicity chemical compounds,” Professor Eksteen said. “Whereas cyanide retains its toxicity, even in the waste solution of the extraction process.”

With low concentrations of potassium permanganate being added to the alkaline glycine system, the researchers were able to leach 85.1% of gold from the ore deposit (similar to the extraction by cyanidation) at ambient temperature and using a substance known as a benign reagent, according to Professor Eksteen. This is “quite an achievement” compared with the industry standard, he said.

Dr Oraby said the new process builds on Curtin University’s important work in this space, which has been ongoing for the past eight years.

“Researchers at Curtin University have spent years developing a new leaching process and our work broadens the use of this patented technology, making it more suitable for extracting gold deposits,” Dr Oraby said. “We believe this new process will bring many benefits to gold extraction industries, which, from an environmental point of view, is a much friendlier extraction method.”

The full paper from Hydrometallurgy is titled: ‘Gold leaching from oxide ores in alkaline glycine solutions in the presence of permanganate’.

Australia’s FBI CRC backs Mine Electrification project

Curtin University ups glycine gold leaching rates with permanganate agent