Outline of Mining - Processing

Processing

• Ore dressing
  • General methods of ore processing
    • Froth flotation
    • Trommel
  • Methods peculiar to gold placer mining. Gold is much denser than many other minerals, various methods use this to separate it out:
    • Gold panning, uses a pan in water to wash material
    • Rocker box
    • Sluice box
    • Drywasher, used where there is insuffician
• Extractive metallurgy
  • Pyrometallurgy, using heat
    • Smelting
    • Cupellation
  • Hydrometallurgy, using aqueous solutions
    • Leaching, using an acid (lixiviant) to removed. Commonly used for gold and copper
    • Amalgamation, using liquid mercury to extract the metal. Used to separate out silver and gold.
  • Electrometallurgy, using electricity to separate out metals